GAYDON, England — Jaguar is at work on a compact five-door coupe, roughly along the lines of Audi's new A5 Sportback, Inside Line has learned. Code-named RD7, the new car is an evolution of the RD6 concept unveiled in 2003.
The five-door coupe features suicide rear doors, a side-hinged tailgate arrangement borrowed from the XK-E coupe, and a 2.7 liter V6 diesel engine. The preceding RD6 was positioned as a low-volume niche model replacement for the unsuccessful Jaguar X-type. The demise of this model, already withdrawn from the U.S. and in its last months of life in Europe, will leave Jaguar with no entrant in the huge compact premium sedan segment, and a model range that starts part-way up the segment above. So the exploration of a new entry-level sedan/coupe is pressing.
The company has reportedly been considering both three- and five-door versions of the hatchback RD7 but will likely limit itself to the higher volume five-door, which could be based on a shrunken version of the XF's steel body architecture.
But it is likely to be some way off. Jaguar's next major new model debut will be its new sport car, code-named XE, which is a spiritual successor to the legendary XK-E. It will probably be unveiled in 2011, 50 years after its ancestor, in anticipation of a 2012 on-sale date.
Senior insiders say that the company lacks the resources to fast-track either model, despite the fact that the sports car is based on cut-down version of the existing XK platform. So RD7 is probably a good four years away. However, heavily modified Jaguar S-type mules have been recently spotted near Jaguar's engineering center.
Inside Line says: A slowly rejuvenating Jaguar badly needs a new entry-level model, although that car needs to be a lot more exciting than the X-type ever was. The RD6 concept is a good starting point. — Richard Bremner, Correspondent
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brett5 says:
03:13 PM, 10/01/2009
Looks like the S class, Still like it better than the new XJ!