Mr Darling's Hyundai Sonata

During government crises, the 24 hour news channels follow the main players' every move - that includes hanging around just to get a shot of, say, Mr Darling getting into his car outside 11 Downing Street for the short journey to Parliament. Completely pointless in terms of advancing anyone's understanding of the real story but moderately interesting for the automotive anorak.

As chancellor, Gordon Brown seemed to stick for ages with a maroon metallic '51' reg Vauxhall Omega. That looked to me like a not so subtle attempt to highlight his supposed modesty and parsimony with the public purse by way of contrast with you-know-who next door at Number Ten.

Anyway, yesterday, I couldn't help but notice that Mr Darling was being shuttled about in, of all things, a Hyundai Sonata. I can't think of any other country in the world where the finance minister would be issued with what amounts to a Korean-built minicab as his chauffeur-driven car, but the more I think about it, the more I like the idea. The Sonata says 'I've got nothing to prove' and also demonstrates Britain's commitment to free trade and the genuine openness of its public procurement policies.

It would be nice if the Rover 75 were still available or if the budget would stretch a Jaguar S-Type or XF, but I wouldn't like the UK to be like protectionist France, where the car manufacturers seem to feel obliged to produce big, crap, unprofitable cars that don't sell, just so that French politicians can travel in a home-produced vehicle.

Actually I have to admit I quite like the Sonata. Apart from the rather vague steering, it's a fairly good effort - although the one I saw Mr Darling getting into on the telly yesterday was only about the second or third I've come across since we featured this model on the Verdict over two years ago. And the Treasury could have saved even more if it had gone for the Sonata's cheaper sister model, the Kia Magentis.

Jaguar XF - again

Last week, at the MPH section of the Classic Car Show, I had the chance to sit in the new XF. If there are any doubts at all about the exterior styling, there can be no concerns about the XF's cabin, which is stunning. Like the interiors of older Jags it contains a fair amount of wood, but it's not remotely pipe and slippers.

The big reservation I still have about the XF is not whether it will turn out to be fantastic (I suspect it will be) but whether its market positioning is correct. Mercedes spins the fabulous CLS off the high-volume E-Class; Jaguar has produced a car that's a CLS competitor but without that E-class volume - and therefore cost - advantage to back it up.

Look at the engine options, which only compete with the upper end of the E-class range, or the CLS. What's really needed is a convincing XF version fitted with the 2.2 litre diesel from the Freelander 2 to go up against the 520d and E220 CDI.

UK car production on the up

According to the SMMT, UK vehicle production was up 2.1% at the end of September on a year-to-date basis, at 1.29 million.

This means full year production is likely to be not far off the highs achieved in the early Seventies and then again in the first few years of this decade. Thats a remarkable achievement considering that the last few years have seen the closure of Peugeot's plant at Ryton, Vauxhall's Luton works, and the final car assembly end of Ford's Dagenham operation - not to mention the demise of MG Rover.

It is a little remarked upon fact that Britain has lost almost an entire car industry in the last twenty or so years but gained almost an entire new one as well. The old 'Big Four' volume manufacturers - Leyland, Ford, Chrysler/Rootes and Vauxhall, have with the exception of Vauxhall largely disappeared in terms of UK production. What we have in their place are new Japanese plants run by Honda, Toyota and Nissan, as well as revived, previously niche-bound but now massively expanded prestige operations such as Bentley, Aston, Rolls, Land Rover and MINI - only Jaguar isn't really living up to its potential, and even that may change once the new XF hits the market.

One by-product of this shift is that not only is the industry almost as big as it's ever been, but the average value of the cars being made is probably a lot higher. Notwithstanding the possible rationalisation of Land Rover's and Jaguar's production facilities after Ford has sold these off, I think we will now hold on to most of what is left of the British industry.

Autocar's excellent Jaguar coverage this week

Lots of coverage of the new XF in this week's Autocar, which is well worth checking out. All very encouraging, especially some of the photography which provides a bit more confidence that this car will be a hit. Also, there are the usual updates from the apparently well-informed Julian Rendell on the latest developments in the bidding for Land Rover and Jaguar, which Ford is in the process of selling at the moment.

However, there was also an interesting letter in the mag from a reader touching on the subject I raised here a day or two back in connection with the XF and S-Type - Jaguar's failure to exploit the full range of power units that are available to it in order to provide what would appear to be attractive car/engine combinations. In this case, the reader's letter focused on the X-Type and asked why the company doesn't offer this model with the 2.7 litre diesel V6 in combination with the four-wheel drive transmission fitted to the 2.5 litre and 3.0 litre petrol-powered X-Types.

I've often wondered myself why no diesel/4WD combination is offered because especially in estate form, this would be a great car to sell in Bavaria, Northern Italy, Southern France, Austria and Switzerland to people who want something a bit different and like to go skiing at the weekends. If the 2.7 litre V6 doesn't fit, why not try the existing 2.2 litre diesel already fitted to the X-Type in combination with the 4WD transmission? As I was able to establish in the relevant Verdict tests, this engine is a convincing performer in the existing 2WD X-Type and also in the new 4WD Freelander, so I'm sure a 4WD 2.2 litre diesel X-Type wouldn't feel underpowered. Perhaps there's more to this than meets the eye, but surely this is something that could be addressed at minimal expense just by assembling various bits that already go into the car in different combinations?

Jaguar XF - great car but too few choices?

This is the new XF, the successor to the old S-Type. If the photos and initial reports are anything to go by, this is going to be a great car. Jaguar seems to have finally shaken off its obsession with retro and produced something stunning - dare I say it even looks a bit like a four-door Aston?



But I still have one or two concerns. In the initial line-up, there's no room for the brilliant 3.6 litre V8 diesel that is used to such magnificent effect in the big Land Rovers. In fact, this hasn't made it into any Jaguar model so far. The XF makes do with the admittedly very agreeable 2.7 litre V6 diesel but could do with the extra firepower in order to compete more effectively with the Germans. Come on, Jag, get cracking. This is urgent stuff.

It's lower down the range, though, that I see the biggest problem. Mercedes and BMW sell far more units of the E Class and 5 Series than Jag does of the S-Type. IMHO, that's not because the Jag is inferior but has much more to do with the fact that Jaguar only competes with the top end of the 5 Series and E Class ranges. The lower-end BMW 523i and 520d, and Mercedes E220CDI are convincing products to which the S-Type range had no response, a mistake - for that is what I think it is - repeated with the initial XF line-up. There was a 2.5 litre petrol version of the S-Type for a bit, but this always seemed to be the poor relation of the range.

Really, there are no bad Jags. Rather, I think the problem has always been that the company tends to produce good cars that slightly miss the mark in market terms (too small, say, or too big or too retro) - unlike Land Rover, its sister company, which hits the bull's eye every time. But I'd love Jaguar to prove me wrong with the XF - and I can't wait to get the chance to drive it.