Ford wants to take on BMW, Mercedes and Lexus in the prestige RV market place by getting Land Rover to develop a 4x4 platform for Jaguar to build into a prestige off-roader, and with a vast number of engines at the companies disposal, a Cayenne killer has been rumored.
Although some magazines claim to have pictures of the car, my spies tell me that they are CAD mock up, because by the time the 4x4 arrives (some time in 2007ish) the S-Type will have been completely face-lifted by then anyway, and will not look like the pictures. To add to the confusion, the testing mules are wearing LR3 bodies!
What has some people worried is the fact that the S-Type (currently a great drivers car) will not share much of the new "S" floor-pan, making some think that the new car will handle like a Range Rover, not a Jaguar.
Visually, the car will look like the forthcoming estate/station waggon version of the new S-Type, except it will wear chunky bumpers, ride on larger wheels/tyres and sit further up thanks to off-road air suspension supplied by Jags sister Land Rover. For costs purposes, the interior will be identical to the models at the time and the existing engine range will be employed. On a positive note, the 450-bhp supercharged 4.3-litre V8 is being designed to fit from the start, so clearly a tasty top-of-the-range model is being planned.