In Cat Entertainment
I’ll start with an admission. I’m a Jaguar nut. There’s something about every single one of those cars that hits the spot for me. Pedigree is probably the word I’m looking for. It’s therefore with a heavy heart that I’m parting with the X300 Sovereign I’ve been running for the last nine months. Quite simply, it’s been brilliant.
The first thing that strikes you is the ride and a general air of quality, all of which have contributed to making it one of the most satisfying used car buys ever. You could drive into a six-foot wide crater and, thanks to the suspension setup, never even notice. The Jag’s party trick, of course, is to dial up the instant fuel consumption display on the trip computer, select a low gear and accelerate hard. Minus figures are almost possible. But in all honesty, would you want to? It’s not that sort of car, and I’ve only really used it for the long motorway journeys which have been an absolute treat. Back in the summer Don Palmer kindly demonstrated a lap of Millbrook’s famous alpine circuit in it (my attempts being rather grandad-like), and what ensued was probably the wackiest thing I’ve ever seen. Various exotica were eaten alive one after another by the golden pipe-and-slippers mobile. And that’s the Jag ethos summed up, really. Regal yet sporting, it’s all there in one package.
You might think that the cost of all this and the sensible old school image would make it one best left to the likes of retired company directors and wedding hire companies, but you’d be wrong. The very best thing about the Sovereign is that it’s just sold for £100 less than I paid for it, and discounting petrol for a moment it’s barely cost me anything to run this once £40k luxobarge. That’s my kind of budget motoring. And yet amazingly there are still people who’ll go out next week and pay more than twice as much for a brand new Perodua Kelisa. Noooooo!