2002 Jaguar XJ-Series Interior Review at Automotive.com
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2002 Jaguar XJ-Series Review: Interior

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2002 Jaguar XJ-Series Review

Cat quick, cat soft, cat beautiful.
Interior
Jaguar's uniqueness is especially evident inside. Slipping in is like strolling into an English gentleman's club, with yards of supple leather; luxurious deep-pile carpeting; and polished wood on the doors, instrument panel and steering wheel.

The leather is outstanding, light, creamy leather in our Vanden Plas, and the wood trim is beautiful. The steering is handsomely trimmed in wood and leather and the leather surround for the shifter is a much more elegant solution than wood or metal. The cabin includes one of the best clocks I've ever seen, elegant and straightforward. Instruments are handsome, unadorned gauges, simple and understated, in keeping with the elegant mood, and easy to read.

The stereo and climate controls are nicely designed with big knobs for volume and fan speeds. There are a lot of audio and climate controls, so it takes a little time to learn them. However, they are logical and well-designed and become relatively easy to find and operate even when the driving gets busy. It's the same way with the window controls, which are mercifully located on the door.

Memory functions automatically adjust the driver's seat, steering wheel and outside mirror. The driver's seat moves back when Park is engaged for easy exit. It moves forward to its previous position when the ignition is turned on. A cup holder pops out from the console, but drinks tend to get in the way when shifting.

Not everything is perfect in the XJ, however. Plastic water bottles fly out of the cup holder in corners. Also, the cup holder pops open when the center console is slammed shut.

The Vanden Plas, with its longer wheelbase, offers a huge rear compartment. Legroom is expansive, providing nearly five inches of additional space over the standard XJ8 (39.2 vs. 34.3 inches). Headroom is just as generous as legroom. The rear seat in this sedan is not a secondary seating area; it coddles its occupants with many of the luxury functions found in the front seat. Seat heaters are provided. The bench seat has two depressed seating areas, but a third person would be comfortable in the middle. Traditional British picnic tables (like airline tray tables, only much nicer) fold down from the front seatbacks. Two rocker switches, mounted in a small pod to the left of the seat, allow rear-seat passengers to move the front-passenger seat fore and aft and adjust the angle of the seat back, handy when the chauffeur is busy driving or when front-seat passengers won't cooperate or can't find the controls. Vanden Plas provides slightly more headroom in front, as well.

All models have the same size trunk. It's a good boot, but not as large as the trunks in the BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Next Page



2002 Jaguar XJ-Series