Jaguar XJ review

There we have the measure: a trio of Teutons and one Lexus. If their nameplates read S-Class, 7 Series, A8 and LS460 you’re in the headquarters of motorised luxury. They own it, this quartet. They define flagship mobility.

And for a very simple reason: they cover all the bases in the last stop before über-ville, where Bentleys and Rolls-Royces waft along.

Allan Bloom’s book on the failure of higher education, The Closing of the American Mind, has some parallels with what’s happened in the upper echelons of car design. The thinking might be rigorous, but it’s also been channelled, rigged and closed down by the expectations of fashion – de rigueur. Luxury car makers embrace conservatism.

And why not? Differences between entry-level cars, for instance, are minute because parameters are so restrictive. There’s no latitude in terms of size or price. Variety only opens up in the compact and middle classes, mainly because of niche derivatives like estates, coupes, convertibles, MPVs, SUVs and bakkies.

Not in the upper segments. Where cars are expensive and clients few, proliferation grinds to a halt. The adventurous design spirit might balloon around its own girth, but it’s tied down at the top and bottom. In the luxury segment, we’re back to a common design solution, generally expressed in limo shape.

Perfection, after all, can only be embodied by a single vision. Hence requirements have been distilled into an instantly recognisable formula: more is more.

More power, luxury, refinement, equipment and technology . . . which also means more machine, all of it technicised by layers and layers of electronics that depersonalise the interface between driver and car.

Call it a ghost in the machine. And surprise, surprise, ghosts are an empty presence, as EPS (electric power steering) proves.

Enter Porsche’s Panamera and Jaguar’s new XJ. They have their differences, but there’s a spiritual connection: both of them sporty and pure.

Neither car attempts, for instance, to cover all the fancy de rigueur calls of the luxury segment. They don’t boast self-closing door functions. They’re not burdened by iDrive-type menu controllers. In the Porsche, systems are accessed by pushing buttons; in the Jag by touching screen icons. The XJ also eschews all-wheel drive, rear-wheel steering and electronic rollover control. Cruise control doesn’t perform a bouquet of circus tricks and the car’s front rides on steel springs.

It’s possible to argue that most of this is a function of R&D money – or a lack of it. XJ steering column adjustments are still driven by a single motor, which is slower and less-refined than two motors (one for height, one for reach).