Inside Look: 2010 Jaguar XK Coupe
Last week we brought you a drive of the 2010 Jaguar XK Coupe--updating you on the 75 extra horsepower that this 'entry' model to the XK line gets this year, among other performance improvements, and assessing that it feels almost as fast as the previous XKR.
"There's a certain classy, romantic appeal, crossed with quintessential British understatedness, that the XK carries no matter what, and you don't have to be driving it fast to enjoy that," we said, in a review that was heavy on the driving impressions. But of course the interior is a big part of that impression, so now with many pictures and relatively few words, please click along and we'll bring you the rest of the story.
The XK Coupe's interior is just intimate enough--neither as snug as a sports car nor as open as a luxury sedan.
Note that unlike so many other newer designs, the instrument panel design does NOT wrap around into the door panels in the Jaguar XK. We actually appreciated this and thought of it as adding a sports-car feel to the interior.
The soft padded leather of the instrument panel is pieced together with visible stitches--and there's just enough slight irregularity to convince us these aren't mass-produced.
Three-position memory seat controls are mounted high up on the door panels of the 2010 XK Coupe. They include extending lower cushions and adjustable lumbar and lateral support.
When you press the start button, this rotary shifter rises from the center console, allowing easy selection of gears, with the brake depressed. Turn the ignition off, and it descends to a flush position. Buttons for the competition and snow mode are just below.
We liked the straightforward menu structure and high contrast display of the touchscreen in the 2010 Jaguar XK; and we really liked the simple buttons on the lower left and right side to simply turn it off or to go to the home menu.
Nice, sturdy cupholders probably won't hold a Big Gulp so well but they're plenty good for any 'reasonably sized' beverage--and very sturdy. A sliding cover over the main compartment will easily hide away your iPod as it's plugged in.
The back seat in the 2010 Jaguar XK Coupe really isn't a back seat. We're not even sure that you could put a child seat--or a pet--back there.
The soft suede-like headliner was not only delightful to touch; we also suspect it helped damp road noise. But this view of the rear pillar goes to show how bad rearward visibility is.
The gauges themselves in the 2010 Jaguar XK were one of the weak points. The trim surrounding them--in an area that would be in the driver's line of sight all the time--revealed some rough injection molding. It's one of few flaws in this almost perfect touring coupe.
The nice, grippy leather-trimmed steering wheel felt right-sized; quick, uniform heating pampered us on cold mornings; and some of the steering wheel controls have a pleasing tactility with textured contact surfaces.
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection
