Reference Auto

Yet another luxury car, from the iconic Jaguar brand of Tata Motors, is being rolled out in India – this time the diesel variant of the Jaguar XF for a price tag of Rs 48.37 lakh.

With the Tata brand name under its fold, the Jaguar XF’s dealership network will already be in place, and owing to its worldwide reputation, the new Jaguar may see sales soar initially especially as it has a diesel engine, which is generally the preferred choice in developing markets like India.

But in order to keep up the sales tempo of the Jaguar XF, Tata Motors will have to launch a slew of variants and redesigned models of the car as customers, especially in the luxury segment, are always looking for innovative technologies on their cars.

The luxury car is propelled by a 3.0 litre AJ-V6 diesel S sequential turbocharged engine with 275 PS and 600 Nm of torque and will be coming into the country as a completely built unit (CBU).

With Jaguar’s six-speed ZF 6HP28 automatic transmission, the XF can accelerate from 0 to100 kmph in just about 6.4 seconds.

The Jaguar model comes with technologies such as drive selector, drive control, sequential shift and stability control with trac DSC mode.

The car’s interiors have soft grain leather seats, phosphor blue halo illumination lights, interior mood lighting, seven-inch full colour touch-screen display and key-less entry along with start.

The launch comes after Jaguar sports-sedan’s petrol variant roll out in 2009 and the supercharged XFR model in the same year.

“The launch is in the wake of the mega response to our petrol variant. We have already got a pre-launch booking of 60 cars for the diesel version,” said Rohit Suri, head - premier car division, Jaguar and Land Rover, India.

“The new diesel XF rolled out in India has been customised for the country’s market by Jaguar engineers,” the company said in a statement.

In order to accelerate sales, Jaguar is putting into place 10 more dealerships in major cities of India. As of now, the luxury automobile manufacturer markets its car brands through three showroom-dealerships in Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad.

From mid next year, Jaguar Land Rover or JLR, the British luxury car giant which Tata Motors bought in early 2008 for $2.3 billion from Ford, will start assembling Land Rover models in India.

During the last financial year, Jaguar Land Rover sales stood at 243 cars, which is more than average considering the Indian market’s belly to take in luxury cars. With this segment growing rapidly, JLR will hope to at least double sales in the next few years.

Tata Motors also rolled out its seven-seater Winger Platinum, a new variant in the Winger range. The Winger Platinum is available in two colours - Pearl White and Cycus Grey and comes with a 1.5 lakh km or 18-month warranty. The Tata Winger Platinum BS III will carry a price tag of Rs 697,593 and the Tata Winger Platinum BS IV will come for Rs 735,055 (ex-showroom, Delhi).

The Jaguar XF is one of the best turbo-diesel cars in the market and cruise control is superbly simple, and with Indian buyers having a fad for diesel vehicles, the Jaguar XF may find many takers in the Indian market.