By dissing the SS and calling it a laundry van, a cartoon Chevy wagon, a farm vehicle, etc., all that does is make the Jag look even worse. I bet if Bob Lutz has read this, he'd feel like a proud papa!

 

I dunno... It sounds like the writer is giving credit and respect to the HHR SS for giving Jag's sportiest offering a tough run for it's money. That means a lot when the Jag costs 3 times as much, has a V8 more than twice as large as the LNF I4, and burns way more fuel. Certainly the XF was never designed to have enough room to be a delivery fleet staple. All this while being driven by the designer in a road test review against a driver of unknown skill? That's why the potential for huge embarrassment is explicitly mentioned. Of course, part of the reason the Jag costs 3 times as much is because it is designed to be a luxury vehicle. If you just want performance you remove all that pretty wood trim, etc.

Anyway, I think the writer is totally giving credits & kudos to the HHR SS, I guess it's hard to tell from print and with cultural differences. Even if not, the HHR SS kicks a$$ for all of the reasons above. If someone wants to blow 3 times the cash for a vehicle with less space and burning way more gas, that's just marginally faster... let 'em waste it.

 

Well-put and fair enough, but I think the writer does give mixed signals, at once giving the SS credit for keeping up with a supercharged V8 Jaguar, and at the same time calling it all those names and even referring to the driver as "an American motoring hack." Cultural differences? Maybe... but I betcha the writer is getting some kind of lower-self pleasure (havng fun at someone else's expense) by describing the HHR SS as a cartoon Chevy farm vehicle. And I would think his British audience (that he is obviously writing to) is having a good laugh as well.

At the end of the day, it's pretty cool that the SS interrupted this expensive Jaguar's test drive and made the driver have to go all-out to lose him.

 

This is a wonderful read, totally enjoyed forwarding it around. In a funny coincidence, my neighbor has this very same model Jag on order. Of course, he got a kick out of the article, and thinks they are both great cars in their own way. Some time ago this same neighbor was very amused that when Automobile Magazine staff selected the 100 Coolest Cars of all time, his old VW MicroBus was #100, and my mid 60's (C2) StingRay was #1.