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Text by Dubspeed Media Staff, Zerin Dube
Photos by Manufacturer, additional photos by author

When BMW introduced the E39 M5 at the 1998 Geneva Motor Show, it took the breath from automotive enthusiasts everywhere. The M5 was the perfect combination of muscular looks, incredible handling, vicious power…all packaged within the practicality of a sedan. With 400 horsepower (394hp depending who you ask) at the driver’s disposal, the M5 quickly became a legend – with little competition from other European manufacturers. That is, until Jaguar introduced the S-Type R in 2003. The S-Type R looked like, at least on paper, to be a direct competitor for the E39 M5. Like the M5, the Jaguar S-Type R was a mid-size sport sedan based on an already established model, and also benefited from a very powerful V-8 engine. Both carried sticker prices over $60k, and both appeared to be targeting the same demographic: people who wanted an extremely sports-oriented luxury sedan. In 2003, the S-Type R was a bargain at $62,400 compared to the M5’s hefty price tag of $70,545.

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Jaguar made a point of saying that the S-Type R was not a direct competitor for the E39 M5. They noted that the M5 was much more aggressive, and much more extreme than the S-Type R. They said the S-Type R, while still a high performance machine, was better suited to cross-country touring duty than track duty. Despite Jaguar’s comments, it was difficult to see beyond the parallels the two cars shared on paper. Strangely enough, over the next two years, these were really the only two cars that shared such similarities. No other European brand offered anything remotely close for the price. Sure Audi had the RS6 and Mercedes-Benz had the E55, yet both were much more expensive than the M5 and S-Type R.

Fast forward to present day 2006: the M5 has once again grown up to outclass every other uber-performing sports sedan out there, with even more power and performance. The new E60 M5 has 500 horsepower and is in a world of its own with a hefty base price of $81,895. Mercedes-Benz still offers the E55 sedan, but it starts at an even higher $82,575. Audi ended production of the RS6 in 2004, and the new 420hp S6 will not be available in North America until at least the Fall of 2006.

This is all good news for Jaguar, who has only raised the base price of the 2006 S-Type R by a reasonable $1,595 over the 2003 model. Even though the aforementioned competitors are on more modern platforms than the aging S-Type R, it is hard to ignore the fact that the Jaguar comes in almost $20,000 cheaper than its competition. And that’s before you add any options to the others, as both the E55 and M5 can be optioned out to over $90,000. With a base price of $63,330, the 2006 S-Type R comes nearly fully loaded with the only available options being adaptive cruise control and satellite radio.

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The S-Type line received an extensive reworking to its exterior and interior in 2004, yielding a car that looked much more refined, athletic and contemporary than the 2003 model. These changes have carried through to the 2006 Jaguar S-Type R. Jaguar has made use of lightweight components such as an aluminum hood and lightweight braking components for better weight distribution and performance. Jaguar also touts that the fit and finish of the car is far better than the previous iteration of the S-Type R. All this looks great in ad campaigns and marketing materials…but how does all this talk of performance, luxury and handling hold up in the real world? I decided to find out.

With an as-tested price of $66,645, our 2006 Jaguar S-Type R test car arrived in grand fashion, wearing a beautiful shade of grey that Jaguar simply calls Quartz. The exterior of the S-Type R is unmistakably Jaguar, with curves and design cues that hearken back to the classic 1953 Jaguar Mark VII. This isn’t yet another retro car by any means though – Jaguar’s designers have given the car very modern lines that are clean, taut, and very muscular.

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The S-Type R gets exclusive 18” wheels with R-specific badging on the trunk lid and fenders. Peeking out from behind the 18” wheels are massive Brembo brakes with bespoke R-lettering on the calipers. The front of the S-Type R gives onlookers a hint of its performance with a deep chin spoiler and black trimmed headlamps. The woven mesh front grille is also exclusive to the S-Type R. The rear of the S-Type R houses an R-exclusive lower valence, with a dual exhaust system lurking below. The trunk lid is topped with a subtle body color spoiler that is also exclusive to the S-Type R. The car looks mean, but doesn’t sacrifice the beauty and flair of a classic Jaguar.

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The good looks of the car quickly became the least of my thoughts as I remembered that this car had a supercharged engine rated at 400 horsepower waiting for me (“Supercharged” and “400 horsepower” are two phrases that can leave me drooling uncontrollably). I unlocked the car and climbed into the R-only 16-way adjustable sport seats trimmed in Dove leather, and quickly realized that Jaguar was serious about performance. The seats were extremely comfortable and kept me firmly planted during spirted driving thanks to ample bolstering. Despite the wide bolsters, Jaguar managed to keep the seats very supportive for narrower body types like myself, and still extremely comfortable for larger frame bodies.

I couldn’t wait to awaken the engine, which was just a turn of the key away. I fired up the engine and listened to the roar of the exhaust as it came to life. A few adjustments of the mirrors and seats, and I was ready to take this beast of a luxury sports sedan out for a drive.

As I started looking around the car for the mirror adjustments, my excitement over the 400 horsepower underneath the hood was suddenly sucked out of me faster than you can say Jaguar. As I started to look around the interior of the car in detail, I felt like I had been magically transported to the nearest Ford dealership’s parts warehouse. Despite the excellent near-bespoke workmanship of the leather on the seats and door panels, and center console, the rest of the interior started to look a little…well…cheap. Buttons were everywhere, and they all looked like they had been borrowed straight from a Ford Taurus. The plastic blanks on the passenger door panels looked tacky and left me wondering what was missing. The headliner material appeared to made of lower grade material than what you would find in your most basic Volkswagen. The plastics around the dash and console ranged from extremely high quality soft-touch material to something you would find in your nearest Hertz rent-a-car economy fleet. The birdseye maple wood trim had so many tiny knots, it looked as if someone had sneezed all over the wood before putting a coat of lacquer on it. Frankly, it looked even worse in direct sunlight.

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Jaguar equips the S-Type R with a standard 320-watt Alpine audio system, replete with CD changer and navigation. Again, this sounds great on paper, but has its share of problems. The navigation system screen which also houses the radio and HVAC controls was unreadable even with a hint of sunlight shining against it. My attempts to adjust the display to become readable were futile until the sky was either cloudy or dark out. When I was able to finally see the screen and adjust the radio to a station of my liking, I found the Alpine stereo to distort at even medium listening levels no matter how the tonal adjustments were set. The navigation system worked well, but it was a huge annoyance that it reset itself every time you turned the car off. If I’ve spent the time to input a trip with several waypoints, I would be extremely irritated to input the entire trip again every time I had to stop somewhere for a break.

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And then I noticed something that was, at least to me, far worse than the quality of materials found throughout the S-Type R. At the bottom of the center stack was a plastic trim panel that housed the controls for the optional $450 Satellite Radio controller. This trim panel was so poor – it looked like a 15 minute hack job performed at your nearest Best Buy stereo install department. At the same time, I remembered that I was in a $67,000 car with a lowly FM-modulated satellite radio system. In just about every other luxury car you can buy on the market today, the satellite radio is integrated into the main stereo controls of the car. No muss, no fuss, everything is controlled through one central point. In the S-Type R, use of the satellite radio requires to you first tune the radio to a specific FM radio station with nothing on it, and then turn on the satellite unit. This limits the fidelity of the satellite radio (which is typically excellent) to the quality of your standard FM radio station. And if you don’t turn off the satellite receiver while listening to regular FM radio, you get a lot of static. On top of that, instead of looking at the main display to see what is playing, you’re forced to look at the bottom-most part of the console. To me, this is completely unacceptable in a $67,000 luxury car. Even if Jaguar could not find a way to integrate the satellite radio into the standard Alpine stereo system, they could have and should have found a better way to install it in the car. As it is, not only does it add an extremely low rent feel to the interior, it also requires you to take your eyes off the road completely for station adjustments.

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Once the shock of all these shortcomings finally had time to settle, I was able to concentrate on the task at hand…seeing how the S-Type R performed. I’d been eargerly waiting to unleash the 400 horsepower and 408 lb/ft of torque. Well, I’m happy to say that the S-Type R fared much better in the performance department than it did elsewhere. The 4.2 liter supercharged V8 is quite simply incredible. Once you put the pedal to the floor in the S-Type R, you are thrown back in the seats and treated to a symphony of supercharger and exhaust sounds. The supercharger in the S-Type R is a roots style blower, and is LOUD. If you’ve ever experienced a Ford Lightning at wide-open throttle, you know what I mean. Power delivery is very linear and very smooth. There are no sudden surges of power as you might expect when the supercharger whacks in full boost. Jaguar says that the S-Type R will do 0-60 in 5.3 seconds, and will run all the way up to an electronically limited top speed of 155 miles per hour. This is what a performance car is all about…the power, sensation of being thrown back in your seat, the rumble of the exhaust and whine of the supercharger. The S-Type R is fairly fuel efficient too, considering the power it makes. In mixed city and highway driving, I averaged a respectable 19 miles per gallon – just be aware that this number decreases significantly during spirited driving.

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The S-Type R’s 6-speed ZF automatic transmission did a decent job of upshifting quickly, but seemed a little sluggish on the downshifts. I also noticed something that left me feeling somewhat cheated on the whole 400 horsepower thing: the 4.2 liter supercharged V8 in the S-Type R is rated at 400 horsepower @ 6100 rpm, yet the transmission absolutely will NOT shift at anything above 6000 rpm. This is a small nag considering you are still piloting an extremely fast car, but I felt like I was being robbed of the full 400 horsepower advertised right on the window sticker.

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The S-Type R’s steering wheel is thick and very comfortable to grip. The speed sensitive steering on the S-Type R made it a breeze to maneuver through tight parking lots, without disconnecting the driver from the road under high speed driving. Ride quality is excellent thanks to Jaguar’s Computer Active Technology Suspension, or CATS for short (clever eh?). This CATS system also keeps the S-Type R firmly planted through corners without a ton of bodyroll – unusual for a car of this size and weight. Also unusual for a car of this size, the S-Type R handled very neutrally through hard corners. The only time the car really exhibited understeer was when negotiating a set of quick left – right corners. The suspension seemed to get a bit confused as to what you were trying to get it to do, and compensated by softening up the suspension a bit too much. Hopefully Jaguar will be able to tweak the suspension software in future revisions to overcome this. During everyday driving, the S-Type R’s suspension is firm enough to make passengers feel like they are in a smaller, sportier car, while retaining a very smooth ride, even over bumps. Like Jaguar says, the S-Type R is meant to be a high-performance highway cruiser, not an all-out track machine masquerading under the guise of luxury.

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The S-Type R’s massive Brembo disc braking system consists of 14.3” front vented rotors, and 12.9” rear rotors with 4 piston aluminum calipers. Braking feel is firm, without sponginess in the pedal, giving you plenty of feedback as to what the brakes are doing – which is important during spirited driving.

Another optional feature on our S-Type R test car was the optional $2,200 radar assisted cruise control. This feature is worth mentioning because I feel that more and more luxury cars will start to come equipped with these systems in the future. This system uses active radar at the front of the car to control the S-Type R’s speed without driver intervention. The steps are simple: activate the cruise control, set the speed you want, and the minimum distance you want between your car and the one in front of you. Set it and forget it…the radar cruise control does the rest. When the radar detects you approaching a car ahead of you, it illuminates a light on the dash indicating that there’s a “bogey” within radar range. Once you impinge upon the pre-set following distance, the S-Type R will apply its brakes automatically to maintain the desired gap. While the system seemed to work well, it really can take you by surprise when the brakes start getting applied a little too hard without your intervention. I can see this feature being refined over the next few years, and really being a nice addition to have. Right now though, I just don’t trust it. It’s a neat trick to show your friends, but please, leave the driving up to me. $2,200 is also a hefty price to pay for a feature that might lull some drivers into a false sense of security, and cause them to pay less attention to the road.

The bottom line with the Jaguar S-Type R is that you have to understand exactly what it is you’re buying. With our S-Type R’s price-as-tested of $66,645, it is certainly a very expensive car, and its shortcomings hardly help justify the lofty price. While almost $20,000 cheaper than other high performance European luxury sedans, the S-Type R falls very short in the luxury department. For the price, you can get a very nicely equipped BMW 545i, an Audi A6, or any number of other “luxury” cars that are in actuality far more luxurious and appealing on the inside than the Jaguar. What you don’t get with those cars is the visceral rush the S-Type R gives under full acceleration. You don’t get a car with the heritage, class, and panache of a Jaguar. You also don’t get the personality and character that every Jaguar has.

Still though, at least for me, these things aren’t enough to overcome the mediocrity found throughout the interior. This is a shame, because the S-Type R is breathtakingly impressive from an exterior design standpoint, and even more so in its driving dynamics. Am I being too critical of the S-Type R? Well, maybe just a little bit. If the S-Type R cost $45,000 or even $50,000, I probably would have shrugged off some complaints. At its current price point, however, I just can’t turn a blind eye to these issues.

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On the bright side, I know that Jaguar is aware of these complaints and is working hard to fix their image. Jaguar Design Director Ian Callum has already shown us what he can do to resurrect one model and bring it up to truly modern standards. The new Jaguar XK is nothing short of spectacular inside and out, and brings the brand back to the top of the sport luxury coupe segment. If the XK is any indication of what Jaguar has planned for the future, they are surely committed to moving the entire Jaguar brand back on top. Personally, I can’t wait to see what Jaguar does with the next generation of the Jaguar lineup.