Jaguar XJ

At the end of the 1970s, it was necessary to necessarily update the XJ for the coming new decade, although sales still remained strong. The intervention was supposed to be a simple update to keep the model on the market for a few more months, since a completely new successor version was already at an advanced stage of design. In fact, the Series III, unveiled in March 1979, confirmed its success and became the longest-lived and perhaps even the most popular XJ series. The Jaguar XJ (Series III): The task of making the famous British sedan more competitive for the 1980s, by then a crucial model in the entire range, was entrusted to the expert pencil of Pininfarina. The Turin designer intervened sensitively on the lines of the XJ, though without distorting the true essence of the car. Changes from the Series II included thicker and more incorporated rubber bumpers with decorative chrome only on the top edge, flush door handles, one-piece front door glass without a separate quarter light, a grille with only vertical vanes, reverse lights moved from the boot plinth to the larger rear light clusters, and a revised roofline with narrower door frames and increased glass area. The option of a sunroof and cruise control were also offered for the first time on the Jaguar XJ.