The next-generation Jaguar S-Type will be heavily reengineered, featuring a lightweight aluminum body but not an all-aluminum chassis like the XJ sedan and new XK coupe.

Observers thought the next S-Type would be a short-chassis version of the XJ, partly to justify the company’s major investment in building aluminum chassis cars. But now, with just over two years to go until a late 2007 launch of the 2008 model, Jag has canned the switch to riveted aluminum for the S-Type.

Engineering mules spotted in the United Kingdom show a car similar to today’s S-Type in size and proportion, with some modifications to take on the popular four-door coupe styling similar to Mercedes’ CLS. Under the camouflage, we’re told the front end will mirror the R-D6 concept with its low-set “shield” grille and twin headlights.

The new S-Type marks a new strategy for Jaguar as it reinvents itself as a small-volume, luxury carmaker happy to make 100,000 cars a year, rather than its late-1990s plan to build 200,000 cars a year.

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Jag’s three models will be stretched with high-priced performance XJR and super-performance XJR-R models competing with junior Bentleys.

If this plan works, Jaguar’s next move will be to roll the dice on niche models, like a junior sports car and a crossover.

While Jaguar is just about to launch its new Jaguar XK Coupe, it's also preparing a facelifted S-Type sedan for introduction in less than a year.



As these first prototype shots show, Jaguar is developing a new shape for the S-Type. It includes a new front end with a lower front grille, new large headlights, and big air intakes under the bumper.



The restyled S-Type will stay on the market for a few years while Ford re-engineers the vehicle. Plans to convert the S-Type to an aluminum-bodied car based on a shortened XJ platform have been scuttled.

The Jaguar S-Type prototype caught here is destined to be one of the most important British cars ever developed, as the new Jaguar has to do what its forebears have failed to pull off: become a no-excuses global showroom hit. If the new S-Type family fails to make substantial inroads into the vital and highly lucrative executive car market, Jaguar could be drawn into a serious, perhaps irreversible, crisis.

This prototype was photographed near Jaguar's German engineering center, close to the Nürburgring circuit. This is what's known as a "cooling mule" - where the front of the new car is grafted onto the current model. Under the hood is a prototype setup of the new engine and cooling system.

Examining the pictures gives clues to the look of the car, which is rumored to be Jaguar's long-awaited break with traditional styling. The new hood is cut away sharply over the headlights, and the grille looks as if it will be cut further down into the front bumper. If these clues are anything to go by, the new S-Type will have a much more aggressive look than today's oddly retro machine. We also understand that the car will be the first Jag to adopt a modern nose-down, tail-up stance.

The new S-type should arrive in mid-to-late 2007, as a 2008 model, and an S-Type R is expected to follow about a year later.

We also hear rumors that the F-Type roadster could finally be launched, based on the S-Type's front-engine, rear-drive chassis. It's unlikely to appear before late 2007, though. This new-product push is believed to be the final throw of the dice for Jaguar, and Ford will be watching very closely.

Jaguar wants the world to believe that the 2007 XK expresses the brand's new design philosophy.

But those who have seen the next S-Type say it's the model that will return the brand to its former glory.

"Wait until you see the next S-Type," J Mays, vice president of design at Ford Motor Co., told Automotive News Europe, a sister publication to Automotive News. "It will express Jaguar's daring design spirit again."

A Jaguar source who has seen the first sketches called the new S-Type "innovative" and said that it is "without a trace of retro elements." The redesigned sedan is expected to reach the market in 2007.

The Jaguar brand was once renowned for its daring elegance, but critics have called Jaguar models such as the current S-Type boring and dated.

The S-Type is Jaguar's second best seller after the X-Type. Jaguar produced 18,755 S-Types in the first nine months of this year, according to British market researcher J.D. Power and Associates-LMC Automotive Forecasting Services.

Jaguar calls the latest XK "the most technically advanced Jaguar ever built." But it is really an evolution of the aluminum monocoque design launched in 2002 on the XJ upper-premium sedan, a car that has been called too traditional.

"The XJ is a fantastic car with all its lightweight aluminum construction," said Hein van Laarhoven, CEO of Dutch Jaguar dealership Cito Motors. "But it looks too much like its predecessor, which dates back from the early '90s. So customers are disappointed that their neighbors don't notice it as a new car."

Jaguar customers expect dynamic elegance, not retro styling, said a German Jaguar dealer who asked to remain anonymous.

"The Maserati Quattroporte and even the Mercedes-Benz CLS are more appealing," the dealer said. "If these cars were wearing a Jaguar badge, we could have sold a lot more cars."

Instead, Jaguar XJ sales are falling. During the first nine months of 2005, 2,572 XJ models were sold in western Europe, compared with 4,296 during the same period last year, according to JATO Dynamics.

In the United States, sales of the XJ were 6,433 for the first nine months of 2005 compared with 7,459 for the same period last year.

Sales of the S-Type for the first nine months were 6,911 compared with 8,896 during the year-ago period.

GAYDON, England -- After considering aluminum, Jaguar executives have decided to stick with steel for the unibody and most of the body panels of the next-generation S-Type.

An aluminum body would have taken precious time to develop, said Geoff Polites, CEO of Jaguar and Land Rover. Also, aluminum is more expensive than steel, and midrange luxury customers don't want it, he said.

The Jaguar XJ sedan and XK coupe use aluminum. Polites confirmed that the redesigned XJ sedan coming in late 2009 will stay with aluminum. Many manufacturers use aluminum for body panels such as the hood and trunk lid.

The redesigned S-Type will arrive in the United States in the spring of 2008. The vehicle is essential to revive a brand that is reeling from plunging sales and a string of losses.

"It would have taken us 18 more months to develop an aluminum S-Type," Polites said in an interview here. "With so many new entries out there, a quicker time to market was essential."

Polites said the next S-Type will use "an all-new platform," not an evolution of the existing platform shared with the Lincoln LS sedan.

The current S-Type sedan hit its 22,000-unit U.S. sales target only in 2000, its first full year after launch. It quickly slipped to the 15,000-unit range for several years. In 2005, Jaguar sold just 8,897 units in the United States. Sales through May this year fell 24.8 percent.

Midrange luxury buyers place little importance on aluminum, Polites said.

"There is the practical advantage of the lightness of aluminum, but the market does not want it," he said.

But Polites said the next-generation XJ sedan will stay with aluminum: "Having invested so much in an aluminum stamping facility, to go back to steel would mean we would have to invest a couple hundred million dollars in a whole new body shop."

Jaguar dealers attending a recent UK launch of the supercharged XKR have been given a sneak preview of the new S-Type.

Dealers were surprised when senior executives unveiled the all-new Jaguar saloon, a replacement for the existing model, which is still 12 months away from its first public showing and 18 months from going on sale.

The new S-Type was described as featuring heavy flanks and a is departure from the more retro look Jaguar adopted for the current car, replacing it with a coupe-like four-door with a high-decked boot sweeping forward into a wedge shape. The front of the car is said to feature a wide and deep grille flanked by prominent headlamps.

A dealer who attended the presentation said: 'It's totally different to what we've grown used to. It rewrites the Jaguar styling book.'

Built on the same platform as the current car, the new S-Type will be an all-steel construction and will be powered by updated versions of Jaguar's existing petrol and turbo diesel engines.

The new S-Type is not expected to go on sale until March 2008. (CarKeys.com)