I've got to say, folks, that doesn't look like a Jaguar. It looks like a Ford. And that is a bad thing. Sorry, but a Jaguar has got to have a certain something, a prestige look that lifts it above the mundane, and still looks like a Jaguar.
Yes, you can overdo it, and the S-Type and X-Type show that, but Jaguar is all about Grace, Pace and Luxury and a jacked up C-Max isn't going to do them any favours.
For all the slating BMW get on their styling direction, you look at a BMW, any BMW built over the last 40 years and you know it's a Beemer. It just couldn't be anything else. Same is true with a Mercedes. Every Mercedes looks like a Mercedes - if you ignore the vans - and could never be anything else. Audi? Same again. Saab? Even more so. VW? Alfa Romeo? The list just goes on.
It is the companies who don't have that same sense of purpose and direction that keep changing their styling and focus every few years. Ford, Vauxhall, Rover, Renault - they've all had identity crisis over the past fifteen years and they've all changed direction on their styling. Yes, nothing wrong with injecting new life into a range of cars - unless your name is Chris Bangle of course - but the direction and focus has to remain the same if you want your customers to remain loyal.
