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As I walk down my local high street I always like to look at the flashy cars
parked outside the quaint boutiques and bustling coffee shops. Range Rover
after Range Rover, BMW's galore and the occasional Ferrari, all utterly
stunning vehicles, but dare I say it, are they becoming a bit too common?

Glancing at the new Jaguar XKR as it rumbled passed me I must admit that I,

like so many others before me believed it to be an Aston Martin. So, why
would you buy the XKR over its sister the Aston Martin Vantage?

The first thing you notice about this car is its astonishing beauty. With its
sleek aluminium body shell and its polished 20 inch wheels the XKR screams
sexy sports car, while the sumptuous leather seats and stylishly modern
interior boast comfort and luxury. Mesh grilles and bonnet vents add to the
new aggressive appearance but without tarnishing the classic Jaguar
elegance.

Not only is this car stunning to look at, it is also an intelligent piece of
engineering. It has a newly developed suspension that analyses the road and
electronically adjusts the settings. This greatly improves the driving comfort
and control, which is essential when driving around some streets in my town.
I've seen smaller craters on the moon compared to the pot holes around
Essex!

The newly designed headlamps are not only curved gracefully in contrast with
the body shell but are also bi-xenon, so via sensors they can automatically
turn a corner a fraction of a second before the car itself, giving the driver
greater visibility of the road ahead. This car is intelligent as well as
handsome.

So we have established that the XKR is superbly crafted and very
comfortable. So is a leather sofa from DFS, but I can guarantee that the sofa
won't have a 4.2 litre V8 engine under the cushion and it won't produce 420
bhp either. Ok, 420 bhp doesn't sound much compared to some cars on the
market at the moment, but with its light weight aluminium body, aerodynamic
shape and throbbing V8 under the hood this car does not hang around. With
a 0-60 mph in 4.9 seconds and a top speed of 155 mph (limited) it handles
effortlessly at high speed, gliding along the road accompanied by the throaty
roar of the twin exhausts, letting passers-by know you are coming through.
So, it's beautiful, it's comfortable and it's damn fast, what else could possibly
make this car any better?

Its new safety feature is something quite unique. The Adaptive Restraint
Technology System (A.R.T.S) is state of the art. In the case of an accident
the aluminium body shell will progressively deform on impact while the
A.R.T.S assesses the force of the impact and deploys the precise airbag
energy levels so as to protect the passengers safely. Clever. And cleverer still,
while the passengers are being protected by their ingenious airbags, so is the
engine. With two small airbags under the bonnet which deploy on impact, the
bonnet itself is pushed up 10 inches to help cushion the blow and make space
between the force of impact and the supercharger, thus limiting damage to
the engine. This car seems to be one step ahead every time.

So, the new Jaguar XKR is beautiful, it's comfortable, it's fast, its safe and its
intelligent. All that for 73,495. Not a bad price tag for a lot of sports car.
Why should you buy the XKR over the Vantage? How many reasons do you
need?

Learn more about this author, Kim Boram.
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