Wins Top Award Jaguar XF

The new Jaguar XF has won the coveted What Car magazine Car of the Year 2008 award, beating off stiff competition from rivals BMW and Mercedes.

What Car stipulate that the winner of the award "must have done more than anything else from the past 12 months to move things on".

Jaguar is a mere cottage industry alongside the mighty Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Yet its replacement for the retro styled S-Type was considered to have beaten the best the company's German rivals could offer.

This is even more of an achievement when set against the backdrop of uncertainty over Jaguar's future, with the sale of the company by owners Ford now imminent - most likely to Indian motor group Tata.

The magazine singled out in particular the way the XF out-drives the previously unbeatable BMW 5 Series, which is saying something, but also manages to be more supple on poor surfaces.