If you had to have Jaguar’s showcase XJ, then this is obviously the one to have.   Otherwise, since this car is so similar to the regular XJ, I’m not so convinced.

In all fairness, it’s not as if Jaguar has priced itself out of its rivals (for once), considering the Porsche Panamera Turbo and Mercedes S65 AMG offer similar traits with a similar price tag. But the elephant in the room comes in the form of £50,000 to pay for all those extras. I think I’d rather buy a standard XJ and build an elephant sculpture shaped with the £50k in notes. I also found an Ultimate with 100k miles on the clock for a third of the price!

The Autobiography models at £80,000 bring both added luxury and still a £40,000 saving over the standard model.

The XJR too; £93,000 makes for an expensive model but this still leaves £20k to spend on ipads, Jaguar’s Rear Seat Entertainment system (8″ screens in the headrests + remote control), and fuel.

Granted, both of these models weren’t on sale at the time of the Ultimate, but you can have both the sportscar pace and luxury saloon for a lot less.

For me, I would have this over the Germans for some cool points but I could go further and get a £95k Maserati Quattroporte Sport GTS, saving the money for a couple of generations of ipads.

Otherwise, if the standard XJ is good enough for M, it’s good enough for me.

Spec: Ultimate LWB
Engine: 5.0 V8 Supercharged Petrol, 503bhp, 461lb ft
Transmission: 8-Speed Auto
Mpg: Official: 24.4mpg Achieved: 20mpg
Performance: 0-62mph: 4.9 Secs, 155mph
Colour: Ultimate Black