Orlando Sentinel's view

When Ford bought Jaguar, the purists clucked and wrung their hands and insisted that it was the end of Jaguar as we knew it. Many of us who had been testing Jaguars for the previous decade or so weren’t much able to console these people, because we thought Jaguar needed some help.

After a colleague closed the door on a new $70,000 pre-Ford Jaguar and had the inside door panel collapse into his lap, any chance he might publicly decry the Americanization of the British company collapsed along with it.

The first genuine, direct example of Ford involvement came with the Jaguar S-Type, which shares a platform with the Lincoln LS. While the underrated LS has always delivered more driving pleasure for the dollar, its generic styling has kept it from achieving the success it deserves.

Not so the S-Type. It arrived with a regal air, a classic exterior straight from the pages of Jaguar history, and an appropriately luxurious interior. You would have to look for a long time to find Ford’s fingerprints, except that door panels don’t fall into your lap much any more.

Benefiting from several years of fine-tuning, the S-Type test car still doesn’t match the LS’s level of road feel and nimble handling, but it’s a lot closer. The styling is holding up well, and the interior, loaded with creamy leather and trimmed in bird’s eye maple veneer, is excellent.

Under the hood remains Ford’s 3.0-liter, 240-horsepower V-6, with a six-speed automatic transmission. A five-speed manual transmission was offered, but has been dropped due to lack of interest. The 294-horsepower 4.2-liter V-8 remains available, as well as a 390-horsepower supercharged version of that engine in the S-Type R. More power is always nice, but it doesn’t match the S-Type’s civil personality. For the money, the 3.0-liter model is my choice.

That is not to say that any S-Type is cheap. The test model started at $41,850, and with a few options that included the automatic transmission, heated front seats, an $1,800 upgrade to the sound system and a sliding glass sunroof, the bottom line was $48,795.

There’s little to fault inside the S-Type, except for Jaguar’s confounding “J-gate” shifter, which has “park” at the top of the J, meaning you need to shift down, over and up to go. It’s annoying, and it takes up a lot of room on the console. Front seats are quite comfortable, but adults in the rear might wish for more legroom.

On the highway, the test S-Type cruises quietly, with a stable ride and good acceleration. The new six-speed automatic transmission helps maximize the 3.0-liter V-6’s power, and merging onto a freeway is no problem. On winding roads, though, the S-Type test car was a little out of its element, with the relatively soft suspension that gives such a good ride on the highway allowing for more body roll than a Jaguar should have. You can get a Sport package with a stiffer suspension, though, and that would h elp.

For what it is – which is not a sports car – the S-Type delivers

Base price: $41,850.

Price as tested: $48,795

EPA rating: 18 mpg city, 26 mpg highway

Details: Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive sedan powered by a 3.0-liter, 235-horsepower V-6 with a 6-speed automatic transmission.