Jaguar XKR-S Convertible: What the critics say

Automobile

The XKR-S is the fastest Jag ever, and the soft-top version delivers “levels of performance never known from a Jaguar convertible.” It’s also the most expensive Jag in many years, carrying a price premium of $6,000 above the nearly identical 2012 coupe. For $138,000, you get a dated-looking touch-screen display and a transmission with six—not eight—speeds. But mostly you get an exquisitely refined sports car possessed of “brutal potency.”

Road & Track

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This isn’t a coupe that’s had its roof cut off. The XKR-S was designed to be a convertible, so even when the supercharged 550-hp aluminum V8 approaches its eye-watering 186-mph limit, the car remains “impressively rigid and sure-footed.” Nearing 100 mph, there’s also almost no air motion inside the plush cockpit. But get in line if you want this vehicle. Only 200 will be sold in the U.S. through 2014, and many of the 2013s are already claimed.

Car and Driver

That’s hardly surprising, seeing as “a manlier Jaguar convertible has never roamed the streets.” Push it hard, with power and handling settings in “full attack mode,” and this convertible is as “dynamically satisfying” as anything in its class. There are “no words to describe” the glorious sound of its engine “at full scream.”