The Jaguar XJL is traditional English luxury with sexy catlike curves

Jaguar Land Rover

For nearly 50 years, the Jaguar XJ has been one of the finest luxury sedans money can buy. It's been a torchbearer for old-world British luxury and style. Unfortunately, by the early 2000s, the XJ's relentless evocation of Jag's design lineage caused the car to become staid. Which is why in 2010, Jaguar design boss Ian Callum unveiled a new XJ that broke the mold and took Jag's flagship four-door in a modern and controversial direction.

The current generation XJ is already half a decade old, but its eye-catching looks remain as fetching as ever. So when Jaguar let Business Insider borrow a 2015 XJL Portfolio all-wheel-drive test car, we jumped at the opportunity to spend a week behind the wheel of this automotive icon.