2015 Jaguar Cub

The Jaguar product range is a bit limited compared to BMW, Mercedes and Audi. However Jaguar have revealed to Autocar their plans for a new small saloon. It's not a compact executive rival for the 3 Series and A4 as anticipated though, it's actually a rival for cars that aren't even on the road yet.

Let me explain what I'm on about, at the Geneva Motor Show back in March Audi revealed an A3 saloon concept which is slightly longer than an A3 hatch but smaller than an A4 saloon and Mercedes have done a rival to this called the CLC saloon which is basically a B Class with a stretched wheelbase but both of these cars are just concepts at the moment. Now Jaguar are planning to join them in a new small premium saloon class aimed mainly for the Indian and Chinese market.

Audi A3 Saloon Concept at Geneva

The new Jaguar 'Cub', as I like to call it, is planned to be around 4.5m in length and will come with a choice of smaller engines than the fully grown Jags; a three-cylinder 1.5L and four-cylinder 1.8 and 2.0 litre petrols and diesels with a possibility of an eight-speed or even a nine-speed automatic gearbox. Unlike the rest of the Jaguar range the new baby saloon is planned to be front wheel drive.

It won't just come as a saloon though. They're even considering making coupe and roadster variants of the 'Cub'. No news of possible R versions though but it would be interesting to see another 1M coupe rival or SLK AMG alternative in my opinion.

So is this new Jag affordable enough for younger buyers? Well prices are planed to start at around £22,000 which isn't that much cheaper than the bigger Audi A4 and BMW 3 Series saloons but it's a good £8k less than the larger Jaguar XF. You'll have to be patient if you like the sound of this though as it's unlikely to be on the road until 2015.