Ian Callum, Jaguar's design director, picked up the award commenting: "This is the first time  Jaguar has won this highly respected Autocar award for a production car and I'm absolutely thrilled it has been given to the new XF. It's wonderful to receive recognition for our efforts within the industry and from our ultimate critics – the motoring media."

Editor of Autocar Chas Hallett said: "What most impressed Autocar's judging panel is Jaguar's success in producing a car that looks elegant, graceful and 'Jaguar-like'. This is a car, we believe, of which Sir William Lyons, founder of Jaguar would thoroughly have approved."

Available in Australia next year, the Jaguar XF made its public debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September.

All XF's feature a sophisticated six-speed automatic transmission that includes a unique, all-new JaguarDrive Selector – an industry first rotary shift interface – and the Jaguar Sequential Shift System with steering-wheel mounted paddles for one-touch manual control.

Other notable awards for the XF include 'Most exciting car to be launched in 2007' voted for by readers of What Car? magazine and 'Interior of the Year Award 2007' from CAR magazine.