In the 2014 XJL Portfolio, is the interior wood trim really made of wood? I have had a hard time trying to confirm.

 

I've been around the Jaguar world since the late 70s and as far as I am aware, Jaguar has never used plastic "wood" in their cars. However, once the technique for bonding wood veneer to metal was developed in (I think) the mid-80s, there has no longer been wood or plywood behind the veneer. In contrast, the 2001 Rover 75 I owned from 2007-2010 (never exported to the US), a really lovely car BTW, had a real walnut veneer dash, but the rest of the "wood" was plastic. This was done superbly so it was difficult to tell. Later on, the wood veneer dash went over to plastic.
I would have no worries on this aspect on your Jaguar.

 

 

Thanks for this information. My XJL Portfolio standard does indeed show the Figured Ebony veneer as depicted there in the chart.

There is still some question in my mind whether these veneers are actually wood. The problem is that there is no regulation of the term "veneer" to mean wood, so almost any material can be used as a veneer.

 

It’s a very thin layer of real wood, of the specified variety, glued on a substrate. Like plated gold if you want…
Not only because it’s cheaper, easier to industrialize and ages without splitting or warping but also for safety reasons: in case of a crash most full wood would break into sharp lethal bits.
The only car manufacturers which still offer full wood trim in some cases are the very high end like RR or Bentley, and they use very specific woods that can successfully go through crash tests.

 

Thank you for this additional information about the veneer. That makes sense. I think the veneer/wood in my 2005 Quattroporte is considerably thicker somehow or perhaps it is full wood trim, I'm not very sure. It somehow seems more like "real wood" in the Maserati than in the Jaguar. Also the lack of any wood on the dashboard or console in the new XJ is a bit disappointing, that was always a classic Jaguar appointment in previous generations.