Nobody who's seen the all-new 2007 Jaguar XK Coupe and Convertible should be surprised that the theme for the company's advertising campaign of late is the word "gorgeous."

There's no better description for the Jaguar model that through the years always has been the "looker" in the family. Jaguar is billing the two cars as the "first of a new generation of beautiful, fast Jaguars" and "the most technologically advanced Jaguar ever."

The new Jaguar has all-aluminum construction, which provides a 50 percent improvement in stiffness over the previous convertible. The new XK also is lighter than the previous model. In fact, according to Jaguar, there's only one welded joint in the entire body of the XK coupe -- a cosmetic joint in the roof. Instead, the car uses more than 2,760 self-piercing rivets and more than 230 feet of epoxy adhesives.

Interestingly, Jaguar, while moving ahead on technological fronts, has demurred from following other trends. Chief among those, at least as far as the convertible goes, is continuing to use a soft top instead of going with a hardtop convertible as so many other companies are doing.

Design director Ian Callum said the rear end body styling would have been compromised, too much trunk space could be lost, and the mechanism would have added too much weight to the car. It also would have jeopardized the car's two-plus-two seating arrangement, which is a big selling point.

Power for the XK comes from a 4.2 litre, 300 horsepower V-8 (fuel economy averages 26 miles per gallon) that can speed the coupe to 60 in 5.9 seconds and 6.0 seconds for the convertible.

Another trend that Jaguar is resolutely ignoring is the march toward more and more complex technology, especially in terms of complicated controls.

"We prefer the kind of technology that empowers the driver, rather than overpowers," said Russ Varney, XK program engineer. Standard features include full power accessories and sequential shift six-speed ZF automatic transmission with steering wheel-mounted paddles.

Base prices are $75,500 for the coupe and $85,500 for the convertible.