NO NEED to feel inadequate if you don’t have a chauffeur. Just buy a stretch Jaguar XJ8 Sovereign and go one better: this is the car that all but drives itself. It is very long, very expensive and lends itself to stretching out in the yards of rear-seat leg-room watching TV or a DVD on the dual mini-screens, while James wafts the car home or to the casino.

But give your chauffeur the day off and slip behind the wheel yourself and what is odd is how removed you will still feel from the driving experience. The XJ8 cabin is a glorious place to be. The carpet is deeper than in my front room and there’s more of it. The chrome glistens, the polished wood veneers shine and shimmer, the leather breathes breeding and quality. And yet . . .

And yet for a driver, the steering is so powered, the engine so quiet, the cabin so hushed, it is hard to know what is going on. More than once a clumsy prod of the right foot and the fully automatic transmission had me travelling far in excess of the motorway speed limit. No excuse — I should have been watching the speedo, but because the XJ8 driver is so well insulated from the real world outside, it is easy to find yourself taking unwitting liberties.

The Jaguar Sovereign is a car that does the full wafto-matic limousine glide perfectly. The V8 engine is housed in a new aluminium monocoque shell that weighs 400lb less than the old XJ saloon. The long wheelbase model is only 53lb heavier than the standard wheelbase model, in spite of the fact that the LWB Sovereign is five inches longer and the roof taller. The extra length is to be found just behind the B Pillars, which also allows wider rear doors.

Of course, what really makes a car like this are the “toys”. The Sovereign is not cheap to start with: £60,000. The car I drove was loaded with £7,000 worth of extras, including four-zone air conditioning (£1,050 extra), lambswool rugs (£300), rear television screens (£1,890), DVD player (£660) and rear multi-media controls (£350).

So, driver’s car or chauffeur’s car? Mick Mohan, XJ chief programme engineer, said: “The New XJ Long Wheelbase isn’t a stretched version of the standard car — it’s a fully integrated model in its own right. That’s one of the main reasons the driving experience is so close to the other models in the XJ range and why owners will enjoy being at the wheel as much as sitting in the rear seat.”

The truth is that most LWB Sovereign owners will enjoy it while luxuriating in the capacious rear seats, phoning their brokers or arranging another lunch. Chauffeurs may love it; rear seat passengers will love it even more.

IN DETAIL

Car: Jaguar 4.2 Sovereign LWB
Price: £60,370 (£67,000 as tested)
Power: 4.2-litre V8 producing 300 brake horse power through six-speed automatic gearbox
Performance: Top speed: 155mph. 0-62mph in 6.3sec
Economy: 26 miles to the gallon average