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Jaguar XF 2.7 D long-term test review

By the CAR road test team

29 December 2008 13:30

Long-term test update – 29 December 2008

If you’ve seen the new January 2009 issue of CAR Magazine, you’ll see that we’ve shot our XF side-by-side with an original 1966 S-type. It reminded me how far Jaguars have come in the intervening 42 years: the XF is as modern as the S-type is period, but very much the right design direction for Jaguar v2.0. 

But we’re not talking chalk and cheese here – there are some genetic links between the different generations. Just look at the horizontal brightwork built into the XF’s spoiler, echoing the S-type’s chromed bumpers. And the more I see those headlamps, the more they look redolent of the twin roundels of yore. 

The S-type is for sale – contact owner Charles Atkinson on +44 7971 883083 if you’re interested in buying his tidy example.    

By Tim Pollard 

Jaguar XF long-term test hello - 3 December 2008

The XF arrived at CAR Towers a few weeks ago now but – magazine print schedules being what they are – we’re only starting to report on Jag’s new exec challenger in print and online. Is our year with the XF 2.7 diesel Premium Luxury going to be a long love affair or a slow slide towards ambivalence/mutual hatred/wished we had a 5-series? We’re about to find out...

Our Midnight metallic black test car arrived with just a few hundred miles on the clock and confirmed everything I thought about the XF’s design: it’s a colossal break with tradition for Jaguar, that most conservative of car makers. Where the backwards S-type traded on its predecessors’ values ad nauseam, the XF turns 180 degrees and talks a whole new design language. This is the culmination of several years of work by styling chief Ian Callum; he has only been able to work on the XK sports cars and small fry such as the X-type Estate until now. The XF embodies everything that’s new about the freshly confident Jaguar.

Do I like the look? Yes I do. Our XF looks epic in its black paintwork, the strong chromed DLO (that’s side window line to you and me) contrasting with the oceanic deep of the bodywork. I admit I rue the dilution of the C-XF’s bolder front end – those lights! – but the XF 90% gels in my eyes. I’m glad we picked the 19in alloys though, as the XF needs big rims to work. I’ve seen some on standard 17s and they look pathetic.

Step inside an XF and the transformation is even more pronounced. This is one very different ambience. Your senses are overloaded by information alien to any previous Jag owner: it’s a clean, modern design, the centre console mercifully uncluttered (XK owners will recognise the touch-screen), and the JaguarDrive gear selector nestles intriguingly hidden flush in the console. Thanks to keyless entry, you merely slide in and the starter button glows red like a beating heart. Sounds naff, but Jag just about pulls it off. At least they didn’t start banging on about ‘Power Beauty Soul’ like Aston Martins.

So you thumb the button and the 2.7-litre V6 twin-turbo diesel whirrs into life with a distant hum. Four dashboard air vents revolve up, like peeling eyelids and the rotary gearlever rises from its hiding cubby. It’s anthropomorphic this XF, I can tell you. Jaguar has walked a tightrope between gimmickry and 21st century cool, but I love the start-up routine. Will I still be so impressed after a year? We’ll soon find out.

But it’s not just fresh design motifs that impress. The sheer quality of the XF has been commented on by several CAR writers. Yes, we expect a car that costs thirty-something grand to have lustrous paint and a solid cabin, but we couldn’t always say that of past Jaguars. Our XF feels utterly hewn from solid. I’ll be surprised if this saloon feels tired after a year’s hard use.

So has our honeymoon all been wonderful? Not quite. Cosmetically, I’m getting used to the new front end design and a delivery driver or colleague managed to kerb the nearside rear alloy before I even drove it. Grrr. Will that black paintwork be a pain to clean? Probably, but I hope a weekly dust is worth it for the way it shows off the XF’s lines. And one other thing: before I even set off, I notice the plastic gear selector paddles on the wheel feel cheap by comparison with the solid metal flaps on the Lexus IS-F. Small details count in this arena.

And then you swivel the JaguarDrive dial to Drive and pull away. But how the XF performs on the road is a story for another day.

By Tim Pollard

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I could have done with a personal shopper when I specced up our long-term test Jaguar XF – to fetch me the endless combinations of colours, toys and sizes from the rail and hold it up by the mirror. As it was, I used Jag’s marvellously simple online configurator. Unlike Mini’s website, this one actually worked well on our Apple Mac computers.

Here’s our train of thought, to give you an insight into how CAR chooses our long-term test cars.

1) Would we like to run a Jaguar XF long-termer?

Hell yes! This is one of the most intriguing Jags since the Mondeo alike X-type, a real departure that’s laden with significance as Jaguar fights the sales slump and tries to reinvent itself as a purveyor of cutting-edge modern luxury cars.

2) Which XF would we like to test?

Four engines are available on the XF at launch (2.7 D, 3.0 V6, 4.2 V8 in naturally aspirated and supercharged form) and this left us with a simple dilemma. Jaguar admits 80 percent of its sales are diesels. In these credit-straitened times, we had to test the derv for this to be a test with any real-world relevance. It helps that the 2.7 D carries exactly the same price tag – £33,900 – as the entry-level petrol 3.0 V6.

3) Trim level?

The XF has a blissfully simple range structure. The two entry-level V6 cars have a choice of Luxury or Premium Luxury trim (the V8s all come in a single, bells-and-whistle spec). We upgraded to the £37,500 Premium Luxury trim. The modest premium brings – take a deep breath – heated, power folding door mirrors, heated windscreen and seats, bigger alloy wheels (including a proper spare instead of a space saver), softer leather, 10-way adjustable electric seats with memory, leather dashtop, burr walnut veneer, keyless entry, auto dimming rear-view mirror and a carpet set. Choosing Premium Luxury turns the XF from well equipped to pretty-much-loaded – and we reckon the extra pampering is worth the £3600 premium.

4) Which options did you add to your XF?

Thus equipped, there’s hardly anything missing from the XF, so we were restrained with the extras. I popped in the digital DAB radio (£250) to save me from the horrors of Peterborough FM, bi-xenon headlamps (£450) to enlighten my rural driving habitat and the upgraded 19in Carelia alloy wheels (£750). I umm’ed and ahh’ed about the latter for some time and sought the advice of our road testers. This is another Jaguar that looks best on big wheels – I remembered design chief Ian Callum telling me a year ago that this car worked best with the 20in rims (unavailable with the diesel, so the 19s were the next best thing). A drive of a diesel with the Carelias at the Millbrook test track confirmed a well judged ride/handling balance – and Jaguar offered to swap the wheels halfway through the year if we desired, as part of our story. We’ll see if we’re dropping fillings left, right and centre later in our year with the car and may downgrade the rims accordingly.

5) And the technicolour dreamcoat bit?

It’s quite colour sensitive, the XF. As you’d expect on an exec, the palette is largely restricted to grown-up silvers, blacks and chromic shades – but some of the hues fail to show off the XF’s edgy lines to maximum effect. Although I’ve experienced the nightmare of keeping black cars clean before, I couldn’t resist the elegant simplicity of the Jaguar in black. We chose the flecked Midnight black metallic, which adds a bit of lift to the sombre Ebony black. I’m no fan of easily stained, pale leather interiors so it was charcoal – more black – inside. It’s thrown into relief by the aluminium trim (there’s plenty of it in the XF’s cabin) and it should suit my conservative tastes down to the ground.

That’s the spec sorted – one of the huge perks of this job. Now we’re just playing the waiting game. I’m counting down the days like an impatient child with an Advent calendar…

Agree with our choice of spec? How would you order your dream XF? Click ‘Add your comment’ and let us know

By Tim Pollard

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