There is clear substance to Jaguar’s claim to have brought the XF right onto the pace for performance, fuel economy and all-important CO2 emissions. Our first opportunity to do that has come in the contrasting shapes of the Jaguar in headline diesel 3.0d S form and the BMW 530d, the long-time preferred choice of the upwardly mobile business set willing to pay for extra performance and prestige. That impression becomes unmistakable when you line up the new XF against one of its key competitors and, bit by bit, weigh up what it does well against the not so well.
To say: “We like the niche we’ve carved out for ourselves here, and we hope you do, too. Jaguar has had the confidence to use transformative technology in a discreet and non-transformative way with this car. Significantly lighter, more aerodynamically efficient and more economical, it has the makings of a much-altered car.Īnd yet it isn’t: not to drive, and not in so many other ways, either, all of which we’ll come to. Inheriting the aluminium-rich modular platform, Integral Link rear suspension, Ingenium four-cylinder diesel engines and electromechanical power steering of the smaller XE, the car is longer of wheelbase and cabin but shorter overall than its mostly steel predecessor. The reason is because the XF represents Jaguar doing something it has hardly needed to do at all over the past decade: consolidate. It’s a measure of the historic significance of 2015 for Jaguar that it can roll out a replacement for the car that effectively turned around its fortunes eight years ago and almost no one seems to notice. Now to this week’s good news: evidence that Jaguar understands all of the above, coming in the shape of the new XF. It does not, and need not, serve those looking first and foremost for engineering monoliths, 150mph office cubicles, car park status symbols, lifestyle machines or any other concept currently used to part global middle classes from their hard-earned.
It serves the interests of keen drivers looking for handsome, desirable, real-world driver’s cars tuned a bit differently from the Bavarian bunch. In my book, it’s something of a minority-interest car maker – and long may it continue to be. The key thing is that Jaguar isn’t a typical premium automotive brand. I’d say a lot more than it does now but significantly fewer than any of the German manufacturers with which it’s routinely compared. God knows how many cars the firm needs to shift annually to reach that point.
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