Road Test: Jaguar XF Sportbrake 2.2d SE

Price as tested: €47,000 (approx)

+ Utterly gorgeous, terrific handling and ride, spacious, practical, agile
– 2.2 needs to be revved hard to work best, brakes could do with more bite
= Easily the equal of 520d or A6, and more characterful than either


Jaguar, it may surprise you to learn, is no stranger to the big-booted format. It has dabbled in estates before.

There was the late, unlamented X-Type estate, which was the designer Ian Callum’s first work for Jaguar. Since then Callum’s Jag portfolio has expanded prodigiously, taking Jaguar out of its 1960s-style design straitjacket and into the realm of the modern, clean cut and ruthlessly contemporary.

It was the 2008 XF that broke the Jag mould and its updated 2011 version that returned Jaguar to the design winners’ circle. So grafting an estate body on to the XF had to be done with the utmost care, preserving the beauty of line while still creating a practical, usable loadspace beneath.

Job done. The XF Sportbrake is possibly even better looking than the standard four-door, and it is certainly less boxy-looking than the rival BMW 5 Series Touring or Audi A6 Avant. In fact the Jag’s only real rival in the handsome- estate department is the new Mercedes-Benz CLS Shooting Brake, a car that will cost the better part of €30,000 more.

Underneath the swoopy rear tailgate (which raises and lowers electrically on all but the base model) is a square-sided, flat-floored 550-litre boot that matches its German rivals (except for the gargantuan Mercedes E-Class estate’s) for space and is trimmed with sumptuous carpet and shiny aluminium load rails. The entire structure aft of the front doors is all new, with more headroom for rear-seat passengers (alas, not with a commensurate increase in legroom) and darkened privacy glass if you fancy it.

Up front little appears to have changed, but Jaguar has been carefully tweaking the XF’s cabin to keep it ahead of the game. Revised dials, comfier seats and some switchgear updates keep the XF’s cabin feeling fresh. Plump for swanky Portfolio trim and the suede headlining feels so good it’s almost naughty.

So far the Sportbrake is available in Europe only with diesel engines; the updated 2.2-litre four-cylinder engine is the key one for the Irish market. Crucially, its emissions have dropped from 149g/km to 135g/km, so the XF now drops a tax band, to band B2.

We tested the 197bhp version (a 162bhp version, with the same emissions figure, is also available), and, although it occasionally struggles with the XF’s weight, it is mostly well suited to the car, revving smoothly and quietly. It’s not as economical as Jaguar claims, though, with low-40s mpg being more realistic than the claimed 55mpg. It could also do with sharper brakes; the bite point is just slightly too far down the pedal for comfort. Thankfully, that wasn’t an issue on the 3-litre V6 diesel S that we also sampled.

Comfort, in another sense, is very much a priority. The 2008 XF was often criticised for its too-firm ride. Jaguar has since honed it, and the Sportbrake’s standard-fit self-levelling rear air suspension makes it a paragon of bump-absorbing refinement.

The BMW, Mercedes and Audi rivals all beat the Jaguar for cabin space, but the Sportbrake is such a delight to drive, and so handsome with it, that we cannot see it as anything short of the best in the class.

Facts & Figures


Jaguar XF Sportbrake 2.2d SE

Price as tested: €47,000 (approx)

Range price: €TBA

Capacity: 2,279cc

Power: 197bhp

Torque: 400Nm

Top speed: 200kmh

0-100kmh: 10.9sec

Economy: 5.1l-100km (55mpg)

CO2 emissions: 135g/km

VRT Band: B2. €280 road tax

Euro NCAP rating: Not yet tested

News: Jaguar Land-Rover expands its network in Ireland

Jaguar Land Rover Ireland has announced the expansion of its retail networks with the appointment of three new Land Rover dealers and an additional new Jaguar dealer.
 

In Dublin, HB Dennis has been appointed as a Land Rover Authorised Dealer for Sales and Aftersales.  Based in Airside Motor Park, Swords, Co. Dublin, HB Dennis is owned and operated by the Joe Duffy Motor Group.  A well-established car retail business in Dublin, the Joe Duffy Motor Group prides itself on delivering complete customer satisfaction.  Commenting on the recent appointment, Gavin Hydes, Managing Director of the Joe Duffy Motor Group said: “We are delighted to have acquired the Land Rover business in North Dublin and look forward to welcoming Land Rover customers old and new to our showrooms in Airside”.

In Kildare, existing Land Rover Authorised Repairer, N. Conlan & Sons of Rathangan has extended its remit to Land Rover Authorised Sales Dealer.   Appointed as a Land Rover Authorised Repairer in 2010, N. Conlan & Sons will build on their experience and expertise with the Land Rover brand and will bring their excellent reputation for customer satisfaction to the growing number of Land Rover drivers in the Kildare area.    Established in 1965, N. Conlan & Sons is a family-run business.  Raymond Conlan, Managing Director commented, “This is a very positive move for us and we are very pleased to be developing our Land Rover business to meet the growing demands of our customers here in Kildare”.

The appointment of Lyons of Limerick as both Jaguar and Land Rover Authorised Dealer for Sales and Aftersales completes the current expansion of Jaguar Land Rover Ireland’s retail networks. Based on the Ballysimon Road, Lyons of Limerick will bring their many years of experience in customer service to Jaguar and Land Rover customers in the Limerick area.  Speaking at the announcement, Ken Lyons, Dealer Principal, said, “We are delighted to take on the Jaguar and Land Rover franchises at Lyons of Limerick.  Jaguar Land Rover, a company that is renowned for creating cars that are innovative, exciting and always original, is an excellent addition to our business.   We will offer our Jaguar and Land Rover customers an unrivalled experience in terms of quality product and quality service”.

Commenting on the new dealer appointments, Gerard O’Farrell, Managing Director, Jaguar Land Rover Ireland said, “We welcome HB Dennis, N.Conlan & Sons and Lyons of Limerick to our  dealer networks and are confident they will bring their expertise in customer service to all of our Jaguar and Land Rover customers in their respective regions.  Jaguar and Land Rover Ireland has achieved significant growth in 2012 with combined sales of 1,113 vehicles upto the end of October – an increase of 63.2% versus the same period last year.  The increased demand for both Jaguar and Land Rover demonstrates the unique desirability and strength of our products”.

Features: The man who puts the Jaaaaag in Jaguar

This is the man who finally got Jaguar design right, after it had languised for years, unable to break away from a slavish devotion to a classic sixties look that just didn’t work in a modern context. Ian Callum is an astonishingly talented man, with stints at Aston Martin and Ford behind him, he swept away the retro look at Jaguar and ushered in a clean, modern style, beginning with the XK and XF and onto the sometimes controversial XJ. But was that binning of retro the key to Jaguar’s recent renaissance?


“Well, it depends what you mean by retro. I think if it means deliberately copying the past in order to try and capture something from that past, it’s the wrong thing to do. I’m afraid Jaguar had fallen into that trap, a little bit. Not overtly, or even consciously, but just by not moving on quickly enough. From my point of view, it didn’t work very well."

The 2008 XF was the final nail in the coffin that Callum had prepared for Jaguar’s dark days of producing photocopies of the 1968 XJ. Out wen the sixties, in came the 21st century with a car of near perfect proportions and gorgeous detailing. Even without the retro style of the old XJ and S-Type, there was no mistaking the XF for anything other than a Jaguar. But now Callum has another tough assignment on his hands. Styling never stands still and Jaguar has to move on again. Where now?

“I’m going through that very issue at the moment, with the design team, how we go about moving on, having established the foundations. I think the key to this is not copying the past, but what we’ve tried to do with the current lineup of cars is understand the values of what Jaguar stood for in the fifties and sixties, and that’s certainly when I admired them the most, and pin down these values about modernity, about beauty of line, about purity of surface. We’ll continue with those same values; we haven’t changed those, but very much in a 21st century way. I think that this is where we wanted to get to with XF and XJ.

“Where we go to now is probably a continuation of that, we’ve made a big leap into the future, we’re now in the right place, and I think the challenge is now to move on from that in a very positive and hopefully very successful way. It’s very difficult to know how much further to take it. As a designer I perhaps always want to take it a little further than other people feel comfortable with. But we need to find that balance.”

A big move, recently, was the launch of the high performance XKR-S model, which delved into Porsche 911 GT3 territory, with an in-your-face bodykit and aerodynamic performance given preference over Jag’s traditonal GT comfort.

“I have to admit that that car is quite aggressive, although I like to use the word ‘assertive’ more. That car is overt, because it has been designed in the wind tunnel, all these appendages you see are there for a very good reason. It’s to keep the car on the road at 300kmh. Therefore they have a function and so I’m very comfortable with they way they’ve evolved. We wouldn’t do that on a less powerful car,  but you’ll certainly see our cars becoming more assertive, and the simple reason for that is that the visual geography out there in the car world is very aggressive. If you go to America, people out there drive around in great big pickups and you need your cars to have a presence on the road and I think the idea of the cars becoming more subdued and a little more gentle in their attitude and their presence are probably over.”

Certainly, Callum’s latest creation, the F-Type, as fully revealed this week at the Paris Motor Show, follows these cues. Classically Jaguar proportions (long bonnet, short rear) but with aggressive (sorry, assertive) details like the deep side vents and the gaping grille. It’s a looker, that’s for sure.

“Even if a car is fairly ordinary, they need to shout a bit louder these days, and Jaguars certainly will be shouting.”

Road Test: Jaguar XF 2.2D SE

Price as tested: €44,995

In brief: A decade ago, a diesel Jaguar would have been close to sacrilege. Now, the smallest, most affordable oil-burning Jag is one of the famous marque’s best.


It's no coincidence that Jaguar chose Munich as the location to launch its updated XF saloon to the world's press. Munich is home to BMW and BMW is most certainly Jaguar's target as it seeks to double sales of the already-popular XF.

That the XF has sold well since its 2008 launch is more than merely pleasant news to Jaguar; it has in the most literal way saved the company. When Indian manufacturing conglomerate Tata bought Jaguar (and sister firm Land Rover) from Ford that year, Jaguar had primarily been making headlines for losing money and trying to entice US buyers with ill-considered 'retro' models like the unlovely S-Type.

The XF put a stop to the rot in two ways. Its cutting edge styling signaled the end of Jaguar's tiresome raiding of its back catalogue, and its sales revenue allowed the company time to regroup, recover and reinvigorate. That Jaguar-Land Rover recently posted a STG£1-billion profit tells you all you need to know on that score.

And how refreshing it is to be driving a new Jaguar and not commenting on or worrying about the firm's future or financial stability. And doing so in Munich, just minutes from BMW's heartland? Brave, almost arrogant. Good to see it.

Good too to see that the XF's subtle rhinoplasty has finally given it the face its body always deserved. You'd never have called the 2008 model ugly, but it lacked the piercing looks of the C-XF concept car the preceded it. Now, with narrow, feline headlights (with LED daytime running lights in the shape of a stylised J), a bigger, bolder grille and detail changes to the bumpers, the XF looks a million dollars.

Yet it will cost a much more reasonable €44,995 for a basic SE model; about €10k cheaper than the previous basic XF. And that's because Jaguar has introduced a four-cylinder diesel engine to the XF. It may sound prosaic to discuss a four-banger fuel-saver when talking about a Jaguar, but the simple fact is that its rivals (the BMW 5 Series, Mercedes-Benz E-Class and Audi A6) all score their biggest sales with just such engines.

So, lifted from the Land Rover Freelander and forthcoming Range Rover Evoque, the XF's 2.2-litre turbocharged engine gets a new oil pan and new active engine mounts, as well as a dual-layer bulkhead to keep noise to a minimum. And it works. At all but a cold start up, the XF's new engine is pleasingly refined although you're never in doubt that it is a diesel.

It is very punchy though. With 188bhp and 450Nm of torque, shifting even the XF's 1,745kg bulk wasn't going to be hard. 450Nm is actually more torque than the old 2.7-litre V6 diesel and the XF wafts along just as a Jaguar should, with real thump when the slick-shifting 8-speed ZF automatic gearbox (the only transmission option) kicks down. It can be a touch hesitant pulling out of a tight junction though as the engine takes a second or two to start pulling properly.  It's frugal though, and comes with a standard stop-start system that is impressive for the speed with which it kicks the engine back into life. Jaguar claims 5.4-litres per 100km on the combined fuel consumption cycle and an early production car drove the 1,312km from the factory in England's midlands to Munich on one 64-litre tank of fuel.

Co2 emissions are a touch high though. BMW's 520d and Audi's A6 2.0 TDI both slot into Band B for emissions, with 129g/km figures with makes the Jag's 149g/km look pretty lofty. Adding automatic gearboxes to the BMW and Audi raises their figures to 139g/km but that still leaves the Jaguar driver paying an extra €150 a year in road tax. Hardly a deal breaker but a serious consideration (as will the BIK figure be) for the fleet managers that Jaguar will be courting with this model.

Perhaps it would be best to forget the figures for now and concentrate on the driving. We'll hold back on any definitive judgement until we get some Irish tarmac under the tyres, but the XF feels wonderfully lithe and fluid to drive, with exceptionally well balanced steering and a ride quality that's only upset at low speeds by short-wave urban lumps and ripples. If you want your executive saloon to deliver on true driver enjoyment, the XF stands head and shoulders above even the mighty 5 Series. Remarkable when you think that its chassis dates back to a late nineties Lincoln.

Its cabin can't compete though. We love the blue mood lighting, the avant-garde rotary gear selector and the touch sensitive lights, and there's little enough to quibble with when it comes to quality of assembly. But the main dials look cheap and uninteresting and the touch-screen infotainment system is fiddly. Space in the back is only fine if you're stepping out of a 5 Series; compared to an A6 or (especially) an E-Class, it's too tight, even if the boot is reasonably generous.

But you would have to be a spectacular curmudgeon not to be charmed by this car, just a little bit. The new 2.2 diesel is a welcome addition to the XF range, expanding its appeal and making it noticeably more affordable to run. That it falls short of the Germans in the efficiency stakes is a shame, but that detracts not a bit from how terrific this car is to drive.
Facts & Figures

Jaguar XF 2.2D SE
Price as tested: €44,995
Range price: €44,995 to €114,800
Capacity: 2,179cc
Power: 188bhp
Torque: 450Nm
Top speed: 240kmh
0-100kmh: 8.5sec
Economy: 5.4l-100km (52.3mpg)
CO2 emissions: 149g/km
VRT Band: C. €302 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: Not yet tested