Jaguar XF review

“I’m pumped up about this car,” enthuses Jaguar UK’s managing director Geoff Cousins, “but it’s our dealer salesmen that have to really feel confident.”

The XF certainly has some genuine USPs.

It has been quick to join the conventionally good-looking four-door coupe fashion trail blazed by the Mercedes CLS – many more will follow from VW’s Passat CC to Vauxhall’s Insignia – but it offers much more than those inside with five proper seats, decent rear room, a bigger boot than the S-type it replaces and best of all a stunning and more premium modern interior.

The magic starts when you shut the door and the starter button pulses red. Press it and the automatic gear knob rises out of the centre console to meet the driver’s palm while the air vents rotate open from flush with the dash.

Real Wood

All wood is real wood, including a great modern straight-grained oak, and upmarket aluminium flourishes abound.

Blue-lit dials and ambient lighting in the doors look great for night driving and clever proximity sensors allow the sweep of a hand to activate the overhead console lights and glovebox release – a useful touch removing the need to find small switches in the dark.

The central touchscreen also claims a global first by being able to display and manage iPod track information within the top spec 440-watt 14-speaker system by English speaker specialists Bowers & Wilkins (better known as B&W). The whole system works pretty well but is optional, costing between £1,140-1,790 extra depending on which trim and stereo you choose to upgrade from.

Despite this caveat, the XF’s standard spec is strong compared to its main German rivals. Even the entry-level Luxury trim at £33,900 offers 17-inch alloy wheels, an automatic gearbox with paddle shift, satnav, cruise control, a basic auxiliary iPod jack, plus Jaguar Sense – the official name for the aforementioned cool proximity sensor kit for glovebox and overhead lights.

The diesel engine is crucial to Jaguar’s plans. The XF will account for 45 per cent of Jaguar’s UK sales from the model’s 1 March on-sale date and at least 70 per cent of those sales will come from the 204bhp diesel unit. The remaining sales will come from three petrols – a 235bhp 3.0 V6, 300bhp naturally aspirated 4.2 V8 and a 420bhp supercharged version of the same engine called ‘SV8′ topping the range at £54,900.

S-type and XJ engine

The smooth 2.7 diesel carried over from the S-type and XJ works really well with the auto-only box and is quiet and refined, with firm and responsive steering and offers best-in-class ride quality. The 2.7 diesel also offers a reasonable 37.6mpg plus a decent-for-its-class 199g/km CO2 rating (and band F road tax) but it’s the only oil burner in the range for now. Rivals like the Audi A6 and BMW 5-series already have multiple offerings.

Cousins says Jaguar spent 18 months getting the residual value experts to understand the XF’s new product positioning compared to the old S-type. Dealer stocks were reduced by 35 per cent and the firm adopted what Cousins describes as a stingy discount strategy. “It was very painful but very necessary,” he says.

The result for Jaguar has been excellent. CAP and Glass’s say the XF 2.7 Luxury will command best-in-class residuals after three years beating the current favourite Audi A6 with an RV above 50 per cent. Cousins also hopes the long-term strategy will make this more than a honeymoon vote of confidence too, noting the experience of the XK8 which he claims still has best-in-class RVs after two years.

The current 95-strong dealer network will not need to be expanded to cope with the new XF though, as X-type and overall sales have fallen in 2007. Indeed Cousins reckons one or two dealers may be dropped.

But with 3,000 UK pre-orders for XF and a largely positive press so far, last year’s 18,700 total sales tally (down 20 per cent) should rise again. Longer term, a new XJ and a possible spiritual heir to the two-door E-type could also feature in product plans – as Cousins puts it coyly, “such a car is a great wish and desire of Jaguar management”.