Jaguar XF conquers all before it. Headlines from the weekend press

Jaguar XF can do no wrong and features heavily in the weekend press. Ken Gibson of The Sun is bowled over by the effortless ease with which it transported him to the Geneva Motor Show.

“Diesels have improved a lot but most still suffer from being too noisy, especially at low speeds, and no one ever mistakes a diesel for a petrol. Well, they will do with the new 3litre diesel engine which Jaguar have just fitted to the XF. It makes a very strong case for dropping the d-word and all the baggage that goes with it.

“Surely clever marketing people can come up with a sexy new name for diesel power. If they can’t, why not just drop the diesel tag and let the figures and silence do the talking? So here are the bare facts. The engine has a faint murmur at tickover that turns into a pleasant sound under hard acceleration, and then disappears into almost a whisper at high speed.

“It has performance figures to embarrass plenty of high-performance petrol engines – 0-60mph takes just 5.9 seconds, and if you can find a German autobahn it will take you to 155mph in near silence. Fuel economy is the only area where the Jaguar can’t hide the fact that it is a diesel. The official figures are an incredible 42mpg for a big executive car – I got an average of 37.2 mpg on my epic trip to Geneva.”

Nat Barnes in the Sunday Express says: “It seems a rather cruel twist of fate that Jaguar should introduce one of its most-talented and best-ever models at a time when belts are being tightened, budgets are being cut and premium cars are about as popular as a packet of pork scratchings at a vegetarian convention.

“A look at the sales figures so far in 2009 underlines the levels of pain felt particularly by those at the premium end of the market – sales of Audi, BMW and Mercedes are all down by more than 30 per cent in the UK. Thanks in very large part to the XF, however, Jaguar sales are actually up, both from 2007 to 2008 in total sales and for January and February in 2009.
Now comes the second wave.

“First the high-performance R models in the XF and also in the XK Coupe. But far more crucial are a pair of new turbo-diesel models that will eventually account for a staggering 94 per cent of all XF sales in the UK. With the popularity of diesels continuing even in the face of high pump prices, this a crucial addition to lift sales of the XF to another level.

“Jaguar has always prided itself on building some of the most plush cars on the road but matching those brand values to a car with a diesel engine under the bonnet, especially one that you also need to be quick, sporting and good-handling as well, is no easy task. Has Jaguar succeeded with the new 3.0TD?

“Certainly there’s a tell-tale diesel rattle from outside the car at standstill but inside is a different matter. The moment you shut the door, the amount of noise entering the cabin is minimal, whether you’re stationary or on the move. It’s at times like this that all the hard work Jaguar’s engineers put into retaining those high levels of luxury are obvious, even down to the smallest details, such as an acoustic laminate inside the windscreen to further prevent noise entering the cabin.

In The Guardian Martin Love has a fresh take on the XF, looking at it from the perspective of designer Ian Callum.

“Callum will be struggling to keep his modesty under wraps with his new XF. It’s the sort of car that makes an immediate impression. Big, bold and lavish, it’s a sports saloon that has the unmistakable aura of self-importance about it. Its hand-stitched leather seats expecting nothing more than the soft crush of cashmere from you. However it’s this or the XF’s award-winning diesel or sure-footed handling that’ll have you signing on the salesman’s dotted line, it’s the fact that it is crammed full of what the industry likes to call surprise and delight features.”

Andrew Frankel in the Sunday Times takes a look at the new Mercedes E-class and likes what he finds.
“Mercedes-Benz has spent the past quarter of a century trying to build an executive saloon to match the sportiness of rivals from BMW. Now, though, with its new E-class, it has given up the chase and returned to what it does best – building cars of unparalleled quality. And guess what? This new E-class is a winner.

“Although it’s a high-tech product, at its heart lie some traditional but seemingly lost Mercedes values of yore. There was a time when Mercedes cars earned the manufacturer a reputation for unrivalled mass-production quality, though this has become tainted of late with the pursuit of cost-cutting apparently taking priority over product quality, new cars seeming to favour style over substance.

“Ironically, though, it may yet be the case that the new E-class beats the BMW 5-series anyway, as for once it has caught its nemesis in the autumn of its life. Better still for Mercedes, the rival Audi A6 is a disappointing car, while the Lexus GS is an intriguing but flawed niche player. And as for the Jaguar XF, with its sloping roof and sleek proportions, that’s more akin to the Mercedes CLS Coupé than the upright E-class saloon. In short, Mercedes may well have ended up with the class-leading saloon it always craved.”

“There is, however, a minor hurdle to leap over, and that’s the car’s looks. While its overall proportions are classic Mercedes saloon, the detailing – particularly around the front lights – contrives to make the newcomer look as if it’s pulling a face.”
Staying with prestige, John Simister in The Independent drives the Audi A5 Cabriolet.

“This is so clever it’s almost surreal. The driver following us thinks so, anyway. The sun is hiding and we’re about to join an autoroute, so the hood of our Audi S5 Cabriolet needs to be closed. The busy traffic out of Monaco is moving happily at the 50km/h urban limit – 31mph – but, even so, I press the “close” button.

“Gentle whirrs and clicks emanate aft, the hood emerges from behind the back seats and in a motion reminiscent of a swordsman’s thrust, it slices forward as it unfolds. That’s why you can do this while driving at normal traffic speeds; the hood contrives not to act as a vertical sail at any point in its contortionist routine.”

Source: Headline Auto