The Jaguar XF (From Crewe Guardian)

The Jaguar XF

11:13am Tuesday 17th January 2012 in Motors By Catherine Lawler

Step inside the face-lifted Jaguar XF and it feels like boarding a plane and turning left into business class.

There’s a superior edge to Jaguars that doesn’t seem to exist with rivals BMW and Audi, and with a curvier new bonnet, lower grilles and new headlamps with LEDs it’s as stylish and striking on the outside as it is inside.

The XF’s new 2.2-litre diesel engine produces 190bhp and 332lb-ft of torque and is likely to be a popular company car choice (those of the 40 per cent tax variety) due to its smaller capacity diesel and frugal fuel consumption – the only Jag that easily achieves more than 50mpg.

Prices also start at only £30,950, making it more affordable for more people.

It is rear-drive, with the two back wheels driven by a ZF-sourced eight-speed automatic. The engine features the new intelligent Stop-Start system – best demonstrated when approaching busy roundabouts, when you’re briefly stopping the car only to move off again quickly.

In ‘conventional’ systems, the engine needs to shut down completely before restarting again, leading to frustrating delays. But the Jaguar restarts the engine while shifting down from as little as 400rpm, meaning that it does not need to come to a stop and drive is restored more efficiently.

There are four trim levels – SE, Luxury, Premium Luxury and Portfolio. I drove the Premium Luxury model, which had everything, from sat-nav and leather seats to Bluetooth connectivity and heated front seats as standard.

Accessing some of the features via the slightly cluttered touchscreen was sometimes a bit over complicated, and you need to press quite hard on the screen to get things moving, although I suppose it’s rather trivial to complain that it takes a few extra seconds to turn the heated seats on.

Steering was light and responsive, and weight can be increased further by pushing the Sport button.

There were good levels of grip, and the drive itself was extremely comfortable and agile, as you would expect for a car of this calibre, although I missed some of the XJ luxuries, especially the massaging seats!

Jaguar has worked hard with a host of clever technologies to reduce cabin noise, and once at cruising speed it’s beautifully quiet and refined, allowing you to simply sit back, turn on the 600W Bowers and Wilkins stereo and enjoy the ride.

FACTFILE

Car: Jaguar XF 2.2

On the road: £37,950

0-60mph: Eight seconds

Top speed: 140 (limited)

Fuel: 52.3mpg (combined)

CO2 emissions: 149g/km