Jaguar XF 2.0 Petrol

Irrespective of being a car guy or not, we all tend to love big fat German sedans. Perhaps it is because they can theoretically do it all. Quick on their feet, tractable and put together like bank vaults, it’s the kind of cars that can turn your mundane commute into an occasion, be it sunshine or shady. The kind that cocoons you in sumptuous leather and engages you with the latest in gadgets. The kind that makes you feel good about yourself.

It is hardly a surprise, then, that while the Japanese continue to excel at making clever small cars and the Americans resort to larger-than-life pickups and off roaders, it’s the German trio – BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi that are just about helming the luxury sedan market, anywhere you go. And it’s in this regard where you will also find Jaguar – not an unknown contender, but a brand that hasn’t quite caught the fancy of businessmen or the youth in a way the other three brands have.

Don’t let the relatively low sales figures fool you, but I like to think that all Jaguars have that certain bit of charm that the German trio simply cannot seem to muster. Be it the gracefully detailed XJ L that our man Venkat drove last year or its smaller but equally charming sibling, the XF.

We recently had a go in the smaller ‘Jaaaaaag’ as Jeremy Clarkson would put it, and needless to say, came away with a lot of grins.

Remember the horrid-looking S-Type or the X-Type Jaguar made in the past decade? Who would have thought that the brand would now have a sedan that looks properly cool, even after 6 years of existence?

The XF you see here is the facelifted model that Jaguar unleashed back in 2011. Four years on, the car has aged really well and the already curvaceous lines seem to be even more striking next to the angular design treatment given to some of its rivals. The facelifted XF mimics the bigger XJ when it comes to the front-end and it successfully pulls off the look, partly thanks to the remodelled grille, front bumper and the streamlined hood. Also helping here are the slimmer HID xenon headlamps with LED daytime running lights arranged in the traditional Jaguar 'J-Blade' signature pattern.

If you ask me, the XF perfectly fits the bill for its segment. The XJ-like fascia blends in with the car’s silhouette and there are just enough nicely styled elements to give this maturely designed sedan some personality. The thick splashes of chrome around the lower half of the front bumper, window lines and the boot-lid make the XF a premium model in a way that’s elegant, but not ostentatious at all.

Having spent a considerable time behind the wheel under all imaginable scenarios, I was pleasantly surprised at how much attention the XF received. Part of this has got to do with the exclusivity this car enjoys compared to say, a 5 Series or an E-Class – both these cars are a fairly common sight in big cities. Nevertheless, most onlookers knew exactly what it was and I even managed to clear doubts of a fellow 5 Series owner who inevitably took a lot of interest in the way the XF looked – I’d say that’s job done on Jaguar’s part!

I wish I could say the same for the interior. While there’s nothing wrong with the cabin, it just seems to be a notch below the neatly executed exterior. I’m not, for a moment, saying that the XF’s cabin is bit of a let-down because it’s not. It is undoubtedly the coolest cabin you will find in a car of this size (reasons for which I’ll come to shortly) but it’s also the one that lacks a dose of practicality.

If there are a couple of areas where the XF feels its age, it’s the design and layout of the dashboard and the infotainment system. While the dual-tone dash housing a giant slab of knurled aluminium trim looks quite distinctive, it doesn’t hold much in terms of knick-knacks due to the lack of cubby holes. As for in-car entertainment, the 7-inch touch screen infotainment system is a bag full of mixed beans – as impressive as the 250W audio system is in delivering good quality sound; the display quality and the slow response from the touch panel clearly aren’t cut out for this day and age. In comparison, BMW’s iDrive and Audi’s MMI interface look and feel a generation ahead.

That being said, it’s the overall feel-good factor wherein this Jaguar absolutely trounces the competition. The XF, in fact, packs in quite a few neat tricks up its sleeve.

Settle in to the XF and the pulsing ‘start’ button on the centre console greets you. Push it once and the car turns into a Star Trek enterprise with the aluminium gear selector rising snuggly into the palm of your hand. The engine, then, gently throbs as the air vents, shut until this moment, roll open in harmony. Alright, I’ll admit some might see this start-up procedure as more of a gimmick, but to the rest (including me) it remains the ultimate party-piece in any luxury car.

The 2-litre petrol XF is limited to the Luxury trim only, which means you do miss out on some of the creature comforts found in the Premium Luxury trim. Nonetheless, it isn’t like the cabin is spartan. For your money’s worth you get standard features such as electric sunroof, a full-size spare wheel, interior mood lighting, electric rear window sunblind, infotainment system with rear-view camera and navigation facility and a TV tuner although the latter only broadcasted a couple of news channels at best during our stint with the car.

Keeping all the cool stuff aside, the XF works decently as a family car as well. While the front seat is sufficiently accommodating with it supporting at all the right places, especially the squab and the backrest, you have got to try the rear seat before writing that cheque. I’ve this suspicion that the Jag is squarely aimed at folks who like to take the wheel, instead of revelling in the comfort of the rear seat – not that the comfort levels one would expect from a half-a-crore rupee car aren’t there. They are, but there is no denying the fact that the Germans just do it better. Speaking of which, the owner of the 5 Series was particularly interested in the rear seat comfort, which makes sense since both these cars are big, fat luxury sedans. Not to my surprise, the guy liked the cabin and all its cool tricks and also agreed that the XF could do with a newer design for the dashboard and a little more comfort.

Buyers of the XF have a heap of engine options to choose from. Starting with the 2-litre, four cylinder petrol to 3-litre V6 diesel as well as the monstrous 5-litre supercharged V8 for the XFR. While the latter dishes out enough power and torque to lug a multi-storey house, our test car makes a more manageable 236bhp of power and 350Nm of torque from its 2-litre, turbocharged petrol engine.

If you peel off the Jaguar-branded plastic cover, this is basically a Ford EcoBoost engine that powers a range of cars globally. While it may share its basic DNA with the Blue Oval, it feels at home in this Jaguar, thanks to the incredibly refined nature and the way it hauls the car.

At idle, the XF is as quiet as any well-built alternative from Munich, Stuttgart or Ingolstadt, but thanks to its class-leading power figures, when you stomp on the throttle it really wakes up. While it never feels overwhelming, it is more than sufficient for getting past slow moving traffic – be it in the confines of the city or out on the highway. The 236 horsepower and 350Nm of torque is more than what you can get in a similarly-specced Mercedes E200 or the Audi A6 2.0 (BMW doesn’t offer the 5 Series in petrol guise anymore) and the extra grunt is evident in the way the XF goes in a straight line. Zero to 100kmph comes up in less than 9 seconds and given a long enough straight, the XF will comfortably cruise at well over 200kmph. And while we are it, it makes sense to talk about the impressive high speed cruising ability, all thanks to the 8-speed ZF gearbox.

Introduced in the entire XF range back in 2013, this 8-speed automatic really allows the XF to stretch its legs out on the highway. With no less than 8 ratios to play with, the XF makes for an ideal long-distance weapon, cruising at a fast pace with ridiculously low engine speeds, for a petrol unit that is. Meanwhile, in town the gearbox does a pretty convincing job of finding the right gear when you need one although it will seem a little slow to respond in case you are in a hurry. The ideal thing to do then is to flick the paddles behind the steering wheel for manually changing the gears.

More than just straight-line performance, the XF puts up a strong case for itself also when it comes to the ride and handling. Despite its driver-oriented nature, the XF rides better than you might expect. It will take pretty big jolts without letting out any form of unnerving clunks and keep the occupants at the back in comfort. As for the handling, the XF strikes a good balance by being a decent handling machine, although not to the point where it can beat its rivals. The biggest let-down here is the steering which doesn’t seem to have as much feedback as I would like when throwing the car around long corners. And while doing so, there is also a fair bit of body roll that hampers the cornering speeds.

The XF comes with what Jaguar calls Dynamic Stability Control (DSC) which has two settings. The default setting comes into play as soon as it detects even the slightest of wheel-spin. The Trac DSC setting, on the other hand, allows the XF to hang its tail out a bit before it intervenes. With the latter setting in place, I was left grinning like an idiot after flinging it through a few hairpins, despite the less-then-ideal steering feel and the body roll – yes, sometimes it doesn’t take much to turn us car guys into a child!

With the XJ already turning heads, we may have been led to believe that Jaguar has upped their game with the smaller XF. Truth be told, they haven’t. As graceful and timelessly appealing it is, the XF isn’t the most comfortable mid-size luxury sedan and nor is it the sportiest.

What it can be really called is a dignified version of a typical German luxury sedan, one that manages to be imposing by virtue of its hulking yet graceful design and all that jazz inside the cabin. Indeed, Jaguar is selling an unusual car to a set of audience who is used to the stately nature of the Germans.

The XF then is far from a no-brainer decision, but in this case, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing at all.