RSS
Home
Road Test: 2009 Jaguar XF Premium Luxury car review, the feline X Factor
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Sometimes the details of a car tell you more about the car than the so-called big picture. Take the Jaguar XF for example. It has a heartbeat. Really. When you enter the car with keyless-start fob in hand—or in pocket or purse or wherever,--a red button, labeled “Start”, on the center console begins to pulse, a double glow about sixty times per second. It’s alive.
Or it will be when you push the start button. Do so and the V-8 under the hood spins to life, a couple of times around before it catches with a classic and unmistakable V-8 throb. Blip the throttle. Yep, it’s an eight. And an active one, a double overhead cam all-aluminum engine rated at 300 horsepower and 310 lb ft of torque. It’s good enough to move the Jaguar XF from zero-to-sixty in 6.2 seconds, over the standing-start quarter mile in 14.9 and to a top speed electronically limited to 155 mph.
Those are the raw numbers and they’re important, but they really don’t tell you more about the Jaguar XF than knowing the square-footage, number of bathrooms and bedrooms of a house. Those important, too, but those numbers alone can describe a luxury villa or a dump with a lot of room.
The Jaguar XF is the villa.
A villa, of course, if a villa only had wheels.
And four doors, plus cushy seating for five adults. Supple leather is standard, of course, and carefully stitched. And a choice real wood trim. Really nice wood trim.
But as much as these traditional luxury features are part of Jaguar’s heritage and part of the Jaguar XF, it’s those details that draw one back in again. When that V-8 whoops to life, a cylinder several inches in diameter lifts from the console. It’s the shifter. With “shift-by-wire”—no direct mechanical link between hand and the transmission—Jaguar designers and engineers were free to rethink the shift controller. And they did. The cylinder is twisted clockwise to move from park through reverse and neutral and into drive, and back again by twisting it counterclockwise.
The automatic transmission has six forward gears and the Jaguar moves through them as easily as, well, a jaguar—the four legged kind—moves through the jungle, padding softly and almost undetected. The transmission does adapt to a driver’s style, however. Drive gently and the Jaguar responds in kind. Drive with more vigor and shifts become quicker and firmer, the transmission “learning” your driving style, or at least how you’ve been driving lately.
The Jaguar engineers allow more direct suggestions with Dynamic and Winter modes, which interact with throttle progression, the standard stability control system settings and shift patterns, as Jaguar puts it, “to match mood and conditions.”
More photos in the 2009 Jaguar XF Photo Gallery below.
Jaguars have a sporting reputation and history in competition. Even its sedans—or saloons, as the Brits call them—have been raced on race tracks around the world, even entered in the famous Monte Carlo rally, and won. Modern racing isn’t accommodating to real road cars, but the Jaguar XF matches the sporting attitude of its predecessors. Although a manual transmission isn’t offered, the XF can be operated manually with paddles on the steering wheel. Pull the paddle on the left side and the transmission shifts down; pull the right and it shifts up.
The shifts are quick—faster, says Jaguar, than its XK coupe/convertible sports car—and firm. Forget slow and slow-reacting manually-shifted automatic transmissions. This transmission can make the most ardent manual shift partisan reconsider loyalties.
Jaguar doesn’t limit the proximity key technology to opening doors and allowing pushbutton starting. What Jaguar calls “JaguarSense” includes touch and proximity-sensing control for overhead console lights and the glovebox release. There’s no button on the dash to open the glovebox, just a ring printed on the wood surface. All it takes is a touch—the dash doesn’t flex—for the glovebox door to fall open.Another of what Jaguar refers to as “surprise and delight” features are air conditioner vents that lie closed and flush with the dash until the ignition is switched on. They then rotate—“elegantly”, in Jaguar’s words—into an open position. It’s not something one couldn’t do by hand, but what good is driving a luxury car without luxury features, even if they are really not necessary? Because they’re not necessary, natch.
Of course, for a premium automobile like the Jaguar XF, premium audio is obligatory. Every level of audio systems has eight speakers. The top system is designed in conjunction with the audio specialist Bower & Wilkins available on top trim levels of the XF. Radio options include Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB)—if you know what it is, you’ll know if you want it—and Sirius satellite radio. Also available is Bluetooth communications technology and optional iPod and MP3 player connectivity with full control through the touch screen on the dash.
The Jaguar’s features include voice control for radio and telephone functions. Blind spot monitoring alerts the driver to a car in the “blind spot” on either rear quarter with a small signal light on the respective outside rearview mirror. Adaptive cruise control works like regular cruise control except that it maintains a set distance from a car ahead if that car is traveling at a slower pace. The parking brake is electronic. A small lever, a little larger than a power window switch, on the center console is pulled up to engage the brake, which can be heard winching down somewhere below.
A rear camera aids parking and adds safety to backing up, projecting a surprisingly clear picture on the on the screen on the dash. Front parking aids show up on the screen as a plan/overhead view of the Jaguar. An audible warning beeps faster as the car approaches an object and black bars around the show how close the car is to striking it…so that one doesn’t.
The Jaguar XF’s fully independent suspension and rear drive provide an outstanding combination of ride and road poise. It’s smooth over irregular pavements—ok, rough roads—yet is so well balanced and damped that entrance ramps and winding roads will be taken faster just because doing so doesn’t upset the car. Nor does it upset passengers: Backseat drivers will have a higher speed threshold before becoming alarmed.
Backseat passengers, not to mention the front seat rider or especially the driver, will have few complaints about the car’s elegant good looks. Jaguar designers departed from a strict obeisance to the four-headlamp/contoured hood of the classic Jaguar design of the S-Type sedan, the XF’s predecessor, while still making a shape that is unmistakably Jaguar. Instead of the quad headlamps, the XF has a primarily horizontal headlamp cluster with a larger circle for the main headlight beam.
The grille is large and predominantly rectangular with rounded corners. It doesn’t mimic any prior Jaguar but it’s somehow clearly a Jaguar shape. The roof line is long and low and in current sedan mode, “coupe-like.” The slope of the rear window is matched by the rear doors and we found that we had to be careful getting into the back seat. The door curve extends far enough back that it hit us in the torso when we opened the door, and the roof curve made us duck so to not hit our heads on the door frame. Ah, the things we do for fashion, eh, girls?
Our test Jaguar XF was powered by the standard for the U.S. 4.2-liter V-8. There is a 2.7-liter V-6 diesel—yes, in a Jaguar—available in certain markets, and a 3.0-liter gasoline-fueled V-6 not offered in the U.S. The fuel-thrifty diesel is being considered for the U.S., but right now the only option is a supercharged version of the standard 4.2-liter V-8. That engine produces 420 horsepower and we’ve driven it in Jaguar’s XK sports car, enough to know that the XF so equipped and called the XF 4.2 V8 S/C or more familiarly just the S/C would be a very energetic performer, and if one goes for that sort of things, well worth going for because we have no doubt it would be a goer.
Be among the first to read an article from this Examiner. Get an email subscription. It's free.
For those for whom too much is just enough, Jaguar introduced the Jaguar XFR, powered by a—Jaguar calls it “astonishing”—510 horsepower supercharged version of the V-8 and modified to handle the extra power enough so to handle the extra power.
Our test Jaguar XF Premium Luxury had a base price of $55,200. Adding premium sound and 20-inch alloy wheels raised the price to $60,775, or with delivery, $61,550. The standard (one can’t say “base”) Jaguar XF lists for $49,975 while the supercharged XF starts at $64,475.
But prices: such details. Considering the details of the XF, however, the detail of price for those who can afford it is met with the quality. The Jaguar XF has won awards from Car and Driver, Popular Mechanics and more, plus Jaguar has received recognition from J.D. Power’s sales satisfaction index. More important however, especially with a luxury sedan, is how the car makes its owner feel. It’s those little things, like a heartbeat, and the Jaguar XF has them.
Illustrations: 2009 Jaguar XF; 2009 Jaguar XF center stack illuminated. Photos courtesy Jaguar Land Rover NA.
| Engine | 4.2-L 300-hp DOHC 32-valve V-8 |
| Material, head/block | Aluminum/aluminum |
| Displacement, cc | 4196 |
| Compression ratio | 11.0:1 |
| Horsepower @ rpm | 300 @ 6000 |
| Torque, lb.-ft @ rpm | 310 @ 4100 |
| Transmission | 6-speed automatic |
| Suspension, front | Independent forged aluminum double wishbone |
| Rear | Independent forged aluminum double wishbone |
| Brakes, type | Four wheel disc, f & r ventilated disc |
| Disc dia., in, front/rear | 12.83 / 12.83 |
| Wheels, as tesed, size, type | 20 x 8.5 (opt.), alloy |
| Tires, as tested, size, type | 235/35R20, summer performance |
| Steering, turning circle, ft., curb | 37.68 |
| Body type | Steel unit body |
| Dimensions and capacities | |
| Length, in. | 195.3 |
| Width, in., w/ mirrors/ mirrors folded | 80.8/73.9 |
| Height, in. | 57.5 |
| Wheelbase, in. | 114.5 |
| Curb weight, lbs. | 4,017 |
| Trunk, cu ft | 17.7 |
| Fuel, U.S. gal. | 18.4 |
| Performance | |
| 0-60 mph, sec. | 6.2 |
| Maximum speed, mph, limited | 121 |
| Fuel economy, EPA mpg, city/highway | 16 / 25 |
| Base price | $55,200 |
| Safety & security: front and side airbags, side curtain airbags, active head restraints | std. |
| Comfort and convenience: 320w AM/FM Alpine audio CD, portable audio connectivity, heated front seats, 7-inch touch screen w/ Bluetooth, leather seats, SmartKey (proximity) keyless entry/start, navigation system | std. |
| B&W sound system and Sirius | 1,875 |
| 20" Selena wheel | 2,700 |
| Burl walnut veneer | n/c |
| Warm climate pack (orig. $975) | 1,000 |
| Heated leather steering wheel (orig. $300) | n/c |
| Advanced vision pack (orig. $1,800) | n/c |
| Transportation | 775 |
| Total MSRP | $61,550 |
.Subscribe. It's free! Or follow on twitter @ AutoReview.
.
Related Articles:
Comments
We recently updated you on the new 2011 Chevrolet Cruze, the compact sedan that will be replacing the Chevrolet Cobalt, going on sale in the U.S. in …
The new 3.7-liter V-6 engine in the 2011 Ford Mustang doesn't do it, not the wugga-wugga-wugga or the chup-ita-chup-ita-chupita or …
- 2011 Kia Sorento EX V6
- 2010 Reviews
- 2010 Audi A5 2.0 TFSI
- 2010 Audi R8 5.2 FSI V10
- 2010 Audi S5 Cabriolet
- 2010 Chevrolet Camaro 2LT RS
- 2010 Chevrolet Equinox AWD 2LT
- 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor
- 2010 Ford Taurus Limited AWD
- 2010 Ford Taurus SHO
- 2010 GMC Terrain SLT1 FWD
- 2010 Hyundai Elantra SE
- 2010 Hyundai Genesis Coupe 3.8 Track
- 2010 Kia Forte
- 2010 Lexus HS 250h
- 2010 Lexus IS 350 C
- 2010 Lexus RX350
- 2010 Lexus RX 450h
- 2010 Mazda CX-7 i Sport
- 2010 Mazda Mazdaspeed3
- 2010 Mazda MX-5 Miata
- 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback Ralliart
- 2010 Mercedes-Benz GLK350 4Matic
- 2010 Nissan 370Z Roadster
- 2010 Nissan Altima Hybrid
- 2010 Nissan Cube 1.8 Krom
- 2010 Nissan Versa 1.8 SL Hatchback
- 2010 Porsche Panamera 4S
- 2010 Toyota Prius
- 2010 Toyota Prius II
- 2010 Volkswagen Golf TDI
- 2010 Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen TDI
- 2009 Reviews
- 2009 Acura TSX
- 2009 Audi A4 Avant 2.0T quattro
- 2009 Audi A6 3.0 TSFI
- 2009 BMW 135i Coupe
- 2009 BMW Z4 sDrive 3.5i
- 2009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid 4WD
- 2009 Chevrolet Aveo5 1LT
- 2009 Chevrolet Kodiak pickup truck
- 2009 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible
- 2009 Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid
- 2009 Chevrolet Traverse FWD LTZ
- 2009 Dodge Journey SXT AWD
- 2009 Dodge Ram 1500 Laramie Quad 4x4
- 2009 Ford Fiesta
- 2009 Ford Flex Limited AWD
- 2009 Ford Fusion SEL I-4
- 2009 GMC Acadia SLT-2
- 2009 Honda Civic Hybrid
- 2009 Honda Fit Sport w/Nav
- 2009 Honda Ridgeline RTL
- 2009 Hyundai Genesis 3.8
- 2009 Infiniti G37 Convertible
- 2009 Infiniti M45x
- 2009 Jaguar XF Premium Luxury
- 2009 Jaguar XKR Porfolio Coupe
- 2009 Jeep Patriot Limited 4x4
- 2009 Kia Borrego
- 2009 Kia Borrego EX 4x4
- 2009 Land Rover LR3
- 2009 Lincoln MKZ
- 2009 Lotus Exige S 260 Sport
- 2009 Lotus Exige S
- 2009 Maserati Quattroporte S
- 2009 Mazda Mazda6 s Grand Touring
- 2009 Mercedes-Benz CL550 4Matic
- 2009 Mercedes-Benz SLK300
- 2009 Mitsubishi Outlander XLS 4WD
- 2009 Nissan 350Z Roadster Touring
- 2009 Nissan 370Z Sport
- 2009 Nissan Murano SL AWD
- 2009 Nissan NISMO 370Z
- 2009 Pontiac G6 4-cyl
- 2009 Pontiac G8
- 2009 Pontiac G8 GXP
- 2009 Pontiac Vibe AWD
- 2009 Porsche Boxster RS60
- 2009 Saturn Aura XR 4-cyl
- 2009 Saturn Vue 2 Mode Hybrid
- 2009 Scion xB
- 2009 Subaru Legacy 3.0R Limited
- 2009 Suzuki SX4 Crossover AWD Technology
- 2009 Toyota 4Runner Sport Urban Runner
- 2009 Toyota Camry Hybrid
- 2009 Toyota Highlander/Hybrid
- 2009 Toyota Matrix XRS
- 2009 Toyota RAV4 Limited 4-cyl. 4WD
- 2009 Toyota Sequoia Platinum
- 2009 Toyota Sienna XLE AWD
- 2009 Toyota Venza 4-cyl. AWD
- 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI
- 2009 Volkswagen Tiguan
- 2009 Volkswagen CC VR6 4Matic
- 2009 Volkswagen Touareg 3.0 TDI
- 2008 Reviews
- 2008 Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell
- 2008 Bentley Continental GT
- 2008 BMW X6 xDrive 5.0i
- 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid
- 2008 Kia Amanti
- 2008 Lexus IS-F
- 2008 Mazda MX-5 Miata Grand Touring PRHT
- 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X MR
- 2008 Nissan Cube JDM
- 2008 Saturn Vue Green Line
- 2008 Scion xD
- 2008 Volkswagen Passat Turbo
- 2008 Volkswagen Toureg V8
- 2008 Volvo XC70 3.2
- 2008 Volvo XC70 D5
- 1971 Honda N600
