2009 Jaguar XF

San Diego is one of my favorite cities. This is coming from someone who calls Southern California home, but is very disenchanted by the traffic and how difficult it now seems to get anywhere. That being said, I have few complaints about Jaguar having selected San Diego and the twisty secondary roads to the east of the city for us to get some seat time behind the wheel of the new XF sports sedan.

With Ford’s recent sale of its Jaguar and Land Rover brands to India’s Tata industrial conglomerate, the importance of this launch for Jaguar’s future can’t be underestimated. If ever there was a make-or-break launch for a vehicle manufacturer, this is it. And thankfully for Jaguar, the new XF is an outstanding vehicle–albeit it one that is somewhat difficult to pigeonhole–that should help restore the leaping cat to a place of prominence in the luxury sport sedan marketplace. More…

Jaguar appears to be taking a page out of the Lexus launch book from 1989 in that they are offering a product that is sized, powered, and priced to place it in a niche without direct competition. Lexus positioned the original LS400 as a car sized and powered to compete against the then current BMW 7-series and Mercedes S-Class, but priced it closer to the 5-series and E-Class. Jaguar, in offering the luxury model V8-powered XF at a price of $49,975, has introduced a car sized and powered closer to the V8-powered 5-series and E-Class, but priced much closer to top-of-the-line 3-series and C-Class cars from their German competitors. It’s a compelling value story to be sure.

But typically buyers in this segment are not as value-conscious as they are status-conscious, so Jaguar has its work cut out for themselves right from the start of the XF’s launch, with first cars reaching dealers about a month ago. The impact was immediate: the XF contributed to a 13.2% rise versus 2007 numbers. The represents the first upwards tick in Jaguar sales in a long time and the XF was barely on-stream so it will take a few months of sales to fully measure the XF’s impact. But it seems ironic that just as Ford sells the brand, Jaguar starts to see light at the end of the tunnel.

As far as the exterior is concerned, it does seem that some of the visual impact of the C-XF was lost in translation from concept to production car reality. This is not unexpected, even though some critics have harped on this fact. Concept cars need to have impact on auto show turntables, production cars must have rear seats that can accommodate real people, so the XF’s proportions had to conform to this reality. We can say that the spirit of the Ian Callum’s C-XF concept lives in the production car and the styling elements mix in a way that portrays an exciting new design language for Jaguar.

The look of the car is unique, bold and contemporary in a way that leaves little chance that it will be mistaken for its predecessor or its German competitors. If there’s a familiar line, it seems that the C-pillar will draw some comparisons to Lexus but in a world where cars in a given category–and as we mentioned earlier, the XF seems to straddle smaller and larger classes–the look is fresh yet dare we say, unmistakably Jaguar, without being slavishly retro.

On the inside, the cabin is world class; simply better that those found in its larger competitors, as well as the entire Audi line, which traditionally sets the benchmarks for interior style, form and function. The materials are top tier and the execution, with more wood than previous Jaguars, but spread throughout the cabin, are warm and inviting with all controls having a high-quality feel. A high end touch is the soft blue ambient lighting throughout the cabin. The one distracting factor? The sound emanating from the dash when the directional signals are activated; it sounded out of character with the rest of the car–decidedly low-rent. As these were early production XFs, and as the sound is digitally generated, a Jaguar spokesperson acknowledged the issue and intimated that changes were already inputted.

One element that makes the cabin so inviting is the 440-watt Bowers and Wilkins audio system. While in this day and age, 440-watts might not seem like a lot of wattage, it the XF it is a perfect match as this is one finely voiced system, especially with regard for overall clarity. Bowers and Wilkins engineers were consulted early in the design process (they provided a prototype system for the C-XF) so speaker locations are close to optimum, thus 440-watts is faultless for this application.   

For those of you that sound plays an important part of the driving experience, this is simply among the finest sounding factory-installed premium audio systems available, regardless of price. Where most premium-branded audio systems use relatively inexpensive drivers (woofers, midranges, and tweeters) mated to highly equalized amplifiers, Bowers and Wilkins uses much higher quality components, thus the individual elements are not nearly as stressed in mating the sonic and acoustic characteristics of the audio system to the car itself. The result is exceptional clarity and very precise imaging and staging, especially in the Dolby Pro Logic II surround mode. Best of all, no concessions were made to provide boomy yet false bass; the system’s accuracy is above reproach and the package is perfectly tailored to the car. And yes, it has the prerequisite iPod connectivity, with direct interface through the in-dash display.

We had the pleasure of driving the top two models in the range. We started with the premium luxury model ($55,975), equipped with a 300-horsepower normally-aspirated 4.2-liter V8, and waited until after lunch to get behind the wheel of the top model supercharged version. Mid-morning traffic exiting San Diego and heading east was fairly light and this gave us the opportunity to evaluate its freeway cruising characteristics.

The first thing we noticed was how stiff the overall structure felt; this is very elusive to measure so we are forced to take Jaguar’s word for it that the XF is the stiffest car in its class. They mentioned that to optimize the structure, 25 different grades of steel along with aluminum and magnesium were employed with the result being a suspension that is supple with steering inputs that are very tactile, transmitting the proper amount of feedback, even over expansion joints and lane bots.

The two-lane tarmac selected by the Jaguar team was obviously chosen to highlight the exceptional balance of the chassis. On the normally-aspirated car, just set the rotary gear selector to sport, turn off the TracDSC traction control and let the fun begin. Using the paddle shifters connected to the six-speed ZF automatic transmission, the drive is utterly engaging, releasing your inner Formula One driver, with reaction times 15% quicker that the XK sports car, which donated many of the all-important suspension bits and calibration benchmarks. With our shift points alternating between third and fourth gear and pegged at around 6,000 RPM, the XF simply devoured the road, in this case CA-96 which hugs the California-Mexico border.

After lunch we got behind the wheel of the supercharged version ($62,975) and as great as the premium luxury model was in the morning session, the supercharged version is an entirely different kind of cat. The primary reason, Jaguar’s Computer Active Technology Suspension (CATS) which is standard on the supercharged model. With CATS, all dampening is electronically controlled within milliseconds, balanced between road conditions and driving inputs. The result is a feel that is more sports sedan than luxury car, just the way we like it. Driving even more aggressively, using the ultra quick paddle shifters nearer to 6,500 RPM, the afternoon drive was even more spirited than the morning session. With 420-horsepower on tap, and all the electronic babysitters set to minimum intervention, it’s easy to steer the XF with one’s right foot.

While the consensus among virtually all of the assembled scribes was that the mid-model premium luxury model was an exceptional buy, but if it was any of us going to talk to BofA or WaMu for a car loan, we’d opt for the larger (and probably longer term) monthly payment, bite the bullet and go for the top-spec supercharged model. In examining the competitive landscape, there seemed to be no competitor in its price class.

What does this all mean? To this observer, there’s a new sheriff in town and that the safe choice is no longer the default choice. Historically, Jaguar has always meant something special, extraordinary. This essence seems to have been lost over the last ten years as under Ford’s stewardship as most Jaguars seemed to live primarily on past glories, especially visually, much to the continued detriment to the brand.

We believe that this is about to change. Because of the way the luxury market has evolved, Jaguar will never sell as many units as its German, Japanese, and US (Cadillac CTS) competitors. This is not a bad thing; Jaguars need to be iconoclastic and appeal to a buyer that wants something different and not run with the pack. On that basis the XF meets this objective squarely and promises a fresh start for a company that under new owners has a long way to go to return to past glories. That they do this with a virtually clean sheet of paper design is bold and fraught with risk, but in the final analysis, was their only option. The XF is a fine luxury sports sedan, one with the emphasis on sport, which is as we believe it should be.