- Doors and Seats
4 doors, 5 seats
- Engine
2.0T, 4 cyl.
- Engine Power
177kW, 340Nm
- Fuel
Petrol (95) 8.9L/100KM
- Manufacturer
RWD
- Transmission
Auto
- Warranty
3 Yr, Unltd KMs
- Ancap Safety
NA
New car review: Jaguar XF 2.0
What do you do when you're a luxury car manufacturer that has suddenly found itself without a contender in the most popular segment of the market, one where your mainly German rivals are fighting tooth and nail to sell every available car?
That's the position Jaguar has found itself in since dropping the X-Type from its range. But instead of forfeiting the compact luxury sedan segment to the BMW 3-series, Mercedes C-Class, Audi A4 and many others, Jaguar has pulled something of a neat trick. It has taken its larger XF model, dropped in a smaller engine borrowed from Ford, lowered the price and presto, it has a car that could be hugely attractive to those tempted to look elsewhere.
Far from being an underpowered entry level model, the $69,000 XF 2.0 has a turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine that promises decent performance. And OK, it might be shared with a Falcon or Mondeo but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
What do you get?
For the uninitiated, the XF is Jaguar's mid-sized sedan offering, slotting in between the larger XJ and where the X-Type used to be. Engine choices range from this entry level 2.0-litre petrol, through to a slightly more expensive 2.2-litre diesel, a 3.0-litre supercharged V6 petrol, a 3.0-litre V6 diesel and a 5.0-litre supercharged XFR costing about $170,000.
That's quite a spread, and as you'd expect the bottom of the range isn't the best equipped. For gear such as blind-spot sensors, a rear-mounted camera, heated full leather seats, keyless entry or wheels bigger than 17-inch diameter you'll have to dive into the options list.
But it's far from being a pauper's pack, getting standard equipment such as sat-nav for the touchscreen, bi-xenon headlamps, powered adjustment for the steering column and, of course, common niceties such as cruise control, Bluetooth audio streaming, dual-zone climate and seats trimmed in a combination of leather and suede.
What's Inside?
The XF's interior won plenty of admirers when the car was launched back in 2008 and it still retains a fresh charm that makes sitting in the driver's seat a pleasure. Hit the engine's start button and the air vents swivel open, the gear selector knob rises from the centre console and the sense of occasion is complete.
There's not so much of Jaguar's traditional club-room atmosphere inside, but the well-placed driving position, the simplicity of the secondary controls (many operated through the touchscreen display, which takes a bit of learning) and the lack of tacky plastics give a true, luxury-car ambience.
While front seat occupants are looked after well, the rear is a little less sumptuous. Despite the car being a long one at just under five metres, the back seat offers only adequate – not generous – leg room, and the sloping roof can leave the scalps of taller passengers scraping the roof lining.
The boot is much longer than its stumpy lid would indicate, but reasonably shallow despite the use of a space saver spare tyre, and the opening is rather small.
Under the bonnet
The Jaguar brand is no longer owned by Ford, but some synergies must remain for the Tata-owned British company to use the Blue Oval's ubiquitous 2.0-litre, four-cylinder turbo engine.
Whatever, it's a good choice. In the XF its output is 177kW of power (slightly less than the much cheaper Falcon) but just as importantly, it produces a meaty 340Nm of torque (or pulling power) from as low as 2000rpm.
So performance isn't just entirely adequate, it is also easily accessible for around town driving, with punchy acceleration away from traffic lights and enough power in reserve for overtaking at highway speeds. All XF models now get an eight-speed conventional automatic gearbox and the number of ratios available helps disguise any turbo lag (or pause in acceleration) that might exist.
Despite its relatively downsized engine this is no econo-model, however: use the throttle with even moderate abandon and the XF 2.0 will drain its 70-litre tank of 95-octane fuel at rates well above the official combined 8.9 L/100km figure.
On the road
With no fancy systems that allow the driver to adjust suspension settings, steering weight or gearbox shift patterns, you'd want to hope Jaguar's engineers got this car's set-up right from the get-go.
Which to a large extent they have: the steering is well-weighted and returns impressive feedback and the suspension imparts a kind of lithe agility that makes the XF a well-balanced handler. Given other versions have at least twice as much engine power, the 2.0 isn't overwhelmed by delivering its 177kW through the back wheels, but with less weight from the smaller engine over the front it also seems to turn in nicely and grip just as well from the front as the back. In short, it is fun and rewarding to drive.
It is also a very quiet car with low levels of transmitted road, engine and wind noise, so that ticks a couple of boxes under the heading “luxury car”, but ride comfort falls just short of perfect. Small bumps impart a certain knobbly feedback into the cabin that is perhaps at odds with Jaguar's reputation for sumptuous comfort, but it is certainly no worse than many rivals.
Verdict
There's very little about the XF 2.0 that indicates it's a bargain basement model. Indeed, it performs well, handles even better and if the levels of standard equipment aren't huge then neither is the price against its rivals.
The rear seat could be better packaged for larger passengers given the vehicle's size, but like any previous Jaguar XF there's a sense of occasion about the interior that marks this firmly as a luxury car. The somewhat prosaic origins of the new engine under its bonnet do nothing to alter that perception.