Jaguar XF review: a British underdog that loses out to the Germans

It’s tough at the top these days. Not only do today’s senior executives have to contend with the many and varied pressures of helping to run their respective companies, but choosing a company car is the devil’s own job. In the last couple of years, three fine luxury saloons have been launched by Mercedes, BMW and, most recently, Audi – making it exceedingly tough to pick between the three of them.

But if you can’t decide, though, or simply don’t want one of Germany’s finest, there’s always the Jaguar XF. Mind you, while it isn’t exactly old, brand-spanking models of all three of its biggest rivals have come along since its launch in 2015 – so can the Jag still cut the mustard?

As with its rivals, you get a choice of petrol or diesel engines – two of each, in the XF’s case, in varying states of tune and with either one or turbos or a supercharger attached. The range stretches from a 161bhp 2.0-litre diesel right up to a 375bhp 3.0-litre supercharged petrol V6 in the XF S. All but the latter can be had in one of three versions: entry-level Prestige, aggressive-looking R-Sport or luxurious Portfolio. All are automatic, while the majority of engines are offered with the option of four-wheel drive. Notable by its absence, mind you, is any form of hybrid, plug-in or otherwise.

It’s a top-spec Portfolio we have here, powered by a twin-turbocharged 2.0-litre diesel kicking out 237bhp, and driving all four wheels. It won’t be a particularly popular specification, but on paper it makes for a very nice XF indeed, with lashings of toys, all-weather traction and more-than-adequate grunt. And inside, it certainly manages to feel opulent, from the thin sliver of wood encircling you to the fluted leather on the seats. Bit of a shame about the slightly cheap-feeling plastics lower down in the interior, though.

Like all modern Jaguars, the XF is let down a little by its infotainment setup, too, which is laggy and a little fiddly, and doesn’t look anywhere near as cutting-edge as Mercedes’s vast twin-screen affair. That said, its age means the XF hasn’t caught up with the latest – and slightly irritating – trend for a touchscreen in place of conventional climate control buttons, although the rows of switches you’ll find instead do require a bit of learning, as they aren’t laid out in the most intuitive way.

There’s a decent amount of space up front, too, and in the back there’s more than enough for two large adults. Granted, a BMW 5 Series will offer you even more head and leg room, but you’ll only really need it if you’re particularly tall. The boot’s one of the biggest in its class, too, although it isn’t the most usable thanks to an oddly-shaped floor that slopes up toward the front of the car, making it harder to stack large loads. On the whole, though, the XF is plenty spacious enough for most people’s needs.

So far, so good, then, but things take a turn for the worse when you start the engine, as it settles to a rather invasive hum. Worse than that, though, is the considerable vibration it produces through your seat, and through the controls, which is pretty poor in a car of this ilk; in fact, it’s no exaggeration to say there are vans that feel smoother at idle.

That engine makes itself felt and heard when you’re on the move, too, in the form of a noticeable buzz through the steering wheel, allied to a constant background drone at all speeds. It’s a long way from the tranquility offered by the XF’s best rivals.

But happily, while the big wheels on this Portfolio version dent the ride quality a little, picking up the finer imperfections in the road, they don’t undo the good work of a chassis that irons out larger undulations and settles into a relaxed lope on the motorway.

The chassis, in fact, is the best bit about the XF. Not only does it ride fluently – if not quite as serenely as the smaller XE, strangely – but show it a set of corners and it reveals this car’s hidden depths.

The steering is beautifully judged – fast without being snappy, smooth without impacting on feel, light but without feeling remote. It’s delightfully progressive, too, so you can be incredibly precise about placing what is really quite a big car. There’s a little give in the suspension, so the body leans a touch, but no more than is necessary to detail exactly how hard you’re pushing the XF. And while if you clog it mid-corner the all-wheel-drive XF will tend to understeer, it takes an awful lot to actually get it there, so stable and planted does it feel. Out of every corner you blast, faster and faster, squeezing on the throttle each time and allowing the traction to carry you away.

And for all its rattle and hum, this big diesel engine is certainly punchy, serving up huge globs of torque right where you want them. In fact, it’s tempting to leave the gearbox in Eco mode, preventing it from changing down as often, most of the time, so that it allows you to dig into that low-down grunt; in normal mode, the gearbox is a little too wont to change down when it doesn’t really need to. It’s not its only fault – it’s sluggish when you really want to pull away quickly, and if you stamp on the kickdown it changes down two or three gears in turn, rather than jumping straight from, say, fifth to second, which takes time. But it does at least slur through the ratios smoothly when all you’re doing is bimbling around.

It takes more than just a fabulous driving experience to make a convincing dent in a market so riven with excellence, and while the XF is decent enough everywhere else, it hasn’t got the chops to beat the best. What’s more, it doesn’t feel quite as slick or as charming as the car it succeeded – as though, in search of competence, some of the old model’s character had been dialled back. Nevertheless, this is still a likeable enough alternative to the luxury car norm – and one that, if you’re willing to live with its flaws, will put a big grin on your face every time you take the long way home.

Jaguar XF specifications

Jaguar XF 2.0 240 Portfolio AWD

TESTED 1,999cc four-cylinder diesel turbo, eight-speed automatic gearbox, four-wheel drive

PRICE/ON SALE £44,100/now

POWER/TORQUE 237bhp @ 4,000rpm, 369lb ft @ 1,500rpm

TOP SPEED 153mph

ACCELERATION 0-62mph in 6.5sec

FUEL ECONOMY 51.4mpg/42.2mpg (EU Combined/Urban)

CO2 EMISSIONS 144g/km

VED £205 first year, £450/year for five years thereafter, then £140

VERDICT Jaguar’s XF is spacious, efficient and comfortable – and a terrific thing to drive, too. But it falls down on interior quality a little and refinement a lot – and somehow, the raffish charm we’ve come to expect from Jaguar saloons has been diluted here.

TELEGRAPH RATING Three stars out of five

Jaguar XF rivals

BMW 5 Series, from £36,725

Probably the best car in the class right now, although how good it is depends heavily on how it’s specified. A 520d SE is all you need, though, and happily it’s in this form that the 5 Series excels on comfort, space, and efficiency. It’s pretty decent to drive, too.

Mercedes E-Class, from £36,070

Smooth, suave and sophisticated – but the E-Class on standard suspension isn’t great, so you need air to get the best from it, and the same goes for the optional twin-screen dashboard. So-equipped, though, this is a terrific luxury car with a sense of isolation and smoothness quite unlike anything else in the class.

Audi A6, from £38,640

Comfortable, smart, beautifully built and notably efficient – extremely competent in almost every way, in other words. And yet the new A6 feels rather soulless and, therefore, somehow unsatisfying. Best served with a four-pot diesel – avoid the V6’s jerky gearbox.