MOTORING
Award Winning Jaguar
he new Jaguar XF is a multiple award winner, Best Executive Fleet car, Best
TExecutive Diesel car, Best top Gear saloon car and the list goes on.
When the XF was introduced in 2007, I was very impressed with its design, range of engines and its superb build quality.
Jaguar aimed the XF at the BMW 5 series and I was a bit sceptical about how Jaguar would do against a car that had been around for a long time and a lot of its customers bought the car on its badge not its merits. Well I think with all the accolades the Jaguar XF has received it certainly has out shone its opposition and rightly so.
The new XFR is an absolute peach, it looks gorgeous it feels gorgeous and you will gorgeous in it.
I drove the new XFR fitted with the 163PS Ingenium diesel engine and mated to an 8 – speed automatic gearbox, it is no slouch. The 163PS diesel engine is smooth and quiet and accelerates to 60 mph in 8 seconds, it also returns a healthy 69 miles per gallon.
The 2007 XF was a radical step forward for Jaguar – and for the business car segment. Combining a sleek, coupélike exterior and a luxurious interior, it set the class benchmark for aesthetics and driving dynamics.
Features such as the rotary shift controller, rotating air vents and phosphor blue ambient lighting set the cabin apart from the competition and made the XF a highly desirable, aspirational vehicle. It was like nothing Jaguar had ever made before, and like nothing the competition could offer. The XF went on to become the mostawarded Jaguar ever.
The allnew XF retains its predecessor’ s core attributes, but uses Jaguar’ s aluminumintensive architecture to enable weight savings of up to 190kg – making the 163PS diesel model 80kg lighter than the nearest competitor – plus an increase in torsional stiffness of up to 28 per cent. The architecture also delivers dramatic improvements in packaging and the proportions so essential to Jaguar design.
The allnew XF is 4,954mm long: at 2,960 the wheelbase is 51mm longer than before, the front overhang 66mm shorter.
Though 7mm shorter and 3mm lower than the original XF, rear seat space is classleading thanks to 15mm more legroom, 24mm more knee room and up to 27mm more headroom than before.
The light, stiff body is also fundamental to the allnew XF’ s superb vehicle dynamics. Double wishbone front suspension and Integral Link rear suspension – combined with near50:50 weight distribution – deliver the ideal balance between ride and handling.
The XF offer a perfect balance between comfortable cruising and it handles sharply and smoothly like a wellbalanced racing car. It really looks right up to date both inside and out.
The cabin is beautifully and tastefully finished, the exterior – well it is stunning yes – award winning and I am sure there are plenty more awards coming its way.
The New XF starts where its predecessor left off, at the top.
www. businessfirstonline. co. uk
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