Jaguar XF Portfolio 25t 2016 Review

It's as certain as the sun coming up in the morning that a press car finished in a metallic brown will be one aimed fair and square at luxury-car buyers. Jaguar may name the colour 'Quartzite', but take my word for it, it's metallic brown.

As if the colour and the 'Portfolio' label weren't telling enough, the XF on test was trimmed inside in shades of Oyster leather and gloss woodgrain. This was no dark leather and satin-look aluminium-bedecked beasty with a monster engine under the bonnet.

In fact, the car on test was a little ho-hum for its colour selection and interior trim, and even what Jaguar calls 'morse code' aluminium on the dash blended in with the other neutral tones.

But be that as it may, the overall look of the car was polished and refined for those who like the Jaguar, without necessarily wanting to stand out from the crowd. And the XF still featured those 'surprise-and-delight' gems, the rotating air vents and the rising transmission shifter.

Despite its visual presentation and luxury equipment, the Jaguar hadn't completely foregone its brand DNA.

More than perhaps any other similar car driven in recent times, the XF seamlessly merged comfort with driver involvement. The driving position, which featured optional 14-way electric seat adjustment ($800 for both front seats with position memory for the driver), was remarkably good, and all the feedback from brakes, steering and suspension made the XF the sort of car that could be punted fairly hard and with great confidence.

Behind the wheel, the very nicely shaped seat was firmly cushioned, but wrapped around the occupant so well that all the weight was supported everywhere, which was excellent for control and comfort. Boasting that optional three-position memory, the seat could be adjusted for optimal relationship to pedals and wheel as well. It's one of few seats I've encountered recently where I've felt confident I could recline the backrest further without feeling the wheel was too far away. In short, it's $800 well spent. Even the footrest was where it should be.

One minor gripe was the difficulty finding the mirror adjustment switchgear for the first time in a darkened garage. There's no illumination for the switches until you actually press one down to adjust one or the other of the mirrors.

Moreover, the window switches located in the same cluster as the mirror switches were too far forward for easy reach. And while the doors closed with vault-like security, they were too heavy, particularly after checking out the new W213 E-Class that's due to land in Benz dealers soon. None of these issues would be deal breakers however. After all, how often do you lower the window in a Jag? It's not like you'll be frequently driving it up to the window at Maccas for a fillet of fish and large fries.

There was plenty of headroom and knee room in the rear of the XF, although the sunroof did encroach enough to make headroom marginal for taller folks in the back seat. Being a large sedan the XF provided room for the rear-seat passengers to stretch out, with added room under the front seats for the passengers behind to place their feet.

Rear seats fold down by cable releases in the boot, but they don't quite fold flat. The boot itself is large, in line with the XF's footprint, but the floor is shallow. Nevertheless, Jaguar claims 540 litres of boot space.

In motion, the XF was constantly relaying messages from the chassis to the driver. The brake pedal feel was very progressive and soft, but not spongy. There was an underlying strength to the brakes, but the pedal allowed very fine adjustment to reduce pace to whatever degree seemed appropriate.

In Dynamic mode especially, the steering was a little heavy until you adjusted to the weight, but the car tracked around bends like a Spirograph pencil. It was very precise and informative, as a complement to the suspension, which delivered handling that was very close to neutral and offered pretty impressive grip.

Ultimately, the XF felt every millimetre of its width when driving gently around town. But slip it into Dynamic mode and start hurling it around, and the XF felt no larger than its XE sibling.

Central to driving the XF briskly was the turbocharged four-cylinder engine, which didn't sound as lusty as that of the BMW 330i, but it revved cleanly and pulled hard in the mid-range. From a standing start it produced the goods from around 3000rpm.

Generally a quiet powerplant, it laboured mildly at lower revs (1800rpm and below) when the automatic transmission held higher gears for the sake of fuel economy – 11.8L/100km for the week, mostly around town and on daily commutes. That's not quite as frugal as an E 250 Merc I reviewed about three years ago.

On the overrun there was some light whine audible. At speeds up to 80km/h tyre noise on coarse-chip bitumen was apparent, but subdued. On better sealed roads – such as freeways – the principal noise was generated by wind and driveline, but the XF was a very quiet car nonetheless.

In Sport mode the transmission would kick down with a hefty prod of the accelerator, but wouldn't change up at the redline if the driver used the shift paddles. As in other Jaguar models we've tested in the past, the paddles were right where you want them and they answer driver input with a rapid response. The transmission was faultless in its shifts.

Unlike the trigger-happy Germans and Swedes, the Jaguar's autonomous emergency braking (AEB) didn't activate at any time during the week in our possession. Jaguar's engineers appear to have calibrated the XF's system for activation at a different threshold. It's actually a pleasant change to drive a car in urban traffic without some fractious alarm and blinding red LEDs telling you you're about to die – just because a car in front is taking too long to complete a left-hand turn.

Unlike the last XF reviewed, an XF S, this one was quite adept at dropping the lights from high-beam for oncoming cars. In fact, many of the concerns mentioned in that review were not apparent in the XF this time around. This XF was a safe choice at night, between the high-beam assist and the static cornering lights.

Backing the XF was made easy by the near-side (passenger-side) mirror dipping to show the kerb. Jaguar is one of very few companies that gets this right – another point to commend the excellent driving position.

The Jaguar also came with cameras that covered all vectors, although the XF was so easy to park I didn't use them much, or the optional park assist system ($1710), for that matter. The latter would steer the XF into either parallel or perpendicular parking bays, but the driver had to toggle the button for the right selection.

Frankly, anyone with any sort of experience backing a car into a parking slot will find the Advanced Parking Assist pack redundant. While the XF is a large car, it was very easy to park, with or without the fancy-schmancy parking pack.

All in all, the XF was a brilliant blend of comfort and sportiness. It's the ideal car for the driver who's old enough to appreciate the finer things in life (including comfy shoes), but young enough to enjoy a spirited drive along country roads.

2016 Jaguar XF Portfolio 25t pricing and specifications:
Price: $109,410 (as tested, plus on-road costs)
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 177kW/340Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 7.5L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 189g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: Five-star (ANCAP)

Related reading: Jaguar XF R-Sport 35t review

Also consider:
>> Audi A6 S Line (from $79,900 plus ORCs)
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