Jaguar XJ 2010 Review - International

Jaguar XJ

What we liked
>> Lovely, practical interior
>> Long- and short-wheelbases both look great
>> Comfortable under all conditions

Overall rating: 4.0/5.0
Engine/Drivetrain/Chassis: 4.0/5.0
Price, Packaging and Practicality: 4.0/5.0
Safety: 4.0/5.0
Behind the wheel: 3.0/5.0
X-factor: 4.0/5.0

About our ratings

OVERVIEW
Every few years, it seems, somebody decides their cars need to take a big leap forward in style. Sometimes -- Jaguar's gorgeous XF, for example -- it's harmonious and logical. Other times, the change seems so confronting that you can only guess how it went over the first time the board members saw it.

BMW famously did it with its 7 Series a generation ago, Benz did it with the CLS and now it's Jaguar's turn with its hurried rescue of the XJ nameplate.

Much rides on Jaguar's freshened super limo and, unlike its predecessor, you couldn't say the Indian-owned British brand has made a conservative, each-way bet on it.

Where the outgoing XJ was a technically advanced machine swaddled in granddad's church clothes, the new one is so sharp and modern that parts of it crunchingly affront the eye. And that's just how Jaguar design boss, Ian Callum, wanted it to be.

There are sections of the new car that look instantly right, including the deeply squinting, focused headlights, the slow, shallow slope of the rear roofline and the stunning proportions. But there are others, most obviously, the long, contrasting vertical tail lights, that don't.

Together with the flowing glass house, the pieces make more sense as a whole than they do individually, but it will still take some time before the traditionally traditional Jaguar owner base finds it comfortable. New owners fed up with German conservatism, though, may find it an intriguing option...

Underneath, the addition of the smaller XF's new engine range marks a bigger departure from the old car's engineering than the chassis does. The all-aluminium space frame is largely derived from the old car, whose life span was cut short due to poor sales, prematurely old visuals and the acceleration of this new car's development.

Jaguar's particularly proud of the XJ's new user interfaces and has spent thousands of hours crafting the new car's interior -- and it's easy to see why.

PRICE AND EQUIPMENT
For your cash, you'll have a choice of four engines, ranging from the V6 twin-turbo diesel we had on test to a naturally-aspirated V8 petrol motor and two supercharged V8s.

What you'll also have is a choice of short- and long-wheelbase models, because Jaguar designed the XJ from the start to be stretched -- and it shows in just how unusually coherent the LWB car's shape is.

One of the things you won't get is instruments, at least not when you get into the car. (Actually, when you climb in you find you don't get soft-close doors, either).

The car doesn't actually have instruments. Instead, it has a 12.3-inch high-definition screen that welcomes you when you turn the car on, then lights up a conventionally-shaped digital speedo and tacho (plus fuel and temperature gauges) when you start the car.

It works beautifully, too, especially as it highlights what you need to know, when you need to know it. It highlights the numbers close to the speed you're doing, for example, making 80, 90 and 100 brighter if you're sitting on 90km/h. If you're low on fuel, it dims the other dials and brings the fuel gauge into sharper focus.

There's a real proximity key and a one-touch On-Off button and, when you fire it up, a beautiful, knurled aluminium knob emerges from the centre console so you can choose backwards, neutral, drive or sport. Flick it around to Sport and the dashboard dials turn red, just for kicks...

There's also a fabulous eight-inch multimedia screen that can run two images at once. The driver can be checking the satellite navigation and the passenger can be watching television -- all without disturbing each other. It also doubles as a touch screen for navigation or to use all the vehicle functions.

Jaguar's also worked hard on sound systems, with many of the core base systems built into the original design sketches, and the top-end system is a 20-speaker, 1200 Watt Bowers & Wilkins system that the boffins are inordinately proud of, but the exact benefits of which are a bit beyond us.

In Europe, the XJ will have Luxury, Premium Luxury and Portfolio specification levels, plus the Supersport model to house the strongest of its engines. Even in the base model, though, most of the things you touch -- the vent dials, for example, are made from aluminium, so they're not skimping on the cabin.

MECHANICAL
At the heart of the matter is an aluminium structure that is light, strong and more genuinely aluminium than the one in Audi's A8.

Not only that, but it's made of 50 per cent recycled materials, which is a contrast to Porsche, which claimed at its Panamera launch that it hardly used any recycled metals because they weren't up to the job. Hmmm. Even so, Jaguar claims its recycled aluminium means it saves 3.3 tonnes of CO2 for each car before they've even turned a wheel.

All that, and design tweaks have made it 11 per cent stiffer than the old XJ's (very) similar aluminium frame chassis and it's light enough that the long-wheelbase version is a full 260kg lighter than the BMW 7 Series LWB.

Jaguar slips four engines into the XJ and, if you paid attention during the XF facelift a few months ago, you'd be familiar with them all.

First, there are upgrades to everything to generate more power and to cough out less harmful emissions.

The car we drove was the 3.0-litre twin-turbo diesel, which is an evolution of the old 2.7-litre V6 that was jointly developed with Peugeot and Citroen's diesel experts.

It now has 202kW of power -- which might not seem much in this day and age, but it's not bad for a diesel -- and a crunching 600Nm of torque arriving, nice and early, at 2000rpm. It's 33 per cent more powerful than the old 2.7 and it thumps out 38 per cent more torque, too. Not bad for a 300cc rise in capacity, and the SWB XJ posts an impressive 7.0L/100km and emits less than 190 grams of CO2/km as well.

It gets there by using a pair of turbos, but it's unusual in that it doesn't use one for each bank in the V6. Instead, it runs them sequentially, with a little one that spins up easier and getting to work earlier and a bigger one that provides the big oomph a bit further up the rev range.

The petrol motors have also had the wick turned up, with the 5.0-litre V8 designed to have very low internal friction and boasting an industry-first fuel-injection system to lift power 29 per cent over the old 4.2-litre V8. It now produces 285kW of power and 515Nm of torque at a combined average of 11.3L/100km.

Either of those motors will be enough for most people, but for the rest, Jaguar offers two different supercharged V8s. There's a 346kW/575Nm version that's 19 per cent stronger than the old supercharged V8 and then there's the big daddy, with 375kW and 625Nm.

While the thumper is only available in the Supersport model, the lower-level supercharged V8 can be optioned on any of the three equipment levels.

All four engines drive the rear wheels (no all-wheel drive is available) by running through a slick, drive-by-wire six-speed automatic. Jaguar insists it is up to the job, even though Audi, BMW and Lexus have all moved on to eight-speed autos and Benz has a seven-speed unit.

Underneath, there is now a continuously adjustable damper system to reduce the XJ's body roll by around 20 per cent while improving its ride.

PACKAGING
There is more to this design than the confrontation of the sweeping body and the jarring tail lights. For example, it has a deep waistline and a low roofline that both trick you into thinking you are sitting higher than you actually are.

It offsets this with tiny, thin pillars everywhere, plus a panoramic glass roof to create the impression of space and light.

The design team has also wrapped a line around the top of the doors all the way around the top of the dash to create a visual boundary at the front of the cabin, which works beautifully.

The boot is large enough, too, with 540 litres of space, though the opening is far narrower than you'd find in the Audi A8 or the 7 Series.

While the standard XJ is comfortable enough in the rear, the LWB has 134mm more rear legroom, and it's more comfortable in its ride, too.

COMPETITORS
Jaguar hasn't set the pricing for Australia yet -- probably a safe bet given the wobbly nature of the Pound lately -- but expect it to slide in beneath the pointiest of the pointy-end Germans, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

That's not going to be good news for Benz, because it's also going to have an all-new Audi A8 (which is also based around a lightweight aluminium frame) to deal with. There are fears in Stuttgart that the two new, visually different rivals might just catch their limo in a pincer movement of style and engineering.

It might have been facelifted last year, but the sales boost from a facelift is lower and doesn't tend to last as long as a full model upgrade.

Over at BMW, the 7 Series is under attack, too. Jaguar's refocus on its sporting heritage treads directly on BMW's toes and while the 7 Series might be a clean design, it's also seen by some as an overly conservative reaction to the flak the previous generation received.

If pure visuals are high on the buying agenda, then the XJ will pose an enormous problem for Porsche, whose three-model Panamera range is beautifully engineered but hardly beautiful. Similar things could be said for Bentley's Continental Flying Spur.

With the basic Quattroporte layout now edging into its seventh year, Maserati is also in Jaguar's sights, though the Italian's following seems solid, with its volumes barely wobbling, even through the financial crisis.

ON THE ROAD
The V6 is one of the quietest diesels out there, using the muffling abilities of turbochargers to good effect to iron out the audible wrinkles at wider throttle openings.

Even so, it's not exactly loud at idle, but it is strong. Jaguar claims it will hit 100km/h in 6.4 seconds but, so composed is the chassis in everything it does, it doesn't ever feel that quick.

Instead, the XJ feels utterly competent and unruffled. All the time. Under any conditions.

Even when my English co-driver smashed both right-side alloy wheels into a solid, vertical French gutter, the XJ sounded out a thumping warning and settled back down. When he did it again with the left, front wheel, it behaved in the same way, covering his mistake with such aplomb that the only lasting evidence I could find were three badly damaged alloys and a hefty chunk out of one sidewall.

Aplomb is always one of the things engineers try to keep at the heart of a luxury car and they've done it well here. Yet, for all the claims of Jaguar that it is returning to its roots as a maker of sporting cars, the XJ never overwhelms you with its driving character. In fact, it doesn't really feel like it has any.

Competence, yes, but individual character, no. You could close your eyes under most road conditions and you'd never know you were in a Jaguar; at least not until you passed your fingers over one of the lovely surfacing details.

That's not to say it's poor in any way. It's just, with this engine at least, a little uninspiring and too far short of the traditional Jaguar feel. Perhaps it's the lack of body roll through the self-adjusting shocks, because there's no serious intrinsic flaws in anything it does.

The rear dampers feel like they're a little slow at controlling the rebound on vertical bumps, but that's about the only ride or handling criticism you could fairly level at it.

Its ride is comfortable and soft and controlled, all at the same time. Flick it across into the Sport mode and it becomes firmer -- too firm for some road conditions -- and sharper, without ever quite tipping across into genuine agility, even though the steering is nicely direct.

It's a quiet car, too, even on full throttle. Very few vibrations find their way into the cabin (even if your co-pilot knocks massive chunks of aluminium from the wheels...) and those that do are soon overwhelmed by a very impressive audio system -- even if it's the basic audio package.

The seats are terrific in the way they look and the levels of support the provide, and even though you feel like you sit quite high, the driving position is very, very good.

The touchscreen system, too, works beautifully, and you can intuitively figure out how to tweak the set up of everything from the audio system to the suspension without ever referring to Jaguar's cheat sheet. That said, it's not the best satnav system going around in the car world, for ease of use or accuracy.

The steering is much more direct than you expect out of a big car and the brakes are impressive, too. Grip is strong everywhere, too. Our test included wet and dry conditions and neither flustered the big Jag at either town or highway speeds.

Jaguar's claims about the six-speed auto's performance are pretty close to the mark, too. It's smooth and slick and the big brain makes the right choice most of the time and the gear-shift paddles feel more intuitive to use when it's in manual mode.

Impressive, strong and economical as it is, though, the V6 diesel lacks a bit of sparkle at higher speeds, though the specifications on the petrol engines indicate they might have that last bit of polish. And, hopefully, the character that this one lacks.

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