2014 Jaguar XF | new car review

Looks

The 2014 Jaguar XF sits alongside its two fiercest rivals, the Mercedes E Class and BMW 5 Series, with one string to its bow: it’s the only non-German one. These executive class cars are all sophisticated and subtle, and they all look super. But when they’re lined up alongside each other, which do you pick? It has to be the XF, because it’s so darn pretty if nothing else. Everything about it from its angry face to its neatly arrange rear-end just looks excellent.

Feel

Jaguar’s new futuristic image is certainly a winner, and inside the XF the occupants are treated to all sorts of sleek features. There are hints of walnut, and they do look a tad out of place, but should you (yes, you should) opt to not have them, then the unencumbered styling will make you feel a part of the future.

Engineering

The future is here, and it’s in the XF. The car comes with “Hold and Control”, which is a ridiculously clever system. The steering wheel remembers your preferred seating position and adjusts it for you automatically each time you get in, and moves back when you exit so that you can dismount with ease. The whole car has been engineered to provide an excellent service to its occupants.

What’s on offer?

The XF is, surprisingly, Jaguar’s brand entry model. The cheapest XF, and cheapest Jag overall, starts at AED 169,000, and for this money you get a respectable 2.0 litre luxury set-up which will get you along nicely. A middling 3.0 litre V6 XF will cost between AED 239,000 and AED 279,000. This will top 250kp/h and get you to 100kp/h in little over 6 seconds. The top dog 5.0 litre R-S is AED 469,000 which may be faster, but it will certainly drink more too.

Summing it…

The XF ticks all the boxes for sure. But why don’t you see more of them on the roads? What draws people to the E Class and the 5 Series over the XF? It’s similar money, bar the R-S model. Who knows, but I would certainly call it a smart man’s move to go down this route. That being said, the R-S model is the same price as a near-top XJ, which is a far higher class of car. If you have that kind of money then the XJ makes sense. But anything from AED 280,000 down as low as AED 170,000, well, I don’t know why you’d pick anything other than the XF.