Wednesday 1st April 2015

New Jaguar XF - pricing and spec

Orders being taken on the XF today with UK prices from £32K; see here for full details

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Jaguar's press release for the new XF is 9,788 words. Quite a big deal then. Following its New York debut there are now UK pricing details, performance stats plus more information on the technology and engineering.

You see XE, Jaguar says F-Type

The numbers will inevitably come up soon enough so where better to begin? Jaguar dealers are taking orders now on the XF, with the range starting at £32,300 for a 163hp XF Diesel Prestige manual. Both it and the 180hp diesel are offered in Prestige, R-Sport and Portfolio spec. The R-Sport is £1,900 more than a Prestige, then the Portfolio is another £2,200 on top of that. The premium for the more powerful Ingenium diesel is £500 for the Prestige (£32,800) and £900 for the other two models. All understood? Excellent. Oh, and the auto adds £750.

Both versions of the 163hp diesel reach 62mph in 8.7 seconds and 132mph, with the 180hp adding 4mph to that top speed and recording a 0-62 time of 8.0 seconds (or 8.1 with the auto).

For now both the 3.0-litre, 300hp diesel and 380hp supercharged V6 are offered in 'S' spec, both priced at £49,950. And the all important CO2? The lower-powered manual diesel emits 104g/km (with 5g/km added for the auto), all 180hp diesels are rated at 114g/km, the 3.0-litre diesel is at 144g/km (a 535d is 143g/km, for reference) and the V6 S produces 198g/km.

Aluminium gets weight down to 1,545kg

But of course there are other very important numbers associated with the new XF, those relating to kerbweight. Much has been made of the aluminium intensive architecture and intelligent use of materials in the construction, after all. The result? A weight 'from 1,545kg' for the manual 163hp diesel. An impressive figure that we'll await independent verification on. The bigger engines add a fair bit from the official figures, both the 3.0-litre cars weighing over 1,700kg.

Much is being made by Jaguar of the interior technology and innovation, the car being described as a 'connected XF'. A standard 'InControl Touch' infotainment system can be upgraded to Touch Pro, the latter promising a "truly outstanding multimedia experience" from its brand new design. There's also a 60Gb solid state drive for storing map data, an Ethernet connection and a host of integrated smartphone apps for infotainment, nav and so on.

Anyway, to more PH relevant tech. There are two damper options available, adaptive dampers with Configurable Dynamics on the V6 models but also some very interesting new passive items. In Jaguar's words they "enable frequency-dependent damping - the ability to vary damping force not only with the velocity that the damper piston moves at, but also as a function of its frequency." An additional valve in the damper piston provides an additional bypass for the fluid; open at low speeds to reduce damping force and allow a supple ride, it then closes at higher speed to firm things back up again.

Front overhang now 66mm shorter

All XFs will have torque vectoring by braking as standard, as well as the electric power steering recently developed for the F-Type and XE. The six-speed manual has been developed by ZF, Jaguar claiming it "sets standard for efficiency and shift quality." All-Surface Progress Control (ASPC) is available on automatic models and uses Land Rover technology to ensure, well, progress on all surfaces. The electronics control brake and throttle inputs, the driver just having to steer their way out.

As you would expect given a 10,000-word press release, there's much more on the XF. It's simply that the autonomous emergency braking, Queue Assist and semi-autonomous parking didn't seem of primary PH interest. It may even be quite enjoyable for the driver to drive you know! We'll hope to find out soon.

 

[GTEYE]

I'm getting confused.

If they are taking orders for the new XF, when does it actually hit the showrooms?

I thought they still had the XE to do first, or perhaps the order book has already been open for some time?

I'm sure there's a good reason why most manufacturers phase new product launches...

Anyway, regardless of that for me the new XF doesn't have enough to differentiate it from the previous one.

Perhaps not enough of a wow factor to draw in the new customers they are presumably looking for.

If they didn't buy the last one in volumes, will they buy this one? Or perhaps another 520d instead.

Edited by GTEYE on Wednesday 1st April 11:58

Edited by GTEYE on Wednesday 1st April 12:00