Jaguar XE S: Delivery Miles
Until the arrival of the Audi S4 and Merc C450 AMG, the Jaguar XE S reigns supreme among sub-£50K sports saloons
XE has delivered on the promise
Any serious prestige contender has to have a forced-induction six in its range. Arguably such fuel-hungry beasts only make sense in countries with cheap petrol but, luckily for PistonHeads, we get them in the UK too.
And the new champion in this niche is unquestionably the Jaguar XE S. With its 340hp supercharged V6 engine, it's properly quick (0-62 in 5.1sec). In fact, it's actually quicker than the F-Type from which it's purloined the engine, because it's lighter than the 'F' (although still no lightweight at 1,665kg).
More significantly, the XE S is a class-leading handler, as I discovered recently on some damp B-roads. Seldom has a traction control light been such a constant companion on a journey, and seldom has switching the ESP off produced such entertainment. The electric steering is fast-acting and light in feel, communicating superbly with a chassis that has an innately balanced feel, the torque vectoring rear end working hard to rein in your inevitable excesses. All the while, the XE's ride comfort remains way better than its German rivals.
Colours other than red available. Maybe
Ah yes, the Germans - where are they? Answer: they're currently pretty much absent from the 350hp sports saloon arena. The talented new BMW 340i may be cheaper than the Jag (£38,125) but it certainly lacks the Jag's steering feel, cabin ambience, snorting soundtrack and sheer sense of occasion.
Audi? The old S4 is dead (although you might still find one in the dealer network at around the £40K mark). The new one does have the edge on the XE S on paper (354hp, 4.7sec to 62mph) but will it drive as nicely? We don't know yet - and you won't get a chance to find out until 2016, when it goes on sale.
Same story for the Merc C450 AMG, whose 3.0 V6 turbo lump delivers fully 367hp and gets to 62mph in 4.9sec - but there's still no news on UK pricing, and it's not launched here till 2016.
£50K with 5,000 miles? Hmm...
So for now, the XE S is the best petrol-engined compact prestige saloon, this side of the RS4, M3 and C63 AMG (Jaguar's V8-powered XE R can't come soon enough).
List price for an XE S is £44,865, which is certainly on the expensive side. Nearly-new XEs are now arriving on the market, and the lowest price I could find for any XE is a 2249-mile 2.0d Prestige diesel at £28,850, about £4K under list.
But come on, you don't want the diesel, you want the 'S' - but at what price? A fairly standard example in Italian Racing Red with 1,288 miles on the odo will cost you £44,000. That's a meagre £2K off the list price with options added, but it's the cheapest 'S' in the classifieds.
Higher-specced ones are currently nudging the £50K mark, which is worryingly close to the £55K BMW charges for the M3. For instance, an XE S in the same Italian Racing Red with very fetching red-and-black leather, 20in alloys, black pack, parking assist, panoramic roof and a few other goodies will cost you £49,990. And it has over 5,000 miles on the clock already...
It's good to hear that someone other than Porsche has managed to get some feel out of an EPAS system. BMW's is pretty woeful. Hopefully now some manufacturers seem to have proven that EPAS doesn't have to be completely awful, others will work on improving their systems to at least the levels of feel of the hydraulic systems they replaced.
Here's hoping that the XE S has truly shocking residuals and is at some point released with a manual gearbox.
"Even more non-turbo in feel than the M3, lag is minimal, torque delivery is beautifully linear and you can drive it on the throttle with more control than any forced induction BMW to date. With so much power and low-down grunt, it's very effective and sounds suitably straight six-ey at higher revs as well"
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