2019 Jaguar XE 300 Sport | UK Review

The quickest XE is a peach. So what else is new?

More by luck than judgement, our first drive of the new Jaguar XE 300 Sport was bookended by two close rivals, the Alfa Romeo Giulia Veloce and the Mercedes-AMG C43 (albeit in pre-facelift Coupe format). Of the two, the Giulia offered the more interesting comparison, not least because with its 280hp 2.0-litre engine and 5.7-to-62mph performance, it almost exactly duplicates the driver-friendly mix of swiftness and parsimony that the 300 Sport's components have been cherry-picked to deliver.

It is also rather splendid. Not all over, of course. Not in perceived quality or infotainment or in the woeful grabbiness of its brakes when coming to a stop - but mostly everywhere else; everywhere where it counts. It steers lightly and fast, and turns in effortlessly. It is significantly lighter than most of its rivals, and feels it everywhere. It is so perceivably light in fact that Alfa has seen fit to tether it to the ground like a helium balloon. On the optional adaptive dampers and 18-inch wheels, it rides with fluency and assurance and no small amount of the dynamic 'breathe' that Jaguar typically likes to attribute to its own saloons.

Because it is both comfortable and responsive, it carries cross-country speed breezily and with no lack of driver engagement. It ferried PH to Welshpool in fine style; just as it had ferried PH to and from Le Mans Classic the week before. Why Welshpool this week? Well, because in the centre of town there is a large pub that serves as a virtual satellite office for Mike Cross, Jaguar (and Land Rover)'s chief engineer. You'll have heard of Mike, of course, and his fabled position in JLR. He's here to personally endorse the 300 Sport - a model he describes as his current favourite - and to gently remind us of the XE's calibre as a driver's car.

Mike's enthusiasm (and patience with journalists) is a useful commodity for Jaguar because a less sympathetic audience might be tempted call the 300 Sport a makeweight, plain and simple. After all, it has a 300hp four-cylinder engine largely because the latest emissions strictures have necessitated the retirement of the rather more powerful six-cylinder engine that you used to be able to have in an XE. Moreover, the same legislation makes it very difficult for Gaydon to justify building an SVR version of the saloon (one without the word 'Project' in the title, at any rate), which means that the new trim level is rather left carrying the can.

Happily, it does this rather well. Right from the outset, the car - in a way not dissimilar to the Giulia - has a joined-up feel to it. Predominately this is because (despite the somewhat clunky name) the 300 Sport isn't particularly striving to be anything it isn't. Sure, there's 295lb ft from 1,500rpm and an all-wheel drive system to deploy it, but this isn't some bull-necked hot hatch rival, it's a fast(ish) saloon in the archetypal Jaguar mould: sleek, satisfying and mostly imperturbable.

Plainly its four-cylinder engine has been tuned to do the job of the missing six pot. It strives to be quiet and accommodating low down, and encouragingly urgent higher up. It does okay in isolation, helped no end by the eight-speed ZF 'box that accompanies it, and feels just about worthy of its quoted 5.4 second-to-60mph time. Subsequent experience of the (pre-facelift) C43 though reminded PH what two extra cylinders and an additional 67hp gets you: waft and whispering refinement are not yet in the Ingenium's club bag, nor the growling, tireless shove that comes on when you wind the larger AMG unit up.

For some of the way between Welshpool and Bala, this shortfall might potentially matter to you. But for the giant length of B-road stretching north between cattle grids, it would not. Because here the XE puts the Mercedes entirely to shame. It steers gloriously well - thicker and more accurately than the Giulia - and with a rate of response better in tune with its driven front axle. There's a meatier sense of directional stability to the Jaguar all round, partly a factor of four-wheel drive, but mostly to do with the way it hunkers down to business of communicating its contact patches as soon as you start driving with a bit more purpose.

Some of this hunkering, inevitably, is a side effect of the weight penalty carried by the 300 Sport. It is usefully lighter than the old 380 - the four-pot having liberated 34kg from the nose - yet the car is still the best part of 200kg heavier than the Veloce, and often feels it through the springs. Even so, the ride and handling compromise is well beyond the one coaxed from the C43 by AMG. Even on optional 20-inch wheels, and with the dampers in 'Dynamic' mode the XE doesn't grumble or gripe, it just clenches its jaw a fraction more than before and gets on with cornering and cosseting in just about ideal measure.

It's the kind of cutely judged balance we've seen in the XE before, which probably isn't surprising when you consider that the 300 Sport is less a new model and more a very well specced one. Aside from the badges and the odd bit of styling tinsel, there's nothing here that hasn't previously appeared on Jaguar's configurator - most of them in R Sport format or as a hefty cost option. Undeniably, that's a weakness from an exclusivity point of view. Especially when the XE starts at £45,640, and the latest C43, in saloon format with a 390hp V6, kicks off at £47,720. The Giulia Veloce is £38,265.

On balance though, while it misses the Mercedes-AMG poke and the Alfa's low mass mobility, the 300 Sport is the better car. It's pleasant to sit in, nice to look at (on the larger rims the XE's styling plainly needs) and - in among the B-roads it was developed on - drives precisely how a sporty-minded modern saloon should. Problem is, all that was basically true of the model in high spec format before, and has been since 2015. The new trim level reiterates just how multi-talented the XE is, and papers over the gap left by the V6 well enough - but there's still the nagging impression that its maker hasn't done enough to differentiate its range-topper in the same way that the C43 or Audi S4 or BMW 340i M-Sport can be easily told apart. Without finding a way to do that, Jaguar will likely encounter a familiar frustration: namely, that building the best car to drive isn't necessarily a cast-iron guarantee of success.

SPECIFICATION - JAGUAR XE 300 SPORT

Engine: 1,997cc, turbocharged 4-cyl
Transmission: 8-speed automatic, four-wheel drive
Power (hp): 300@5,500rpm
Torque (lb ft): 295@1,500-4,500rpm
0-62mph: 5.7sec
Top speed: 155mph
Weight: 1,690kg (EU, unladen)
MPG: 36.2
CO2: 177g/km
Price: £45,640