XF Sportbrake: How practical can a Jaguar be?

Menus

• How practical can a jaguar be?
• The smallest motor becomes the largest
• Driving on the wrong side
• Six-cylinder with 240 and 275 hp
• Base price from 48,550 euros
• No chance against Audi, BMW, Mercedes
• Interior design a bit too cold
• The golf bag fits neatly inside
• X-Type Estate was not a role model
• Four-wheel drive is coming again
• Exotic variety for the Chinese

How practical can a jaguar be?

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The Jaguar XF Sportbrake is identical to the sedan up to the B-pillar (middle door post), after that…

Source: Jaguar

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… come the combination rear and a visual trick: While the roof pulls back relatively straight, the designers have let the upper window edges run downwards, w…hat gives the car a sporty look.

Source: Jaguar

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The Sportbrake can be recognized from the rear by the chrome clasp between the taillights.

Source: Jaguar

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Lots of air, lots of light, lots of aluminum and a few buttons: typical, somewhat cool Jaguar interior design of the modern age.

Source: Jaguar

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With the rear seats folded forward, the luggage compartment is 1.90 meters long and has a level loading floor.

Source: Jaguar

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Unusual sight: a Jaguar as a lifestyle station wagon for young dynamic people – who need well paid jobs to be able to afford this car.

Source: Jaguar

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The loading sill of the XF Sportbrake is 72 centimeters high, the tailgate is equipped with an electric closing aid as standard. The flap can also be used for a surcharge …open and close completely electrically.

Source: Jaguar

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Designer suit in front of designer house. The XF Sportbrake is available with 200, 240 and 275 PS (always diesel), it is 214, 240 and 250 km / h fast and accelerates in 8.8, 7.1 and 6.6 seconds…n from 0 to 100 km / h.

Source: Jaguar

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In 2004 Jaguar started its first station wagon attempt with the X-Type Estate, but without much success.

Source: Jaguar

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The X-Type (also available as a sedan) was based on the Ford Mondeo and was never accepted as a real Jaguar.

Source: daad

With the new XF Sportbrake, the traditional English brand Jaguar is making the second attempt to establish a station wagon. But that’s not all: the car is only available with diesel engines – shocking!

D.he globalization is not for friends of tradition. You can see that quite clearly in the current and future model range from Jaguar: There is talk of station wagons, of diesel engines, of all-wheel drive and – honestly – of a four-cylinder for the flagship XJ.

It starts with the XF Sportbrake, and it combines the themes of station wagons and diesel. The 4.96 meter long van version of the XF sedan is only available with diesel engines – because it is only available in Europe.

The smallest motor becomes the largest

In the Old World, the diesel engine has such an overwhelming market share in business station wagons that the logistical effort for a gasoline variant is not worthwhile if you are a small manufacturer like Jaguar. And station wagons in the USA and China? Not really.

It doesn’t take a great prophetic gift to predict the greatest career for the smallest among the diesel engines. The 2.2 liter four-cylinder with 200 hp is a calm and acoustically very discreet source of power, which copes well with the 1824 kilogram car and offers a highly attractive standard consumption: 5.1 l / 100 km, less than any other car in this class.

Driving on the wrong side

During the first test drives in Scotland, left-hand traffic and the steering wheel mounted on the right stood in the way of driving pleasure more clearly than the possibly unsuitable engine.

How can you drive on the wrong side and still come up with such beautiful cars? In any case, the four-cylinder XF Sportbrake rolls confidently and calmly, its inherent roughness (compared to a six-cylinder) can only be noticed when you accelerate a little more on an incline or when overtaking.

Six-cylinder with 240 and 275 hp

Then the standard eight-speed automatic shifts down surprisingly quickly to keep the load going. And then, when the speed increases, the Jaguar sounds a little strained.

If you want to avoid this impression, go for the six-cylinder diesel with three liters of displacement, which is available in two versions: the standard model with 240 hp and the "S" version with 275 horsepower (both 6.2 l / 100 km according to EU -Standard).

Base price from 48,550 euros

The six-cylinder jumps forward vehemently when the desired pace changes, as the name of the car brand suggests. And to experience that is truly a pleasure, especially in the 3.0 V6 Diesel S, which has 600 instead of 500 Newton meters of maximum torque (in the four-cylinder it is 450 Nm).

But then you also have to be prepared to spend more money, namely not only 48,550 euros as with the base model (which costs 2,650 euros more than the sedan), but 52,550 euros for the V6 Diesel and 56,550 euros for the V6 Diesel S..

No chance against Audi, BMW, Mercedes

Jaguar is thus confidently joining the tariff structure of the market leaders Audi A6 Avant, BMW 5 Series Touring and Mercedes E-Class T-Model, but why not? Even with a significantly cheaper offer, the British alternative model would not knock the German triumvirate off its pedestal. You can safely say that to the Jaguar managers, they don’t contradict.

They will try to market their car as the special one among the business combinations, perhaps underlining the noble ambience and a certain light-footedness of the chassis. Neither is wrong, but the jaguar doesn’t really stand out here either.

Interior design a bit too cold

An A6 Avant is also light-footed, and the design and quality of its interior are above the competition, including the British. All in all, the XF looks neat and tidy, but it overdoes it with its hypothermia.

On the plus side, there is the cargo space: If you fold down the rear bench seat, which is very easy to do with the two handles on the side walls of the luggage compartment, you get what station wagon fans all over the country are looking for, but rarely find: a level cargo area.

The golf bag fits neatly inside

1675 liters are now available, and the Jaguar does not come close to the T-Model of the E-Class (1980 liters). But it can keep up with the other competitors, and if you’re honest, this class is not about the maximum load volume either.

The main thing is that the luggage compartment is so wide that you can bring in a golf bag even when the rear seat is upright without having to put it down at an angle. That, as they say at Jaguar, succeeds – even if you go to the golf course in pairs. And that would satisfy the demands of many traditionalists.

X-Type Estate was not a role model

It remains to be seen whether the station wagon will succeed in establishing a new Jaguar tradition. In any case, the first attempt, with the smaller model X-Type Estate (2004-2009), did not succeed.

However, this was less due to the station wagon idea than to the X-Type model itself, which was also available as a sedan and which was too conspicuously designed on the basis of the Ford Mondeo.

Four-wheel drive is coming again

So that Jaguar customers didn’t have to drive around with its front-wheel drive, the X-Type got all-wheel drive, but that didn’t help. The car has not received a successor, and if there is another Jaguar below the XF, then it will be a redesign.

With all-wheel drive, however, Jaguar wants to start again soon, such a variety will be presented in the XF and in the large XJ. Not in the XF Sportbrake, however, because all-wheel drive will only be available for gasoline models, so they will be a rarity on European roads.

Exotic variety for the Chinese

The XJ with four-cylinder gasoline engine, two-liter displacement and 200 hp doesn’t even come to Europe – and that’s perhaps a good thing. This peculiar variant is reserved for the Chinese market, where it enjoys significant tax advantages. In addition, the owners of elegant limousines in China like to sit in the back, and the chauffeurs can then struggle with the weak engine.

The XF Sportbrake, on the other hand, is – with all the space and all the practical benefits it has to offer – more of a car that you enjoy behind the wheel, i.e. in front. And to be very precise, dear Englishmen: front left.

Follow “Welt” reporter Stefan Anker on Twitter: http://twitter.com/StefanAnker.

The trip to the presentation of the XF Sportbrake was supported by Jaguar. You can find our standards of transparency and journalistic independence at www.axelspringer.de/unabhaengigkeit

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