20 TOP GEAR PHILIPPINES WWW.topgear.com.ph

things you need

to know

about

the new jag xf

Smaller than an XJ, bigger than an XE, really quite new

5

NEW METAL

It’s a whole lot cleverer

Against Germany’s big three, the XF has long lagged in the tech depart-

ment. The new car aims to digitally stick it to the Deutschlanders: on the

inside, there’s lofty talk of 60GB solid-state hard drives, Wi-Fi hotspots and

color head-up displays. Outside—as well as the standard gamut of lane-keep assist,

auto-braking and adaptive cruise control—the XF promises to ‘intelligently’ keep to

local speed limits, monitoring signage and adapting the car’s speed accordingly.

It’s evolved, not,

um, revolved

The first-gen XF, launched in

2007 , has been a quiet success

story for Jaguar, so the MkII saloon

doesn’t mess with the formula. Though

a fraction shorter than its predecessor,

the XF gains a couple of inches in the

wheelbase, while that familial design

masks a slipperier shape, its drag coef-

ficient falling from 0.28 to 0.26. It’s

rear-drive as standard, though some as-

yet-unspecified markets will get AWD.

It’s keeping

things light

By employing yet more alumi-

num in the XF’s construction, Jag

has managed to reduce weight further,

claiming the new car has lost as much

as 180kg, spec for spec. The base

diesel XF, we’re told, is 80kg lighter

than its nearest competitor, though

Jaguar doesn’t specify who it considers

competitors (we’re assuming BMW

and Merc rather than, say, Ariel

and Caterham).

No V8...yet

The XF’s launch powerplants center

on JLR’s new Ingenium modular

engine range, with a 2.0, four-

cylinder turbodiesel in two states of tune:

161 hp and 178hp. The former promises

CO2 emissions as low as 104g/km and

economy as lofty as 30km/L, which Jag

reckons is class-leading for non-hybrids.

Less sensibly, you can opt for a 3.0 V6 in

diesel or supercharged petrol flavor, the

latter making a healthy 375hp. No word

on an XF-R armed with Jag’s trusty 5.0

V8, but fear not, it’ll be along soon.

It faces much competition

Until this year, the XF was Jaguar’s smallest saloon, with only the vast

XJ for four-door company. But now, the XE is on the scene, Jag’s alu-

minum-clad answer to the BMW 3-Series is aiming to undermine its big

brother. Throw in same-size rivals from the Merc E-Class and BMW 5-Series—

along with Audi’s soon-to-be-replaced A6, Infiniti Q70, Lexus GS, Maserati

Ghibli and likely a few others—and the XF looks to have its work cut out.

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Cabin features

novel application

of ‘technology’