The Jaguar XF is potentially the most important car ever to be introduced by the company and with growing European sales; it is now time for a Malaysian revival. Yes, the XF gets a revival in the most important area, under the hood. Before, the smallest displacement engine in the XF range was a 3-liter petrol which lost out to the engine downsizing by its German competitors (1.8 and 2-liter turbocharged engines). Now Jaguar engineers have installed a 2-liter turbocharged petrol engine, borrowed from its parent, Land Rover.
To start, XF designer, Ian Callum and his design team completely modernized the Jaguar XF appearance without losing its inherent characteristics. The front grille, headlights and bonnet lines were all apparently influenced by an early Jaguar, but the detailing on the coach have been brought up to date.
As before, the XJ cabin cannot be mentioned without explaining the starting sequence, as it really is a sense of occasion. On entering the car, the engine start button calls to you. Press it once and the multi-media screen lights up and the previously hidden air vents rotate into position. Press it again and the engine fires into life and a cylinder shaped rotary gear selector rises out of the centre console. No other segment competitor or beyond offers such an entertaining start to your drive.
Clearly aimed at the audience currently driving German luxury sedans, this XF is not all about driving around tight lines through long sweeping bends and top end power; instead it is a well appointed comfort damped luxury cruiser. This becomes obvious when you get behind the steering, the nice leather bound wheel offering good feel. This XF is now backed with a chassis that’s biased towards comfort, the suspension soaking up with aplomb what few bumps were apparent on the non-toll roads heading away from the city we drove it on. There is little rolloing and diving as you enjoy the well appointed drive. Highway driving produces pure luxury driving and passenger comfort.
The XF’s engine produces 240 horsepower and it gets a little bit overwhelmed by the XF’s weight in city traffic where the engine needs a little more of the rev-counter’s sweep before it really feels exciting. The automatic transmission is smooth. Drive this XF in manual and it gets much better. The manual progress reveals the 340Nm of torque and this carries the XF through a sequence of corners well. Despite a pleasingly comfortable ride, there is precious little body roll, even when the tyres are beginning to protest. The exemplary body control is also illustrated by a lack of pitch under acceleration or dive under heavy braking. On top of that, the steering offers about as much communication as other cars in the class, which is all that is required of an executive model really.
This XF now makes more sense for executive and company car purchasers.
Jaguar XF 2L Turbo Specifications
Engine: 4-cylinders 16V Turbo
Power: 240bhp @ 5500rpm
Torque: 340Nm @ 1800-5000rpm
Capacity: 1999cc
Transmission: 6-speed
Top Speed: 240km/h
0-100km/h: 7.9sces
Price: From RM388,888.00
