Team-BHP - Jaguar XF 5.0 V8!

Well I’ve been a member at team-bhp for quiet a while now. I used these forums to decide between purchasing a Honda Civic and an Octavia RS back in 2006! (Bought the RS for those interested to know)

I haven’t written much over the last 3 years since I didn’t have anything really worthwhile to say; only reading other fellow member’s experiences and reviews. So I guess its time I made some contribution!

What has really surprised me thus far has been the lack of threads about the Jaguar XF! I would have thought by now, there would be plenty of noise made about this beauty. Looking around the forums, I could not see a single thread about the XF after its launch here in India. Its pretty much been the BMW, Merc and Audi hogging up the Luxury, Imports & Niche forum!

So I decided to do this British feline some justice and give it its own thread.

My family and I booked the Jaguar XF and Audi A6 for a test drive this past week. We really had no intention on buying the XF and my dad only agreed to a test drive due to my nagging.

So we entered the showroom at about 4:30 in the evening (not yet peak traffic time). I Looked around and was impressed by the very well made showroom. It felt very large and luxurious and not just a small area enough for the cars. We were greeted by our extremely knowledgeable and helpful sales lady who then took us through the features of the XF while the test car was getting ready.

There were two XF models parked next to each other; A 510bhp supercharged XF-R in a beautiful black and the 5.0 380bhp in an unappealing red. I say ‘unappealing’ because that colour simply did not look great on this car. The black, on the other hand, in one word? WOWWWWWWWWWWWW. Simply gorgeous. Ditto for the black on the XF we test drove.

I initially did not like the front of the car (wished they had gone with the concept C-XF look), specifically the rounded central head lamps. But after staring at it in person, this dam thing grew on me. The rear side view still looks the best, with the front coming in a close second. There are some very subtle things that makes it look fantastic like the bulging bonnet in the center and the curves near the headlamps. Very classy and very nice.

This car is extremely beautiful indeed. One of the best looking cars in the world in my opinion. Definitely better than its competition, the BMW 5, Merc E-class(2009) and the Audi A6. The lovely swooping low end, the Aston-Martin like behind, the aggressive stance and the bulging bonnet to name a few make this saloon, or rather 4 door GT look irresistible.

Now onto the interiors. How do you enter the car? Simple! Just keep the key in your pocket (or anywhere on you) and the car shall grant you access! How do you start the car? Well, with the key in you pocket, look at that glowing red button (like a heartbeat) under the central console - Yup, the one that says start/stop engine. Press it and your greeted by the ac vents opening and some majestic blue lighting that fills the car. Mesmerizing indeed. Then you look around and try to find the gear selector. You ask yourself wheres that stick with which I select gears?! Looking....looking......looking....not found (Kidding). You have to press the brake and press the start/stop button again. Doing so makes this rotatory knob rise from the console. Yup, thats the gear selector! Car theatrics at its best.

Took some time to take in the interiors. Very nice. Not many buttons on the console (unlike the a6 we drove after) due to the 7 inch in-dash touch screen which pretty much lets you control everything in the car. Seats are very comfortable with the ability to warm them (In India? I’d like to see that being used) and cool them (yeah thats what I'm talking about). Memory for two seating positions; one for my dad and one for me. My driver looked on smiling; little did he know that he wouldn’t be allowed to drive this if we bought it :p.
One thing I wasn’t too found of was the look of the GUI. Its very functional but seems like your using windows xp (colorful, nice and plain) but not the eye candy of the mac os x or windows 7. Also, the interface seemed a tad less responsive than what I’d prefer. Minor complaints I would say.

Seats behind were comfortable as well although 3 might be slightly uncomfortable. I honestly don’t know how comfortable it is to sit behind and how it is over potholes since I was driving throughout. Will test this again when we go on Sunday for our second drive.

Now onto the ICE: Happy with having a Bose system in your car? Hell NO! This baby’s got a 14 speaker ( 13 + 1 Subwoofer) 440W Bowers & Wilkins system. How is it in one word? Superbbbbbbbbbb. The best system i’ve heard in a car to date. Going to take my iPod next time and check it out further. This one (Portfolio in India) has got a usb port and an auxillary jack to connect pretty much any music source. You can every attach a hard disk and play it off that. Awesome.

Lets get to what you guys really want to know - The Drive.

Its simply exhilarating. I’m used to driving the RS and this blows it out of the water in every way. Not a correct comparison, I know, but the RS is by no means a slouch.
I took two quick rounds of sea-face( should have gone on the sea-link but there was way too much traffic at 5). Quick only because this car begged me not to go below 100. I did my best to oblige. The car was very responsive and it felt very easy to drive through our traffic. My Camry, on the other hand, feels to big to drive in the city. But this car felt just right. The steering was also spot on. At lower speeds it felt light and easy to maneuver. Picking up speed the steering seemed to have stiffened up and weighed nicely like that of the RS.
Onto the engine. This 5.0l V8 is a beast pumping out 380 horses. Turning on the engine and hearing the exhaust note was incredible. The noise feels heavy and powerful making sure everyone knows whats under that bonnet. Very different from the RS which makes a sort of low whistle noise and is in no way loud. The engine was very response and rotating the knob into ‘S’, and using the paddle shifts was just a splendid experience. We had stopped at one signal and there were no cars ahead of me. With a smile on my face I pressed and turned the dial into ‘s’, waiting for the signal to turn green and floored the pedal. For a brief instance you could feel that the car was going to propel you like a rocket. And sure enough, it did. Booooom, like the start of a crazy roller-coaster (The Hulk in Orlando, Florida), the XF just shot us ahead. 60, 70, 80, 90......brake :( - could not have been more than 5 seconds till we reached the next signal!

Even though I didn’t make use of most of the power, I knew it could be summoned when needed. Can’t think of where I’d use it other than the expressway which is very disheartening since I will only occasionally travel on it if we bought the car. Even then, its still good to know you have that reservoir of power on demand. Too much power is NEVER a bad thing, right?

So with that, I’ll just wait for the second test drive to explore the car further. I am completely smitten by it as you can tell. It is some exquisite piece of engineering and design. This is a car you cannot/should not be driven in. You must DRIVE it. I wouldn’t let my driver touch it. Ever. Even the valet guys won’t get their hands on it. I’ll make them get in the back seat and point me in the direction of the parking lot. Keys will be with me no matter what. Which reminds me about the nifty feature of the key. If you give it to the valet, there is a part of the key you remove which makes it impossible for the valet to open the boot, operate the ICE and other minor things should you ever hand those keys to the valet. (I wouldn’t know how you would have the strength or the heart to do something so horrible)

I salute you Ian Callum and Jaguar for making a fabulous piece of machinery!

Don’t know if I’ve forgotten anything. If so I will update this entry. Till then, go test drive this beast. You owe yourself that.

Will post pics after i’ve taken them on Sunday. Have only one pic which isn’t that good since my dad took it with his camera!