The era of the GBP80,000+ Jaguar estate has arrived. That’s quite a reach for the seven-year old XF range. JLR won’t sell many R-S Sportbrakes but it’s a gutsy move to get this brand up into the maximum-margin segments, and boost the image of cheaper models.
Will the once eyebrow-raising strategy of pushing Range Rover prices sky high now also work for Jaguar’s largest estate? The jury remains out, especially as worldwide sales of the XF saloon, XJ and F-TYPE are still not where they ought to be for a serious luxury-sporting brand. That Lexus, an importer to the region, now outsells Jaguar across Europe, won’t have gone unnoticed by Tata Motors. Happily, with UK registrations up 37% in December to 1,356 cars, and 18,401 for CY2014, it’s clear that Jaguar is finally on its way back, in the home market at least.
Go deeper with GlobalData
The R&D investments were signed off long ago but 2015 is the year that the leaping cat brand must really deliver on TML’s faith. The XE saloon is the major news for this year and we hope that a Sportbrake will also be added in 2016. Without it, Jaguar is going to find it hard to make much of an impact in the D-premium segment, particularly in Britain. The competition is strong and BMW, having seen a big drop in sales of the 3 Series in Germany in Q4 of 2014, has brought forward that model range’s mid-life facelift. There’s also a new A4 in 2015 and the C-Class is selling very well indeed. So the XE will certainly not be entering a segment lacking in top-quality, competitive models.
One of the most intriguing things about the XE is its already announced pricing, which will undercut the Germans. Will that also be the case when the XF is replaced? We don’t know yet. What we do know, is that the job of the new XFR-S Sportbrake is to place the brand higher up the food chain. As was the case with the F-TYPE, a car that is still viewed by many as pretty pricey, this copying of the Range Rover philosophy is a big risk. Still, in the UK, as those December registrations numbers demonstrate, the new strategy would appear to be the correct one: affordability at the lower end of each model range, with much dearer range-topping variants building a truly upmarket, high-performance image.
As ever with any brand’s attempt to shift its image, product is all, no matter how slick the marketing campaign. The R-S Sportbrake is further evidence that Jaguar is on the right track: this is a phenomenally exciting car to drive, and to look at. And you should hear it.
The big question is this: is eighty grand too much to pay for a Jaguar estate? Not at all. This car is every bit as good as an E 63 AMG when it comes to exhaust note sound, and that matters to those who will buy it. Build quality, chassis stiffness, roadholding, and handling are all superb too. It betters the Benz in standard equipment and to many eyes, mine included, for its styling too, even if the interior is let down here and there by the use of several items which have been bettered in JLR’s newest models.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataThe company has done a superb job of modernising the XF range for the 2015 model year and the R-S Sportbrake is the new range-topper. It likely also readies the car for what should be higher price points when X260, the replacement for the current X250 goes on sale towards the end of 2015. This will be made in the same plant as the existing saloon and estate, which is Castle Bromwich in the English Midlands. There will also be assembly at a Tata Motors facility in Pune, and additional build in China as part of the Chery-JLR joint venture.
X260 saloon production is said to be due to commence at Castle Brom in the third quarter of 2015 with the Sportbrake to follow from July 2016. Chinese production of X261, a special long wheelbase saloon, is also due to start in 2016. The new model’s platform will be closely related to the aluminium architecture of the XE.
Despite its age, this is one of those cars that somehow got better as it got older. It’s hard to believe that the 2015 model year XF can trace its roots to the Lincoln LS and S-TYPE, but it can. Same DEW98 platform and quite a bit else remain from the Ford era, such as the basic design of the engines. To me, the R-S looks absolutely spot on so I just hope the successor doesn’t end up being a tweaked version of this one. Is it just me who thinks the original TT and New Beetle still look so much better outside and in, than their successors?
The 20” wheels and bodykit which come standard suit it, and, unlike the F-TYPE there aren’t too many Leaper, Growler and JAGUAR badges. Despite there being quite a lot of XF estates around, this one turned a few heads and its crackling exhaust raised a smile from pedestrians on two occasions, which was a surprise.
So if the exterior is as sexy as it needs to be for the target buyer, then Jaguar also got the Opening Ceremony right: the DRL look great as they illuminate from the unlocking plip, each one being a McLaren-like swish. Climb in, hold down the red-pulsing START/STOP button and the vents swing upwards and open as the auto gear selector levitates, just as they do on every XF. There is, however, one utterly delicious special detail on the R-S: the whirring of the starter motor, which lingers for a couple of seconds. The engine is awakened and announces itself with a note somewhere between bass and baritone, spins briefly to 2,000rpm and drops back to idle. Look in the mirror and you see four clouds of vapour rising from the cold exhausts, and the windscreen soon de-ices courtesy of the standard Ford-sourced Quickclear electric wires embedded in it.
The gear selector dial has PRND and S markings, and there are also buttons for Winter, Traction Control off, Dynamic mode, and ASL. The parking brake is electric and seamless, one of the best in the business in fact. You recognise lots of existing JLR components but that’s good as many of them are shared with the Range Rover. Everything you touch feels good, and there are lots of nice details such as the perfect fit of the glovebox and its soft lining, and a lack of play in the door handles and column stalks. People with useful OCDs must have been involved in the design of this interior. If you hate things rattling around in your car’s door pockets and other stowage places then you’ll like this car. The big and beautifully carpeted boot has a clever false floor that concertinas so you can just lift it and then lower it to rest on an umbrella or a gym bag or a briefcase. Corner as hard as you want; there will be no sliding about of chattels.
There is a subtle but noticeable bonnet bulge immediately in your line of sight and the 190mph (300km/h) speedometer is just a little bit exciting too. No silly spinning of the speedo and tacho needles upon firing the engine, either. The top speed is no doubt why this car has some of the best windscreen wipers I have encountered. The washers are built into them and no spray goes on the roof or windows, and they never scrape or make any kind of noise at high velocities. Would that certain other manufacturers could apply the same level of obsessive detail to their own super-sport sedans.
The car is wide and long but it’s nonetheless very easy to place on the road and just ridiculously fast. Zero to 100km/h takes 4.8 seconds and there is no drama, no howl, no twitchiness from the back end – just supreme power and torque. Perhaps it’s the cool blue interior lighting and the general understated Englishness of the interior but it’s quite a relaxing car, which seems odd given the performance. You can just meander around town and never discover the vast speed that one firm press of the throttle pedal will unleash.
This 550hp supercharged 5,000cc V8 is the same one that powers the F-TYPE R Coupe. Even though it also has four tailpipes, it isn’t quite so loud, which is a shame. But there again, it can certainly assert its presence if you press down hard enough. Equally, pulling the paddle shifters for downshifts instead of or in combination with the brakes provides fantastically showy pop-burble-zing. This is pure tailpipe porn. On tap. And, it’s totally addictive.
Does this look and feel like a properly expensive car? It does. The leather covering the top of the dashboard and doors has double stitching, there is no sign of twee timber, just glossy black plastic and carbon-look trim. The HVAC controls are the usual well thought out JLR ones, and there’s a heated steering wheel to go with what can be piping hot front seats. This is all done via the touchscreen, and the Navi system is also up to JLR’s usual high standard.
One criticism is that the infotainment system can take a few seconds to fire up sometimes, and I also want to say that the steering wheel doesn’t look like that of a sports car: it’s a shame the F-TYPE R’s couldn’t be fitted. Does it need all-wheel drive? Well, maybe, for some people but then what about leery slides? There is so much torque that even in Winter mode, a tiny touch of oversteer is still possible. You quickly see that the R-S was (very thoroughly) developed by petrolheads.
All that performance does come at a price, which was an average 20.1mpg in my hands. The official numbers are a sobering 14.8mpg for Urban, 22.2mpg for Combined and 31.4 for Extra urban. Just imagine what the MPG is if you ever get the car on an autobahn to see how close it will get to the 186mph official (and limited) V-Max. The ZF eight-speed auto gets you into the higher ratios very quickly on a light throttle, but as there’s no stop-start, the CO2 is 297g/km. Ouch. Perhaps the Range Rover SDV8’s 4.4-litre diesel might be an option for the next XF R-S?
The ride is perhaps the most surprising thing about this car: it’s just so comfortable and you would never know it’s a supercar. Stomp the accelerator and it’s hilariously lairy; the back will try to slide wide but in a millisecond it’s tamed and you just surge forwards as if in a 911. There is no noticeable tail-squat or nose-lift either.
Body roll? What body roll? Black ice was much in evidence during my brief affair with the R-S Sportbrake but never did it trouble this car. An illuminated snowflake in the instrument panel and the occasional automatically corrected slight slippage from one of the back tyres was the only way you’d know. Such a well-sorted chassis. I wish the engine looked as good as it sounds, and maybe it does, but it’s hidden by a big soft-plastic cover which is of course all to do with pedestrian protection.
If you’ve got to the end of this review feeling shortchanged that you can’t hear and see this particular feral feline, then here’s some good news: Jaguar has provided us with a rather spectacular video. OK, it’s the saloon not the estate, but in all other ways, it’s identical. Enjoy. Be warned, though. After I found it, viewing it became as addictive as driving the R-S was. The final press test car of 2014 turned out to be one of my favourites.
