Dave Moore.
JAGUAR’S XF sports sedan has aged well. Its coupe-like four-door body style has been with us for six years now and so quickly do car fashions change these days that it’s hard to find a car from anyone else in this bracket that has lasted as long with such elegance, with most of its competitors having had complete redesigns over that time.
All Jaguar has done to refresh the XF is to give it the sliver-like headlamps it should always have had, replacing the sleepy-looking upside-down items it was born with.
The car was the last Jaguar to have been designed, engineered and launched entirely under the aegis of previous owners Ford, and it has been a solid seller ever since, despite not being made from the aluminium it was designed for, thanks to the Detroit giant’s tight purse strings.
The extra cash that new Indian owner Tata has injected into Jaguar/Land Rover (JLR) has allowed Jaguar to develop its first station wagon since the worthy, but hardly wonderful, Mondeo-derived X-type, the resulting vehicle having just one thing in common with that car: it actually looks better than the sedan from which it is derived.
That was damning the X-type with faint praise, but not the XF, which was gorgeous to begin with. In fact, hand-on-heart, the Sportbrake, as it is called, is beautifully proportioned with a delicacy of line where the side glasses taper and flare that gives it even more presence on the road than the sedan has.
The Sportbrake went on sale in its native market in October 2012. It has a load capacity of 550 litres with the seats up and a massive 1675 litres when the 60:40 split rear bench is folded – this can be done with a remote one-touch function. All-up, the load area’s maximum length is 1970mm and its width 1064mm.
An added benefit for the Sportbrake’s owner is that the roofline increases rear headroom by 48mm over the sedan, making it much more airy and spacious for backseat passengers.
In Britain, the Sportbrake is being offered in 13 versions, while we get just two, albeit with the same two powertrain choices as the UK gets – a 2.2-litre four and 3.0-litre V6 turbodiesels, with 147kW and 202kW on tap respectively and each with an eight-speed automatic transmission. Our specifications are pretty high, however, with the starter car being the 2.2 Sportbrake Luxury at $95,000 and the 3.0 Sportbrake S at $120,000. They are stickered lower than you could buy any Jaguar here just two years ago.
There are 4WD versions of the XF and XJ sold in the United States and soon Sportbrakes will join the North American lineup too with similar drivetrains, though we’re told that it will be a while before right-hand-drive versions will gain a 4x4 setup.
Supercharged V6 petrol versions are expected in good time for all markets, though V8s aren’t on the planning board just yet.
We’d just like to see one version of the Sportbrake with the XF sedan’s entry engine, the 2.0-litre turbopetrol four it shares with the XF sedan XJ, Range Rover Evoque, Volvo, and a raft of Fords. The Sportbrake might well be the most practical Jaguar for a long time, but it does live up to the Sport part of its name, with the diesel four taking just over eight seconds for the zero to ‘‘sorry officer’’ sprint, while the V6 carves two whole seconds off that with a hothatch-like time of 6.2 seconds by our clock.
Respective combined fuel economy rates for the two engines, according to EU figures, are 5.1 litres and 6.1 litres/100km with CO emissions of 139 and 163g/km.
Progress with either diesel engine is quiet and smooth with the new eight-speed automatic, which also has a lot to do with the economy figures, while the standard Stop/Start also helps, improving emissions, says Jaguar, by up to 6 per cent on its own.
While V6 diesel XFs are irrefutably the performance champs, the cheaper, less powerful diesel four is no letdown, and feels remarkably flexible, surfing the car along on a swell of mid-range torque that makes driving the car a calming, road-rage-free experience.
With this kind of implacable powertrain doing the work, driving is brisk without ever seeming like a race, though as we said, it will get to high speed as well as anything else in its class.
For the New Zealand market, the Sportbrake’s all-the-fruit specification includes Jaguar Drive Control, with Winter and Sport modes on the 2.2-litre and Dynamic mode for the 3.0-litre.
The smaller-engined car gets passive suspension while the V6 takes adaptive dynamics, where the suspension adjusts for driving needs.
The comfort front includes heated leather seating in both cars, along with dual-zone climate control, GPS sat-nav and automatic lights and wipers.
The options list is huge and the car in the pictures displays the black-finished items available, so your Sportbrake can be as flash or restrained as you like.
However, the standard package on conventionally finished wheels and with any one of 11 tones other than white, looks pretty swish without the need to choose from the personalising options and ac- cessories, which include five different wheel designs from 18 to 20 inch, and several veneer and leather offerings.
Our test car had the 20-inch Kaliminos black-finished sports wheels and even that did a great job of ironing out bumps, which can sometimes be a hard ask for station wagons which have to balance load-oriented suspension settings with day-to-day comfort and, in the Jaguar’s case, sporting feel and responses.
That it copes is less than a surprise for the XF, for it’s known as already possessing the best blend of ride and handling in this segment, where it competes with the A6, E-class, Lexus GS and 5-series.
With no hint of boom and noise from the load area, and what felt like a chassis well placed to be called best in class, with loads of balance, grip and poise, the XF Sportbrake is a remarkable day-to-day drive and one of the least compromised wagons we’ve ever driven.
What the eventual four-wheeldrive versions will feel like, we can only imagine.
There are some quibbles. The V6 didn’t seem as quiet as the four in day-to-day use and while the ride was exemplary, we would possibly opt for 18 or 19-inch rims to try to quell some of the road noise emanating from the sexylooking but noisy-sounding 20-inchers.
The XF Sportbrake might be the first rear-drive wagon that Jag-