Big cat purrs

Delivers his verdict on the Jaguar XJ in long wheelbase form

The Jaguar XJ might be a rarity on our roads, but it doesn’t lack for presence. It is testament to Ian Callum’s forward-thinking design that it looks as fresh now as it did when it appeared seven years ago.

It’s undergone a few revisions since then, of course, but they have been of the blink and you’ll miss them variety. The car you see today is almost identical to the original.

It’s a very fluid design, with few abrupt changes in direction and very little wasted metal. It looks lean, taught and planted.

The rear lights – as distinctive as the rest of the car – are all LED and, according to Jaguar, styled to look like cat’s claw marks.

It’s all relative, of course, but extensive use of aluminium – body panels and chassis – helps keep the weight down.

The XJ that I’m reviewing gets an additional 125mm between the wheels compared to the standard-length car but, Jaguar claims, the longwheelbase matches the dynamic prowess of its sibling.

The rear of the cabin is cavernous, of course, but front seat passengers don’t miss out either. There’s ample room for the tallest of drivers, yet the impression from the cockpitlike driver’s seat with its wrap-around console and high transmission tunnel is one of a much smaller, much sportier machine.

It’s hard to find fault with, what is, an ergonomically refined and beautifully crafted interior.

Leather and wood are the dominant materials, putting in an appearance on just about every surface you can lay your hands on.

Conventional dials have been replaced with a high resolution digital display.

The infotainment centre, which for so long lagged so far behind the competition, has been updated across the Jaguar/Land Rover stables and is, these days, a much more competitive package. It still falls a little short of the very best, but there’s no longer the feeling that you’re being shortchanged.

The Autobiography trim also comes equipped with a magnificent 1,300W Meridian sound system to fill the cavernous cabin with lustrous audio.

Boot volume stands at a class average 520 litres.

The 3.0-litre V6 diesel fitted to my test car produces 271bhp and 516lbft of torque.

The sprint to 62mph takes 6.2 seconds, and that level of forward momentum is enough to pin you back in your seat.

Performance does not come at the sacrifice of refinement. The diesel is audible when you work it hard, but with very few clues that it’s an oil burner, and once you settle down to a cruise, you’re propelled along in a cocoon of hushed indifference.

The engine drives the rear wheels through a slick eightspeed automatic.

The ride is sublime. With steel coils at the front and self-levelling air suspension at the rear, for the most part the XJ rides with all the splendid isolation that you would expect from a luxury saloon.

And that agility, that inherent sportiness, brings me back to the driver’s seat which is, maybe surprisingly in what is essentially a stretched limousine, the place where I’d always want to be. Make no mistake, despite weighing almost two tonnes the XJ, even in long wheelbase spec, is every inch a driver’s car.

It’s this intoxicating combination of luxury saloon and sports car that makes the XJ such a compelling machine. That it’s still as competitive as it is, despite its age, simply makes it even more enticing.