CHASING THE YOUTH VOTE
Despite lots to like, the new Jaguar XE may not appeal to its intended younger market
Will the Jaguar XE appeal to its youthful target market?
Driving the new Jaguar XE out of Edinburgh after lunch with my adult son, I was musing how much this car suited me – as it might suit many a reader of Scottish Field. Grateful on a bitingly cold day for the heated steering wheel and luxuriating in my heated seat; relishing the needle sharpness of the 380w Meridian system and marvelling at the elastic ease with which the XE’s ultra-hightech suspension system absorbed the bumps of the New Town’s cobbled streets, I found myself thinking: ‘I could happily live with this car.’
Then I realised, that’s the last thing Jaguar want to hear. They don’t want some near-septuagenarian dressed in old cords and deer-stalking coat to be fancying the XE.
They yearn for the approval of people like my son, who is a marketing executive in his thirties. They crave hipsters to persuade their companies to give them this car instead of a BMW 3 Series, a Mercedes C-Class or an Audi A4. PLUs (people like us) would be death to Jaguar’s hopes that the XE – on the development of which they have spent billions – will break the brand into a new market.
As a competitor in the compact executive class, the XE is an emphatic improvement on Jaguar’s last effort. The X-type, produced from 2001-2009 under Ford’s ownership of Jaguar, was essentially a re-skinned Mondeo. It didn’t look like a Jaguar, feel like a Jaguar or – in frontwheel form – drive anything like a Jaguar.
Fortunately, Ian Callum, Jaguar’s Dumfriesborn director of design, understands what makes a Jaguar down to the soles of his bespoke shoes. His mastery shows in the deep, muscular flanks of the XE, its determined snout and emphatic rear end. From every angle, it’s obvious the XE means business. That coherent certainty of purpose is also evident in the interior where the sweeping curve of the fascia is reminiscent of a classic speedboat.
It is also evident under the bonnet. The 2.0-litre diesel in the rear-wheel drive, £34,000 version I borrowed puts out 163 bhp transmitted t hrough an eight-speed semi-automatic gearbox with steering-wheel paddles. With acceleration from 0-60 mph in 7.7 seconds and top speed of 132 mph, this is more than enough for the XE to hold its own against its German rivals, while the driving dynamics and handling characteristics are almost on a par with the best of BMW and Mercedes. I relished my week with the XE in all conditions – New Town lanes, motorways, A-roads and especially when gunning it on the 24-mile circuit of minor roads through the Ochils, which is my standard test route.
As a 3 Series challenger, the XE stands in the same relation to Jaguar’s larger XF as the 3 Series is to BMW’s 5 Series. In other words, it’s too tight in the back. When my wife made herself comfortable in the front, our older daughter – who is only 13 – had barely enough space for her legs in the seat behind. The boot is also too small for a family car.
But the XE is not designed for families. It’s meant to show taste, discernment, responsibility and high fashion sense (along with an unabashed awareness of what the employee is worth) when the ambitious young Turk crunches it across the gravel at the boss’s house for dinner.
How convincingly would it play this role? When I asked my 33-year-old son whether he would buy an XE, he was scathing. ‘To me,’ he replied, ‘Jaguar means old, staid and self-impor tant. There’s no way I would want to see myself in those terms.’ Alas, Jaguar: you may deserve better, but PLUs might be your best hope.
‘I relished my week with the XE in all conditions, especially when gunning it on the minor roads’