Jaguar XJ D Portfolio LWB Autocar Review
Test date Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Price as tested £67,400
For Effortless performance, engine refinement, well judged mix of ride and handling
Against Occasional wind noise, some cabin disappointments, precious little else
1. Background
The last time we road tested a Jaguar XJ we concluded that it was “a great shame this cutting-edge car is wrapped up in a body and interior that hark back to a different age”.
Despite its landmark diesel engine, advanced aluminium structure and air suspension that allowed it to “beat its rivals for refinement and luxuriousness”, there was no doubt that the XJ TDVi should have been “more confident and more forward-looking”.
Fast forward five years and the latest XJ couldn’t be more different. That it’s more confident and forward-looking in appearance is in absolutely no doubt. It’s part of an outwardly and inwardly revived Jaguar marque that seems more comfortable within itself, having found its place as a maker of, as Jaguar’s strapline says, “fast, beautiful cars”.
There are faster XJs than the variant we’re testing. Jaguar is offering normally aspirated V8 and supercharged V8 petrol-engined versions of this luxury saloon, but it’s the diesel version that interests our road test – and will interest the market – the most.
2. Design
Even though it’s still a saloon, the latest XJ looks like no other XJ before it. Gone is the low-slung three-box look, replaced by design director Ian Callum’s vision for a 21st-century luxury car.
Certainly the XJ is forward-looking, and as with most advanced designs it doesn’t entirely avoid courting controversy. We know it’s subjective but, for the record, we like the XJ’s overall design stance, even if we’re not entirely convinced about its rear.
Where the latest XJ does follow its predecessor is in the use of aluminium for its body panels and chassis, an expensive process but one that, in the luxury class, only Audi’s A8 shares. Unsullied by the A8’s four-wheel drive system, however, the rear-wheel-drive XJ is one of the lightest cars in this class – barely 40kg heavier than the smaller (though steel-built) XF saloon even in this long-wheelbase form.
As usual, the XJ comes in a choice of long or short-wheelbase versions. But, unusually, both have been developed alongside each other, with chassis development of the long-wheelbase car even taking precedence at times.
The thinking is that drivers should barely be able to tell them apart, to avoid the impression one often gets from long-wheelbase luxury cars that they are the poor relation to their finely honed shorter siblings. Hence we’re testing the long-wheelbase XJ.
It also features a 3.0-litre, twin-turbocharged V6 diesel engine – the powerplant that will inevitably constitute the majority of XJ sales in the UK. It is mated to a six-speed automatic transmission.
3. On the road
Five years ago Jaguar finally woke up to a fact each of its German rivals had known for years. It’s all well and good having a flagship high-output, big-capacity petrol in your executive saloon range, but it’s diesels that sell. And when we tested the first diesel XJ back in 2005, we wondered why Jaguar hadn’t done it sooner, the torquey 2.7-litre V6 delivering both the smoothness and response required of a big Jag.
The new XJ gets a revised version of that original 2.7, now enlarged to displace 3.0 litres. While the same engine is available in the XF in two states of tune, the XJ gets only the high-output version with 271bhp and 443lb ft of torque. Which, unless you’re doing really high-speed autobahn work, will be plenty. And even there the XJ needs just 12.4sec to accelerate from 110-130mph.
If anything, our recorded 0-60mph time of 6.3sec (0.3sec off Jaguar’s claims, but our car was carrying 147kg more than the official kerb weight) somewhat undersells quite how effortlessly the XJ diesel adds speed in real-world use. What that figure also doesn’t effectively communicate is how satisfying the diesel powertrain is to use, or how refined it feels.
From the inside at least, so suppressed is the engine noise that it actually highlighted a few issues with wind noise on our test car (although opening and closing the sunroof seemed to improve matters). The satisfaction comes from the marriage of a linear power delivery, accurate throttle response and intuitive gearbox. The result being that the XJ manages to pull off the trick of being both undemanding to drive and precise at the same time.
Left to its own devices, the six-speed torque converter performs a well judged balancing act between selecting the right gear and keeping engines revs low for consumption and refinement. In Sport mode the gearbox hold gears for longer and the shifts are quicker (and a little less smooth). Flicking the steering wheel-mounted paddles operates a manual mode which, if the car is set to Dynamic mode, will hold gears to the limiter. It will still kick down, though.
The XJs well modulated brakes are as impressive on the motorway as they are in stop-start traffic, and also deliver impressively short stopping distances.
Is the ride good enough? For the nine days the XJ was with Autocar, that’s the question we kept coming back to. Initial impressions were that the XJ felt a little too jittery. The complaint was not with big-bump absorption, but that small ridges occasionally cause a cross-cabin vibration.
However, with time this initial complaint seemed to fade. That is not to forgive the XJ a fault, because the fact is that over some surfaces it simply isn’t as isolated as a Mercedes S-class. But – and it’s a big but – in other areas the XJ has the S-class licked. Especially in terms of body control, where the XJ impresses not only in its ability to handle direction changes, but also over a choppy road and with its composure at motorways speeds. At the end of a long journey the XJ delivers its passengers refreshed and relaxed.
But it is what the XJ does for its driver that we are most interested in. Because for driving enjoyment the Jag eclipses conventional large saloons from Mercedes, BMW and Audi. It is instead worthy of comparison with the likes of the Maserati Quattroporte and Porsche Panamera, and good enough to come away with its pride intact. Ultimately it is softer than either, even with its adjustable dampers working in their firmer mode, but no less pleasurable to drive.
The XJ is a car of nearly two tonnes, but from the driver’s seat it never feels so portly. The steering is light and quick but accurate, and for such a long car the balance is impressively neutral. And even in the XJ D there’s the very real sense that the car is being pushed through a corner by its rear wheels.
But it’s the fact that the XJ combines the involvement of this ‘old-fashioned’ approach to dynamics with all the control you’d expect of a modern saloon and the serenity of a luxury product that makes it so compelling.
4. Living
If there was a criticism of the previous XJ, its yesteryear-aping appearance aside, it’s that its cabin was short on space. Not any more. At least, certainly not in this long-wheelbase form, which has ample rear legroom and respectable headroom, and whose front cabin also has sufficient room for the tallest of drivers.
Nevertheless, despite the adequate interior volume, Jaguar has retained the XJ’s cockpit-like feel, with a high transmission tunnel which, like those of the XF and current XK, features a rotating gearknob as part of the ‘welcome’ when one starts the car.
The XJ’s driving position itself is fine and features a particularly well shaped and sized steering wheel, with gearshift paddles to its rear. Ergonomically, this is a fine cabin.
It’s also one that looks the part at a distance and in parts. Leather and well finished wood adorn most surfaces and there is a new-to-Jaguar digital dashboard display, in place of conventional, real analogue dials. Its resolution is fabulously high and there are some neat graphics: speeds closest to the car’s current velocity are highlighted, manual gearchange selection is shown beautifully and the left dial is replaced by a small sat-nav map prompt at times.
However, it serves to make the central touch-screen display poorer than its mediocre resolution and design would otherwise appear, while in a few other places the cabin doesn’t quite come up to scratch; the materials of the air vents, for example, can’t match their appearance.
The XJ’s extended brightwork package also creates some harsh reflections, especially when the shades for the panoramic roof (which otherwise lends a pleasing spaciousness) are folded away.
A taller profile at the rear of the XJ has given it one major advantage over its predecessors: boot volume has increased to 520 litres, a volume that’s now class average and betters that of a BMW 7-series, albeit with an opening aperture whose shape is slightly dictated by the rear lights.
Depreciation is not a traditional Jaguar strong point due to the fact that, previously, XJs have not been spacious enough to earn demand from the private hire market.
Given the increase in boot and rear cabin space, that should no longer be an issue and, hence, after four years the Jaguar is predicted to be worth more than £20,000 – about the same as its similar-priced rivals.
The XJ also scores highly on its standard equipment count, while recent successes in customer satisfaction surveys bode well for it as an ownership proposition.
5. Verdict
****1/2 Stars
Another new Jaguar, another hit. The latest XJ now exudes the same confidence through its appearance that it has long possessed within in its mechanical ability. That the design contrives to offer, for the first time, interior space sufficient for the luxury car class, and means that reasons not to recommend one are falling away as quickly as retro themes have vanished from Jaguar’s styling.
As with a couple of other recent Jaguars past, we have small reservations about the finish of the earliest cars. There are a few foibles in the cabin too, but these are minor drawbacks.
Defining the XJ, though, is the way it drives. Jaguar has aimed for a point between the outright sportiness of a Maserati and the aloofness of a Mercedes. The result is a car with a hugely successful concoction of abilities: refinement with a rare poise.
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