Jaguar XF S
Size: L
What makes Jaguar great is what the brand represents, what its designers and engineers have always striven toward. But, what exactly that is, is hard to pin down. It’s more of an atmosphere than an attribute.
It’s much more spacious than before, with a bevy of new engines and technology.
A Jag is smooth, aristocratic. They’re cool precisely because they’re so unpreoccupied by what’s cool. They never attempted to be anything more than an Old-Boys-Club on wheels. The firm’s cars were always regal, always exuding an old-world old-money air.
Jaguar’s big sedans looked basically the same from 1968 right up until around 2003 — four round headlights, under a long hood with four matching creases, a rounded roofline and extensive use of chrome. It was a remarkable feat of self-confidence. The style was good, and if you didn’t like it: would sir prefer, perhaps, a Ford?
The company has now been brought, maybe reluctantly, into the 21st century. Its sedans look different. They all have a fastback look, a rear window that blends right into the trunk. They are sleek. Minimally designed. Jaguar lets the perfect silhouette of its cars do the talking. They don’t shout. They have cup holders and touchscreens — very good touchscreens even.
Jaguar’s latest sedan is the XF, the brand’s mid-size offering. It’s much more spacious than before, with a bevy of new engines and technology. Case in point: a next-gen touchscreen that’s bigger than on most tablets. Punch in a destination, and it’ll automatically keep select contacts up to date on your ETA. That is to say, like a consciencous butler, it will text your friends automatically if the nav systems calculates you will arrive late. Despite the new car’s obvious modernity, much of the old Jaguar character remains: in the softness of the stitched leather, in the single strip of wood trim that wraps around the cabin, in the way it wafts down the road, rolling with purpose and palpable momentum. But the greatness of the XF goes deeper than its attributes — it is an atmosphere.
