Jaguar XF review

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The saloon that saved Jaguar gets one last round of updates – but does it go out with a bang or a whimper?

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The Jaguar XF was introduced as the car that promised to right the wrongs its company had been suffering from for many years.

Soon after, this four-door saloon became one of its core models and went on to save Jaguar from declining sales and financial ruin. Many years and two generations on, it's a car we still like, not least because of its class-leading handling, handsome styling and competitive pricing.

This latest version promises to be no different, with subtly rejigged styling over the car it replaces, improved interior quality, a new infotainment system and a simplified range of engines.

It was back in 2021 that Jaguar first cut XE and XF prices in rather eye-catching fashion. Since then, it has only slightly increased the price, but a top-of-the-line XF still comes in at nearly £10,000 less than a like-for-like BMW 3 Series, and it's the same story with a full-house Mercedes C-Class (and, don’t forget, this was a car designed to compete with rivals from the class above). Suffice to say, the outlay for this car is about the same as you would pay for a middling electric car.

If you're looking for some extra practicality to match the cost savings available, you can also have the Jaguar XF Sportbrake, which we've reviewed separately.

Has Jaguar finally got this car’s specification and value positioning right then, just as so many company car buyers have become wedded to the low-emissions electrified powertrains, tech-laden interiors and low benefit-in-kind rates with which it can’t compete? Let's find out.

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The Jaguar XF saloon line-up at a glance

There’s no plug-in hybrid model here, but the range has been simplified compared with the pre-facelift line-up, with the option of three engines and four trim levels. There is a 200bhp 2.0-litre four-cylinder Ingenium diesel, which is the most economical and the cheapest engine and the only unit available on the entry-level R-Dynamic S trim.

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Step up to mid-rung R-Dynamic SE Black and R-Dynamic HSE Black and you can either have the 2.0-litre diesel or a 248bhp 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol in P250 guise. Top-specification P300, meanwhile, comes with a 296bhp version of this 2.0-litre petrol. 

Neither petrol engine has the mild-hybrid assistance of the D200, though, nor the WLTP combined fuel economy of up to 56.9mpg - and only the P300 adds four-wheel drive. Every engine is mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission.

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DESIGN & STYLING

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Jaguar XF side tracking

The updates to the design of the XF include a subtly revised and more streamlined front end, a more aggressive rear diffuser, new light designs that seem to take inspiration from the F-Type and restyled alloys. We feel that the overall result makes the car look more elegant than the model it replaces, playing to the strengths of Jaguar's classic 'fuselage' styling.

Sitting on Jaguar's D7a platform, it shares its underpinnings with the XE, F-Pace SUV and Range Rover Velar. It is 4962mm long, 1890mm wide and 1456mm tall, making it similar in size to the current BMW 5 Series and Mercedes E-Class, but slightly longer than the Audi A6.

To this tester's eyes, it doesn't actually matter which specification you order the XF in because it will always look pretty elegant.
Jonathan Bryce
Social Media Executive

INTERIOR

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Jaguar XF interior dashboard

On the inside, the XF gets a generous level of standard equipment, including heated mirrors, supportive seats and digital instruments. More widely, though, it may be less recognisable to you if you haven’t cast your eye over this car for a few years because Jaguar has made a big improvement to the perceived quality and classy material allure.

The tastefully dulled, subtly sculptural chrome trims immediately catch your eye, but when you explore the darker corners of the driving environment, you find matching perceived quality in other places too. 

Don’t like the black-on-black leather interior of our test car? Jaguar offers some lovely ivory and tan hide options, which you could even have extended over the upper doors and dash with the money you saved from not buying a BMW or Merc.
Matt Saunders
Road test editor

The various clusters of buttons and knobs, on the steering wheel and the centre console, are much more neatly presented and better finished than they used to be as well.

And remember that black rubberised look and feel that the car’s secondary switchgear used to have? It looked all right when brand new, but you’d have bet on it wearing badly. Well, that’s all long gone, replaced by chunky-feeling chrome window switches and illuminated toggle buttons on the steering wheel's spokes.

The Pivi Pro infotainment screen, meanwhile - 11.4in on the diagonal and with a slightly convex display that makes it appear to hug the curve of the dashboard quite nicely - is also very attractive. It’s standard on even entry-level cars, as is Jaguar’s digital instrument pack, and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

And it’s easy to use, fully furnished for wireless device-mirroring compatibility, and both reliable and robust with its software. The line of shortcut buttons on the margin of the display and the easy configurability of the home screen to suit the functions you access most often are as key to this as the system’s responsiveness.

Seat comfort up front is very good. If you’re on the taller side, there’s a chance you might notice a slight shortage of adjustment range in the telescopic steering column, or the closeness of the car’s roofline. The XF never was the biggest or most accommodating of mid-sized executive options, but now that it's priced more in line with rivals from the class below, that’s much less likely to bother you.

Boot space for the saloon stands at 459 litres with the rear seats upright, which can't match the likes of the BMW 5 Series (520 litres) or Mercedes E-Class (540 litres), or even that of cars in the class below, including the BMW 3 Series (480 litres) and Audi A4 (480 litres). Folded flat, the XF's boot grows to 1484 litres.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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Jaguar XF front

JLR’s gently hybridised Ingenium diesel four-pot retains the occasional driveline hesitation when you’re just tipping into the throttle pedal, as it juggles that transient blending of its electric and combustive power sources. Such instances are pretty rare, though. Most of the time, it just offers usefully stout-feeling mid-range torque, paired with good refinement and equally good economy for a car of its size. During mixed-speed touring, an indicated 50mpg is easily achievable with a fairly light load on board.

This phase of mild-hybridisation has also made a perceptible difference to how torquey these engines feel on the road and mechanical isolation has been incrementally improving over the years in parallel. (The new XF has an active noise cancellation system that works to dampen the effect of its various sources of noise on your senses.) 

The diesel engine's start-stop system is seamless and operates without any vibrations or judders, despite working with quite an old engine.
Jonathan Bryce
Social Media Executive

Meanwhile, the 2.0-litre petrol engines offer better, more responsive straight-line performance if this is one of your priorities. Even the standard P250, with 247bhp and 269lb ft, manages 0-62mph in 6.5sec and a top speed of 155mph. In its most powerful guise, the P300, its 296bhp helps to cut the 0-62mph time by 0.4sec, but top speed remains the same.

The eight-speed gearbox may be the last piece of the puzzle for Jaguar to sort. It still seems to hesitate at times but also to rush its engagements and actuations at lower speeds and at other times.

It isn’t the sharpest-feeling thing, either, when you start to flick the nicely chunky, metallic shift paddles the XF has - although that shortcoming isn’t enough to take the shine off what is a very rounded and increasingly well-polished powertrain.

RIDE & HANDLING

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Jaguar XF front

If you’re attracted to this car for the same reasons we’ve always been – as pretty consistently the best-handling and most rewarding mid-sized executive option on the market – it’s still worth seeking out. That’s saying something for what is, underneath it all, an eight-year-old saloon car with significant links to one much older.

When it's fitted with standard passive suspension and 20in rims, you might find just a hint of noise and excitability about its ride. Nothing to put you off what remains an enticing car to drive, though, with weighty, tactile steering, fluent but contained body control, and appealingly balanced rear-driven handling that allows you to really enjoy threading what is a big saloon car along a winding road as if it were a much smaller one.

The XF takes camber change and quick corners in its stride.
Matt Saunders
Road test editor

The XF’s steering isn’t overly direct but it’s accurate, intuitive and perfectly weighted, with no perceptible spongy or elastic feel, so you can place the car with confidence and judge grip levels similarly. 

There’s enough torque to momentarily animate the chassis around slower bends, particularly with regard to making the rear end more playful. The XF has modern driver aids and electronic convenience features, but they’re fully switchable ones and, by and large, they don’t come between you and the enjoyment of the driving experience.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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Jaguar XF front three quarter lead

Prices start from less than £36,000 for an entry-level diesel saloon - which really does seem first-class value, for private buyers at the very least. Sportbrake wagons, meanwhile, can’t be had in quite the same entry-level trim and are priced - in R-Dynamic SE Black trim - from a little over £40,000.

CO2 output for the P250 and P300 petrols are rated at 186g/km and 193g/km respectively, putting them in the 37% tax bracket. This is, of course, a long way off the equivalent BMW 520i and 530e, and Mercedes E200 and E300e. For a lower benefit-in-kind rate, you’ll want the D200 diesel, with its 146g/km making it suitable for the 34% bracket. Fuel economy is about average, at 35.2mpg and 32.9mpg for the two petrol engines and a pretty reasonable 50.7mpg for the diesel.

The petrol engines have CO2 emissions that are way off the pace with similarly powered rivals
Jonathan Bryce
Social Media Executive

VERDICT

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Jaguar XF front three quarter static

The XF may be a car at the end of its life but, in so many ways, its package seems stronger now than ever. 

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Despite its boot space being uncompetitive with the likes of the 5 Series or E-Class, it now has the cabin quality and sophisticated on-board technology that so often couldn’t be taken for granted in a Jaguar over the years, and it retains the same appealing ride and handling that has always set the car apart.

Sitting in a tastefully appointed XF, it's hard to believe that it's a similar price to an Abarth 500e
Jonathan Bryce
Social Media Executive

Given its price, a full-sized executive saloon car capable 50mpg touring economy for broadly the same outlay suddenly seems an absolute steal. And I don’t think it takes any sentimentality of feeling at all about the fate of the Jaguar brand as we know it, or so many of its cars, to appreciate as much.

Jonathan Bryce

Jonathan Bryce
Title: Social Media Executive

Jonathan is Autocar's social media executive. He has held this position since December 2024, having previously studied at the University of Glasgow before moving to London to become an editorial apprentice and pursue a career in motoring journalism. 

His role at work involves running all of Autocar's social media channels, including X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, LinkedIn and WhatsApp. 

Matt Saunders

Matt Saunders Autocar
Title: Road test editor

As Autocar’s chief car tester and reviewer, it’s Matt’s job to ensure the quality, objectivity, relevance and rigour of the entirety of Autocar’s reviews output, as well contributing a great many detailed road tests, group tests and drive reviews himself.

Matt has been an Autocar staffer since the autumn of 2003, and has been lucky enough to work alongside some of the magazine’s best-known writers and contributors over that time. He served as staff writer, features editor, assistant editor and digital editor, before joining the road test desk in 2011.

Since then he’s driven, measured, lap-timed, figured, and reported on cars as varied as the Bugatti Veyron, Rolls-Royce Phantom, Tesla Roadster, Ariel Hipercar, Tata Nano, McLaren Senna, Renault Twizy and Toyota Mirai. Among his wider personal highlights of the job have been covering Sebastien Loeb’s record-breaking run at Pikes Peak in 2013; doing 190mph on derestricted German autobahn in a Brabus Rocket; and driving McLaren’s legendary ‘XP5’ F1 prototype. His own car is a trusty Mazda CX-5.

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