Drive Report – Jaguar XE, Jan. 8-11, 2016, 8 speed auto V6

I drove the Jaguar XE, Italian Racing Red, home from work on Friday, Jan. 8 (approximately 65 miles one way, all freeway miles), and on Saturday, Jan. 9, drove down I-5 to Hwy 152 to Casa de Fruta, back to Los Banos, and north up Hwy 33 to home (this is in Northern California). On Jan. 10 I drove the car around town for various errands. I feel this was a good combination of freeway driving, curvy roads (Hwy 152 to Casa de Fruta and back to I-5, both directions fairly steep and curvy grades as well as raining at the time) as well as around-town errand driving and return commute to work on Monday, Jan. 11, which includes a couple of moderately steep grades with lots of traffic.

The car is beautiful to look at and fantastic to drive. Acceleration is immediate, even in Eco mode. Note that both in Eco mode and Sport mode, the car’s motor stops at stoplights and most stop signs (if I did a slightly rolling stop, as I did a couple of times on Hwy 33 which is a very rural route, the motor does not stop). I did use the paddle shifts in sport mode at times and the response was also very immediate and crisp when shifting – you go fast immediately, so pay attention! There is a feature to turn off the “stop” mode although perhaps I didn’t use it correctly; I was told that feature is off in sport mode but the engine continued to stop at lights, etc. (Apparently this is the price we pay for emissions control and compliance.)

In my normal commute I drive a stick shift and when driving our old 2000 S Type I tend to get frustrated with the shift points of the automatic – like many habitual stick shift drivers, I’d like to shift at different points than the automatic does. The XE, however, shifts crisply and at the points I would shift (and maybe even sooner!) – I did not feel there was any sort of lag in shifting at all, and that includes when using the shift paddles. The engine makes a low, growly noise – appropriate to a Jaguar and a nice touch considering nowadays you can’t hear most cars running, electric or not, and I do remember the XKE days (dating myself, yes I’m old!).

The seats were all black with the leather trim and alcantara centers as others have noted. I was able to adjust the seat to my liking; it is a cocoon-like sports sedan interior but I felt I could see all controls well. The volume dial for media was on the passenger side of the dash, opposite the start/stop button for the motor, a bit inconvenient but ok once I got used to it. I had no trouble finding radio stations. The navigation pinpointed my location accurately. The selector for the transmission is a pop-up type dial which I thought was cool. Dash and surrounds are black leather. My husband, being an old-school Jaguar person, wished for wood but after riding in the XE for a while decided he really liked the interior (and I reminded him that on my family’s old XK120M, dash was leather – it’s a sporting saloon). Nighttime lighting is decent and subtle; you can see what you need to but has a nice ambiance.

One interesting lighting aspect – when switching from Eco mode to Sport mode the dash lights change from blue backlighting to red – very subtle, not super bright or in-your-face but kind of a cool touch. This car came equipped with a backup camera and I really liked that feature. When turning a corner cornering lights come on which is really handy, especially considering I live in a rural area where there is no streetlighting and can also be foggy in the winter.

Trunk room was good; I did all my grocery shopping for the next two weeks and trunk handled it easily. Back seat room was fine for me, as long as the front seat drivers did not have their seats all the way back (I am 5’9”). I was able to get in and out of the back seat easily which was nice given that I get lots of family complaints about the back seat in our S Type (and the front seats as well).

Fit and finish are excellent – no rattles, car feels really solid. The handling at speed on curves is excellent – you feel like you are running on rails. I also felt that visibility is really good out of the car in all directions and I really like the feature on the side mirrors in which a spot lights up in amber to show when someone is next to you or perhaps too close to change lanes. You also get a warning when you are too close to a curb or to another vehicle in front of you.

There are controls on the steering wheel for not only cruise control but also the computer in the dash between the speedometer and the tach which is where the temp and gas gauges are located. The computer is easy to use though of course I don’t recommend scrolling through it while driving – the trip computer is in that menu, for example.

I hated to give it back today – it was a lot of fun and really a pretty car. I think had it been for sale this weekend my husband would have bought it. Given my long distance commute, I await the 4-cylinder gas and diesel versions to see how I might like those, although typically our Jaguar is our backup commuter/weekend car and my husband prefers the larger engine in this XE.

Please let me know if you have any questions; I really appreciate the opportunity to take the extended test drive and lots of thanks to all who made this happen.

 

Great article JagGirl. Sounds like you were really able to put the XE through its paces on several different driving environments. How is the ride / suspension on uneven roads, potholes, etc?

 

Great stuff Jaggirl, so glad you enjoyed the all new XE, Sounds like you had a blast?
Did you catch anyone looking her over or get any comments of any kind?


Thanks for sharing...

 

QwikCat, the ride was excellent over rough, uneven roads and potholes. Although I tried to avoid all potholes, it is quite difficult here in California and with the drought and now recent rains there are potholes and rough, uneven roads everywhere. The car did absolutely excellent over these obstacles. Very smooth car - smoothest I have probably ever driven.

 

Jim64, I only had one comment here at work; someone followed me in the parking garage and made comment about what a pretty car and that Jaguars had really changed. It was rainy most of the weekend I drove the car so I didn't catch anyone either in traffic or in parking lots looking although while I was eating I noticed one older couple that parked next to me at Casa de Fruta looking the Jag over. Then they promptly got in a Hyundai or Kia, I couldn't really tell which from where I was sitting. I wish I had been able to get by the Jaguar dealer in Livermore but things didn't work out so that I could stop by; we might have got more looks and comments from both the staff and customers.

 

I must say I did have a blast - just a neat car, I even asked the guy picking it up what happens to these kinds of loaner cars (I took down the VIN, of course). He said typically at about 15,000 miles the cars go to wholesale auction. This XE had about 3500 miles on it. Honestly I think we would have bought the car had it been for sale. It really is a fun sport sedan.