How bad are the infotainment systems on the 2012, 2013 & 2014 XF? I'm looking to buy, and an satisfied with the reliability and value, but all of the reviews slam the infotainment systems. I need the Bluetooth to work perfectly and the sound system to be fine. Don't care too much about navigation. Thanks.

 

I had the same concerns when I was doing my research prior to purchasing my 2012 XF. However, everything works great and I have no complaints.

I did have a common issue with the sound not working intermittently but I took it to the dealership and it was something they were aware of and the previous owner never got fixed. Had the car back the next day and everything works great.

Good luck!

 

Same for me. The base sound system in my XF is fine with no problems. Had the same intermittant sound issue, but the system was re-flashed and no further problems.

 

My 2013 Meredian sound system is lovely, and aside from having the navigation maps re-done the system has been faultless

 

The 2011 system sucks ***, and I think they use the same system in 2012. Basically the interface and capabilities is worse that my old 2010 Mazda 3 (can it stream music over Bluetooth? Nope. Can it read my texts to me and then allow me to dictate replies back? Nope... and my $18K Mazda could). The Bowers and Wilkins system sounds phenomenal, but the interface is "Windows Vista-y" if that fully explains level of suckage.

If it looks like this, run.

 

My '12 looks like this:

 

The 2012 system is different than the 09-11 system. The 2012 can stream music and videos from your phone.

BTW the picture posted by aliensporez is not a XF. It must be a XK or XJ.

 

How? My iPhone 6 never seems to play music very well in the car. The infotainment system always shows the song as paused although it's clearly playing on the cell phone.

 

You will have to ask a 2012+ owner. I drove a few 2012 loaners and streamed music/video with my Samsung Galaxy phone without any issues.

 

You can stream movies through you phone? I have been searching around the internet and haven't found this to be true... Any can confirm?

 

No, the video steaming only from DVD and USB

 

I had that problem in my 2013. My Ip5 worked fine, but the 6 was a bit "wonky". But there was an IOS8 update (a few months back) that seemed to fix it. and so far IOS9 seems to function normally with the car as well.

 

I know you can because I was watching Top Gear in a 2012 XF on the main screen. I may have had the USB cable connected to my phone though. The video cuts out when the car is in motion though.

 

I knew that you could stream music from your phone, but how can you stream VIDEOS from your phone...?

 

Not yet.

 

No videos, though, the audio will stream.

For everyone's information my 2012 XF Portfolio's audio was a bit lacking, especially in the bass area. My S-Type was much better in the bass. The treble in the XF is sharp and clear, however while the S-type was much more muted. So recently I went through the process of upgrading by adding the better bass speakers in the doors and added the Subwoofer in the trunk. Now, it sounds much better.
Streaming is okay. .Bluetooth is lacking as it's compresses the file when streaming and there is a bit of loss in quality. USB music is clear and crisp, even at the downsampled files of 192Kbps.

The drawback the audio system is that if you have mapping systems like google maps, or Waze, you have to use the bluetooth media to play your music if you want the voice of Waze or google maps coming through the speakers, so when you are playing music through your USB slot, you can't get any notifications from your phone.

 

You can stream music on the 2009-11 if you plug in a simple BT module like Tune2Air. It streams, you can skip tracks with the control and it displays title and artist