I was contacted this week by the marketing team promoting the new Jaguar XE for Jaguar/Rover North America. (See the ad on the top of the forum page.) Signed up for the promo via this forum and I have been selected to give it a try next weekend.

They are delivering one to me next Friday and I will have use of it thru Monday. Four weekend days with a new Jag that isn't available to the public yet is pretty cool!

I will post about the experience and take pictures of course. Can't wait to try it out. Stay tuned!

 

It's a shame Jaguar in the UK don't do the same!

Enjoy it.

Graham

 

I'm sure it will be a nice car to drive, but make sure you remember where you park it, otherwise you will never find it again as it looks like pretty much every other executive saloon on the market.

 

Absolutely superb Jag#4.......I'm sure you'll really enjoy it.
Looking forward to your post on the car of course as well as the experience as a whole, clearly with plenty of pics.

+1 on Grahams comments about lacking such an experience in the UK

 

Very cool Mike! Looking forward to reading your review.

Be careful of enjoying it too much...

 

For once, the stars seem to be in alignment. HR at work mis-calculated my time off and told me I have extra days that must be taken before the end of this year.

Oh well, guess I'll have to take off the Friday and Monday with the Jag XE. I'll try to make good use of the extra time.

 

so jealous!!! But will look forward to your write up

 

Too bad I'm hundreds of mines from a Jag dealer and wouldn't ever get a chance like this. Enjoy it for us The XE is too small for me anyway.

 

Sorry about the late post, but I have been busy trying to reduce weight in the car by lowering the level in the gas tank.

Wow! What a nice car. It is certainly more modern than my blue cat in so many ways. My quick summary is that Jag has a winner in this class. I have owned Audis and driven both my daughter's 3-series BMWs, including an M-Sport model. The XE will easily hold its own in that crowd. I would prefer it over the BMW.

They loaned me the R-Sport model with the 340hp V6 turbo. That's over 40hp more than my XK8 with ~400 less lbs. to haul around. 0-60mph in 5.1 seconds according to the literature and that is believable. Still clocked about 30MPG today in mixed driving.

Car looks better in white than I expected (not my favorite car color) and the two tone interior is great. Red leather with black alcantara centers. Very supportive and it is a huge improvement over the laterally challenged XK8 seats.

Handles like a true sports sedan should, although the steering is slightly over boosted for my taste. 8-speed auto with paddle shifters, however the standard shifting works very well for all but the most spirited driving.

Car is still so new the analog speedometer shows in kilometers. I had to reset the digital display to get MPH so I could stop doing mental math while driving.

Here are some quick pictures. Will try to get better ones later this weekend. If anyone has any questions, ask away.

 

Mike, you lucky dawg, looks stunning in the white with the Red calipers and two tone red / black interior...Gorgeous!


I'm wondering how many comments / compliments you've had to date?


How much longer do you have her and what's the plans for the remainder of the time you have?

 

So is the XE in the same size class as the Honda Accord, Toyota Camery, etc?

Mike, when you have time how about some more inside shots. What's the rear seat leg room like and how big is the trunk.

I'm looking for a replacement for my wife's Accord and this looks very interesting.

Any body know what the price range will be?

Edit...never mind!
Just went to the web site and checked it out. Not for me I'm afraid. Spec'ed out the way I would want it is $58K.

 

Not too many comments yet, but two high school kids pulled up behind me at a light. One was looking at the car, then punched his buddy and pointed at the rear (XE logo?). They began to talk more spirited and the passenger started googling.

They followed me for a while and then pulled up alongside for a thumbs up. Who said kids don't pay attention to cars anymore?

It is Friday here and I have it thru Monday (4 days). Plans are to drive the wheels off of it while showing it off to my friends.

 

Jandreu,

We had a 2008 Accord. The XE is slightly smaller I think. Comparable to my daughter's 3-series BMW.

I will be taking some more (better) pictures this weekend and will make sure I include the interior.

The rear seats are a little cramped for leg room, but very usable. The trunk is big. Probably as deep as my XK8 and certainly taller.

The base model starts at $34,900 and the R-Sport at ~$46k.

 

OK a few more pictures. Spent the day driving. Running errands and fighting holiday traffic. Did get it up on the highway and it cruises very nicely up to (an alleged) 90 MPH. Too much traffic to test it beyond that.

Stopped by the Jag dealership and emptied the place out of sales people. Except for the GM, none had seen the car in the flesh. All of them could see they would be making their boat payments easily once these are in the showroom.

Anyway, Here's the pics.

 

More pictures. Can't load too many at a time apparently.

I'll stop with the pictures for now unless someone wants to see something specific.

Thanks for indulging me. I'm having a blast with the car.

 

Apparently don't sleep much either. 1am picture loads is impressive. Since I'm in Carrollton too, what street corner do I need to stand on to see it go by?

 

I'm practicing waiting up for Santa.

Try Hebron and Harvest Hill. I'll be out this afternoon, tell me where to drive by and I'll slow down.

 

I'll want to know just how many miles you manage to put on this rig before you have to turn it in tomorrow. I also wonder if you're the 1st or 15th person to weekend-test this particular car. How many miles were on the odometer when you picked it up?

 

not a big fan of the interior color and where is the burl wood trim??? Looks too plastic

 

I'd have to check the paperwork, but about 1900 miles, so I'm not the first. I think I have about 200 miles on it as of yesterday.

The two-tone interior is not my favorite either, but it has gotten positive comments. The trim is actually carbon fiber for the most part. Some is piano black. It looks much better than plastic, but I too would prefer wood. Two types of wood are available as options on the other models.