Jaguar returns to 6-cylinder roots with XF

By Terry Box

Back in ancient England, when Beatles walked upright — except maybe for Ringo — big booming six-cylinder Jaguars seemed like pretty bad cats. Besides, Jags emanated blue-jean cool with their lopey idles and metallic tick-tick engine noises and that operatic baritone exhaust. They possessed the sort of mystique Jag may need to trade on again.

As you know, Jaguar — like all automakers — must comply with future fuel-economy and carbon-emissions standards worldwide, and it can’t keep the greenies happy solely with silky 5-litre V-8s.

So in some ways, Jag will go back to the future.

The 2013 Jaguar XF sedan I had recently arrived with a supercharged 3-litre V-6 with 340hp, coupled to an eight-speed automatic — one of two new engines.

The base motor, borrowed from previous owner Ford, is a turbocharged 2-litre four-cylinder rated at 240hp. Welcome to the lean, green 21st century — even if you never asked for it. While my V-6 XF lacked the romance of an old straight-six Jag with its polished cam covers and triple carbs, the XF certainly lifted its load — with style.

Mine was a sort of a metallic eggplant colour Jag called “caviar,” a delicacy I have never sampled so I can’t quibble with the description. (I’m sure that comes as a real surprise.)

Like all XFs, the new 3.0 model greeted the world with a bold chain-link grille and fierce, piercing headlamps. Its graceful hood featured a subtle power dome. Large doors had been cut from the big sedan’s sleekly muscular sides.

The XF I had padded down roads on meaty 255/35 tyres wrapped around 20-inch alloy wheels — as you might expect to find on one of the bigger-buck V-8 models. Likewise, only Audi does interiors better than Jaguar — and that remains true in the new 3.0, whose base price of $50,000 (in the US) is $18,000 less than the next model up with a supercharged V-8.

Its deep, slightly curved dash — large mainly because of the steep rake of the windshield — was stitched in a light-brown/mauve shade of leather that also was padded.

The steering wheel and door tops wore the same leather, while a six-inch band of what appeared to be brushed aluminum dominated the centre of the dash.

Although the round shifter knob for the automatic rose dramatically from the cream-coloured console Jag-style, it sometimes baulked a bit at going from drive to park, meaning I had to sit there for an extra second or two soaking up that interior. Life with the Jag was pretty tough.

Fine cream-coloured leather seats complemented the dash, offering grey accents on the bolsters and perforated centres. Cream-coloured door panels abutted mauve carpeted mats. And, despite the nicely curved top, back-seat space felt pretty expansive to me.

One way Jag carved extra leg- and headroom out of the back was by placing the seat kind of low, so you feel like some sullen pre-pubescent back there.

Just make sure you get first dibs on driving.

You might not notice much difference when the V-6 springs to life. Its tone didn’t sound as rich to me.

But the little engine (a whopping 183cu inches) delivers on all 340 horses. Tuned for lots of “tip-in,” the V-6 leaps smoothly and silently away from stops, flattening out some in the middle.

But from about 3,000 rpm to 6,400, it swells back up again, pulling with enough vigor to deliver 0-to-60 runs in 5.7 seconds, Jag says — and the XF weighs about 3,900lbs.

By the way, Jaguar added an automatic start/stop system for better economy. Get accustomed to those devices, I say. The system shuts off the engine automatically at full stops, giving you a second or two to look righteously green. But when I lifted my foot off the brake and the engine quickly restarted, the XF often jumped forward a couple of feet.

The eight-speed automatic, meanwhile, was mostly seamless, providing mildly spirited shifts in aggressive driving. Nail the engine hard, though, and the mild-mannered automatic snaps off lightning-quick shifts.

Like virtually every Jag I’ve driven, the XF’s steering felt too soft and overly boosted. But it was also quick, making the XF seem lighter than it really is.

Most of the time, you can drive the XF in “sport” mode, which provides a firm, jiggle-free ride that seemed pretty civilised. Hit a curve at moderately high speeds and you get some slight lean, though not enough to disrupt the Jag’s poise. But I thought the car felt slightly more compromised than a 535 BMW.

The brakes, of course, were Euro-superb.

And while the 3.0’s fuel economy of 17 mpg city, 28 highway might not seem all that impressive, the city mileage is a 13% improvement over the V-8 and the highway mpg is 22% better. Put all those numbers together and you get a pretty compelling case. Now if Jag could transplant the sounds of an old 3.8-litre straight six into the XF. — The Dallas Morning News/MCT

(Technical specifications may vary in locally available models.)

In a nutshell

 Type of vehicle: Five-passenger, rear-wheel-drive, mid-size luxury sedan.

Weight: 3,902lbs

Engine: Supercharged 3-litre V-6 with 340hp and 332 pound-feet of torque

Transmission: Eight-speed automatic