Jaguar XF 2.2 Diesel review
by David Finlay (16 August 2011)
Not many years ago, the very thought of a diesel Jaguar would have inspired coughing fits among elderly buffers, their forceful ejections of single malt staining the wallpaper on the other side of the clubroom beyond hope of repair. Those days are well past, and in the current era you can not only expect Jaguar to design and build diesel cars, but expect them to do so rather well.
The latest of them is the XF 2.2, which goes on sale in the UK on September 1. Old-school types may be appalled to discover that its 187bhp four-cylinder engine is basically the same as you'll find under the bonnet of a Ford Mondeo, or even - horrors - Peugeots and Citroens of one sort or another. A certain amount of re-engineering has been required, though, since in those cars it's mounted sideways and drives the front wheels, and in the XF it's mounted lengthways and drives the rears.
And that was perhaps the least of the worries about the installation. The greatest was to ensure that this latest XF did not sound inappropriate. So much effort went into this, and to such excellent effect, that the company is now able to claim that the cabin of this car is actually quieter than that of the three-litre V6 diesel.
Not having had a decibel meter about my person, I can't confirm this personally, but I can certainly say that the 2.2 is not far short of being inaudible in most driving conditions. The only snag is that, when you're pushing on with sufficient vigour to hear it, it is unquestionably and unavoidably a four-cylinder diesel, and while that was okay in the old X-Type it doesn't sit so well with the XF.
This is the first Jaguar ever to be fitted with a stop/start system, which actually makes it feel more luxurious even though the intended effect was to improve fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. The same goal no doubt inspired the fitment of the eight-speed automatic transmission, which is sensationally long-legged in top gear.
Jaguar says the engine will spin round at as little as 1200rpm when the car is travelling at 70mph. I imagine this happens only when it's coasting, and I never did that. The figure I saw was 1500rpm, which was still enough to make me gasp and stretch my eyes.
Helped by stop/start and its seven-league boots, the XF 2.2 Diesel achieves 52.3mpg combined economy and emits 149g/km of CO2 on the EU test cycle. These are the best figures in the range by some margin, but they're not class-leading; the diesel automatic versions of the BMW 5-Series and, to a greater extent, the Audi A6 both do better.
And it's not as if the Jaguar compensates by being noticeably quicker. It can accelerate from 0-60mph in eight seconds and reach a maximum of 140mph, but so, more or less, can the Audi and the BMW. To me, the only thing that really makes the XF stand out from these two is its greatly superior interior design, though you may disagree with that.
Although this is the least powerful XF by a matter of 50bhp, it can be quite good fun. In fact - and you may not believe a word of this, but it's true - having taken it on the same route and in roughly the same weather as the XKR-S tested recently, I'd say that the XF, though less dramatic, provides a superior driving experience, simply because the adequate power output doesn't overwhelm the roadholding. This, you might say, is the "warm hatch" among XFs.
The 2.2 Diesel is available in four trim levels, and unless you really want loads of equipment the one to avoid is the one I drove, namely the £43,050 Portfolio. It's fitted with 19" wheels and very low-profile tyres, which are quite out of the question because they play merry hell with the ride quality. There were times when I thought that the brutal XKR-S actually rode more smoothly.
The less well-equipped SE (which has 17" wheels) and Luxury versions cost £30,950 and £33,950 respectively. The Premium Luxury comes in at £37,950, and while that's still a good deal less than you'll be asked to pay for a Portfolio, you could actually save £1000 by buying the least expensive 3.0 V6 Diesel Luxury instead.
That, I'm afraid, doesn't seem right. I'm glad there's a relatively small-engined diesel XF, but it stops making sense when it becomes more expensive than one of the classier versions.
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