Hear The Jaguar XF Jingle Its Bells At German Luxury

In the midsize luxury spot sedan realm, there are two types of cars: the incumbents and the strivers. The incumbents are the obvious choices, the BMW 5-Series, Mercedes-Benz E-Class, probably the Audi A6. The strivers are basically everyone else: Hyundai Genesis, Cadillac CTS and yes, the Jaguar XF.

Unlike BMW and Benz, Jag doesn’t have decades of experience to draw on. This XF is the second generation, and the previous car—the Scream-faced S-Type—dated to the Ford ownership years. So this is really New Jag’s first stab at a midsize sport sedan. I’m not sure it’s going to send Audi scrambling for an emergency redesign, but it should definitely woo some new buyers—as long as they get interested enough to take a test drive.

These days, Jaguar feels like Cadillac’s British counterpart. If Jag had a motto, it might be “handling first.” And that’s smart, because you can enjoy great steering at 30 mph, but it’s far easier to cram 5,000 horsepower under the hood and draw up a billboard for the new Megasedan 5000. Intangibles are hard to market.

The XF relies on finesse rather than brute strength. Yes, the supercharged 3.0-liter V-6 (in either 340 horsepower or 380-horse flavors) feels well matched to the car, but a BMW 550i sports a probably underrated 445 horsepower out of a turbo V-8. Then again, the BMW is a big fatso, weighing about 500 pounds more than the Jag, which uses a new aluminum architecture that keeps weight about as low as it can practically get in a car like this (again, shades of Cadillac philosophy). Jag says the XF’s entire body-in-white weighs the same as that of a Fiat 500L. If we look at the 535i as a more direct competitor, the XF S has 80 more horsepower while weighing 187 pounds less. That’s a nice combo.