jaguar sports car

this is the new jaguar xe 2.0 diesel under the hood there's a 4-cylinder, 2 liter diesel, boasting 180hp and an impressive 430nm torque figure the jaguar xe aims at competitors such as; audi a4, bmw 3 series and mercedes c-class but can this 'feline' really stand against its german rivals? in terms of price, it's perfectly matched to its competition... the car i'm driving is a 2.0 diesel 'prestige' line with an 8 speed automatic gearbox, rear wheel drive (you can also opt for all wheel drive) with the current optional equipment, and it's abundant; panoramic sunroof... electric leather seats with 10-way regulations...

seat memory, navigation, a 10-speaker 'meridian' sound system... ...which doesn't sound that good... ...also has an adaptative cruise control system... eeerm... it costs nearly 62.000€ (in portugal)! obviously, the name 'jaguar' carries a certain 'heritage' factor that sounds better to the ear... i confess that if i tell someone that i have a bmw parked at my door or a jaguar parked at my door i admit that it sounds different and people will always say: 'oh a jaguar!' 'oh it's a jaguar!' but is it any better than the germans? well, in terms of engine refinement, i'd say that... no it isn't

this engine feels rougher and has noticeable vibrations when idling or under load and its 180hp which are no match for the average of its competitors that have around 190hp but in terms of torque it's actually better with its 430nm and when combined with this 8 speed auto, the end result is pretty good the car handles pretty well and in auto mode it offers 4 different driving modes; eco, winter, normal and the sport that even turns the instrument cluster to red and don't feel any great difference in the car, only the gearchanges in 'dynamic' mode become clearly faster we can also opt to use the paddles behind the steering wheel and throttle response becomes sharper the car has very tall gearing and in 8th speed, just for you to have a better idea

we can cruise at 140kph with less than 2.000rpm! something that, for a car with a high torque figure, is very easy in terms of comfort... the car is really very comfortable and the only thing i can criticize is a lack of seat support in the leg zone which for a car that can take on curves like this one that comes with optional 18 inch wheels... the front grip is fantastic, steering feel is very good it's very direct and you get to turn it in with a ... surgical precision! brakes, are in line with its peers not being any better or any worse than the rest something that really shows, and going back to that 'roughness' of this engine...

...is that, at lower revs and if you choose to cruise at 120kph where the car is spinning at 1.500rpm ...there's this unpleasant rumble from the 2 liter diesel in terms of comfort, it's very generous, with no outstanding flaws, absorbs bumps easily, suspension travel is gentle, all very pleasant where this car fails is in terms of interior space rear passengers lack decent leg room and the boot is also the smallest of the 3 'main' competitors this one has 450 ltrs, while the average is between 480 and 500 ltrs aesthetically.... the car is astonishing! the car is dazzling and those f-type inspired rear lights give it quite a presence

and that aggressive look provided by the head-lights, give it a very dynamic and aggressive stance ...something that doesn't do any good to this xe is this white colour.... jaguar has very ambitious goals in terms of claimed avg consumption figures for this xe i'm talking, for example, about the 163hp diesel version for which jaguar announces an avg figure of 3.6 ltrs/100kms! ...very optimistic figures has you'd might imagine... in the case of this particular 180hp model... claimed consumption figures are around.... average claimed figures by jaguar ...are around 4.0 ltrs/100kms. i confess that, under normal circumstances

and in a 'real world' as i like to call it... i haven't been very far of 6.9/7.0 ltrs/100kms the car's driving is very pleasant, the gearbox operates flawlessly ...although when engine speed drops too much and we get back on the throttle, i feel a certain delay in its response causing an hesitation before the car decides to drop one or two gears anyway, can't criticize that much, it's really very smooth and this up/down mecanism of the gear selector, everytime we switch on&off the car... is something spectacular...

although there's only one doubt in my mind... if this mechanism fails.... ...how do you get the car in gear? as i've mentioned, the car's filled with goodies, or at least this one is ... but then there are things that i can't understand... the car has a 'collision prevent' system... or a collision alert feature... that fails for being over conservative, because the car ahead of you is still 50 meters away and the radar is already making beeps and panic warnings.... omg!! over exagerated! then, in a car with rain sensors...

automatic headlights, a super navigation system, an 'over the top' sound system.... what's up with this rearview mirror? what's the idea? was it too much to ask for an electrochromatic mirror as standard? the cabin's build quality is pretty good ...but here, the germans take some advantage not that there are any rattles&noises, assembly or robustness issues... what happens is that there are plastics in certain areas that are no longer tolerable in a car in this price range where an audi a4 or a bmw 3 series take the lead

specially the audi a4 or the mercedes c-class hard plastics in here, in a 60.000€ (in portugal) plus car, that aims to be seen as 'different' ...is not exactly a 'plus'.... in conclusion.... i think that this jaguar xe, sums up good arguments for those looking for something exclusive and is looking to have something that differs from the 'mainstream' everyone seems to have bmw 3 series, audi a4, mercedes c-class... aaand.... we can have a jaguar xe.... which is something set apart where we'll most surely regret is that, after 4 or 5 years

in terms of second hand market, a jaguar xe will always have a much lower value than its german peers ...and then friends, there's nothing we can do.... there it goes... mate, i can see the other cars.... i'm not exactly blind....