But it is definitely stylish, sporty looking, with well built modern interiors. It has many things going for it, and few against. The brake feel is also predictable, and not spongy.Īll in all, the Jaguar XE is a bit of a mixed bag. Braking too is strong and is capable of bringing the Jaguar down from silly speeds without any fuss. It weighs up nicely with speed, and one will always know what is happening with the tyres. While the feel may not be as good as BMW, the Jaguar steering is definitely a pleasure to use. Steering response is accurate, and spot on. The tall sidewalls of the tyres are the only let down in an otherwise excellent handling vehicle. The handling too is well managed, without any body roll and with the XE being able to hold some serious speeds into corners. And it gets even better as one picks up speed, the ride flattens even more. Smaller and medium-sized bumps are dissipated completely, and even the larger ones don't elicit a large thud from the suspension, but just a slight noise. It is a very mature setup, with the ride quality of larger cars. The suspension is what truly stands out in the XE. Switching the mode to Dynamic doesn't help much either, but it does weigh up the steering and make the throttle more responsive. And this is with the same gearbox, and similar power and torque figures. Even going flat out, while its not slow by any means, the 330i will leave it in the dust. And this is a pity, because of all the sporty pretensions the XE has. It takes far too long to kick down, and it just seems confused, always in the wrong gear. The gearbox calibration is simply not suited for enthusiastic driving. But its when one starts to demand more from the car that it leaves you wondering where all the horsepower has gone. The XE is well suited to city traffic, and the throttle response is good without much perceptible turbo lag, so closing gaps in traffic is an easy affair too. There are no jerks, and the shifts happen seamlessly, without any confusion from the gearbox. The interior overall does feel familiar thanks to the same instrument cluster and infotainment being used across the JLR model range (I believe).ĭriving normally, sedately, the XE feels peppy, and the transmission is tuned perfectly for this. The headroom is surprisingly low, and I could feel my hair brushing against the roof sometimes. What one will notice though is that this Jaguar is a bit cramped. It shows Jaguar is trying hard to improve its interior quality, and the plastics on this XE felt a lot better than the cars from a few years ago. Once you slide into the driver's seat, it definitely feels modern, full of tech and the sporty steering just completes the driver's area. The claimed 0-100 time is 6.5 seconds, which is slower than its rivals, which is very surprising! The same engine is also available in a 296 BHP state of tune in many other countries, and it would have been nice to have seen that introduced here. This is mated to the ZF8HP45 8-speed gearbox. Jaguar is carrying forward the Ingenium 2.0L turbo petrol which was introduced on the pre-facelift XE. The backrest angle and thigh support were good, though the headroom could have been better: Rear legroom is below average, and taller people will find it uncomfortable. Personally, I preferred the older rotary dial. The gear shifter is straight from the F-Type, and is very sporty. Further down, even the gear shifter and mode switching buttons are new:Ī closer look at the new gear shifter, and the mode switching button. The centre console has had a lot of changes too - from the new infotainment screen to the new AC controls. The driver's doorpad houses the seat and window control panels and the average sounding music system speakers. Light beige seats were already dirty on the media car. It has various options to display, be it a single dial, twin dial, or even just a full map. The instrument cluster is similar to what is present on other vehicles like the XF, and Land Rovers. The steering wheel deserves a special mention for its look and feel: Materials used are a big improvement for JLR, especially the plastics.Ī close look at the driver's area, with the sporty steering wheel and the digital instrument cluster behind it. The seats offer enough support and are comfortable. With its sporty driver cockpit, the front of the XE is a great place to be.
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