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2018 Jaguar XF Sportbrake Quick Spin Review | Special XF no more

The 2018 Jaguar XF Sportbrake is a wagon, and as such, one must praise its existence. We need more of them. It looks sensational in all its long-roofed glory, especially in Firenze Red and the gloss black exterior trim package — yowza. Plus, its cargo area is deep, wide and generally voluminous. It would be nice if Jaguar included a roll-up net partition for dogs or to prevent high-mounted cargo from flying forward (as Audi does in the Allroad), but nevertheless, the XF Sportbrake should be more functional than many crossover SUVs. It should certainly be more enjoyable to drive, as the XF delivers with Jag's usual steering excellence and body control. While other midsize luxury sedans have drifted away from the sporting realm (cough, BMW 5 Series), the XF maintains its engagement with the driver. As we discovered when driven back-to-back with the Volvo V90, it's one of the sportiest of sport wagons. It's definitely the sportiest of Sportbrakes. However, it's the "XF" bit that disappoints. The original XF was really something when it debuted, featuring seductively sleek styling in a segment of serious German sedans. The distinctive cabin put on a show with rotating air vents and a rotary shifter that rose into your hand upon pressing the start button. The fact that the XF was different inside and outside from its fellow Jaguars also differed from the Russian nesting doll design approach of its competitors. The original wasn't without flaws, but it was special. This 2018 XF just isn't. The cabin is the biggest problem, as it looks identical to those of the cheaper XE and F-Pace SUV, and is pretty unremarkable and, well, dull to behold. Even the "show" elements that have survived seem vestigial now, as only the outer air vents rotate and the shifter no longer rises into your hand since the starter has migrated elsewhere. More concerning, though, is that the materials are just not up to the segment standards, and certainly not in keeping with a test car that has a sticker of $84,815. For instance, the old XF could be fitted with soft leather covering the doors and the broad, downward sloping dash. The new one has coarsely grained pleather. Then there's the matter of functionality. The rotary shifter in the original XF was certainly part of the "show" but it also freed up significant space on the center console for three cupholders/bins. The new one resides in an expanse of wood trim the size of a shift boot, leaving no room for that third cupholder/bin.

Junkyard Gem: 1977 Jaguar XJ6L

British Leyland began selling the Jaguar XJ in 1968, and production continued through multiple platform generations (and corporate owners) until just a few years ago. The original XJ was facelifted twice, in 1973 and 1979, with sales of the six-cylinder version extending into 1987 (Series 3 cars with V12s were built through 1992). Production numbers were never very high, but these cars proved popular in the United States and I still find them every so often during my junkyard travels. Here's a Series 2 XJ6 saloon that showed up in a Denver-area self-service yard last winter. Jaguar introduced a long-wheelbase version of the XJ saloon for 1972, giving it a four-inch stretch in order to better compete against the planned Rover P8. Since Rover was a fellow British Leyland brand, this was like Buick pouring big resources into crushing a threat from Oldsmobile, to the detriment of the overall company. In any case, the long-wheelbase saloons proved so successful that the short-wheelbase four-doors got the axe a couple of years later (the coupes stayed on the shorter chassis). Jaguar continued to add the "L" badging to the saloons for quite a while after that, presumably because it looked classy. The paint on all the upper body surfaces has been nuked down to the steel by the relentless High Plains sun, so we can assume that this car spent a decade or three sitting parked outside. It may have started out in Arizona, one of the few places with fiercer sunlight than eastern Colorado. Is it possible that it really turned a mere 46,630 miles during its life? With most cars of this vintage, I'd assume that the five-digit odometer has been turned over once or twice. With a Jaguar and its troublesome electrical components made by the Prince of Darkness, however, that's not such a sure bet. To own a car like this, you need to be willing and able to give it the money and work it requires to stay on the road; not many are suited to this responsibility. The interior looks to have been in very nice condition before the car got parked in a field somewhere. The wood interior trim has seen better days. Back in the 1970s, Mercedes-Benz had a big edge over Jaguar with mechanical sophistication and build quality, granted, but Jaguar beat those Stuttgarters hands-down when it came to making a car interior feel like a billionaire's library. The engine is a 4.2-liter XK6 straight-six, rated at 162 horsepower and 225 pound-feet.

Jaguar I-Pace EV has a new pedestrian warning sound: Listen to it here

Jaguar's production of its first electric car means it also has to deal with a problem everybody else has been trying to solve: noise, or rather, the lack thereof. People can hear an engine at low speeds when they're walking along a sidewalk. The same can't be said for silent-operating electric cars. We wrote about Chevrolet's latest solution to the noise problem a few weeks back, and now Jaguar is sharing what it came up with for the I-Pace. The noise it didn't use is almost more interesting than the one it did, though. Jag says its first iteration was meant to be spacecraft/UFO inspired, but apparently it was so convincing that people tended to look up at the sky instead of at the road. Engineers switched it to what seems like a pretty general hum sound for production. Take a listen yourself in the video above — you'll hear the noise at the 40-second mark, and a few other spots after that. The sound is emitted from a speaker behind the grille at speeds up to about 12 mph. It'll change in pitch and volume to correspond to the increasing or decreasing speed of the vehicle — it even changes tone when you shift into reverse to signal a change in direction. Jaguar says the noise is no longer needed at speeds above 12 mph because tire and wind noise become sufficient enough at that speed. Chevy turns the noise off on the Volt at about 20 mph, however, showing that manufacturers haven't really come to a consensus on what should be happening. A U.S. law that hasn't gone into effect yet will ask manufacturers to keep the noise at up to 18.6 mph, though. We happen to be partial to the jaguar growl heard right at the end of the video as a warning sound. That's how you make an entrance with a Jaguar. These kinds of systems are necessary to warn those who might be blind or visually impaired, but distracted walkers are a huge demographic of people needing a warning too. Everybody walks around with their head buried in a phone nowadays, making silent vehicles a hazard of our own habits. Jaguar says it specifically engineered the noise so that it doesn't intrude upon the cabin, so only pedestrians are bothered by the hum when slowly plodding through cities. Jaguar I-Pace pedestrian warning sound View 10 Photos Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Green Jaguar Green Driving Technology Crossover SUV Electric Luxury pedestrian safety jaguar i-pace