On the road, our XF Premium Luxury lives up to its official billing. Smooth and stately, it is an ideal cruising vessel on the streets and freeways of the greater Los Angeles area. The seats are supremely comfortable, and include such amenities as three-stage heating and ventilation (that's standard too). Ours is additionally equipped with the Advanced Vision Pack that includes blind-spot warning indicators, which flash little alerts in either or both of the side mirrors whenever another vehicle enters the area behind your peripheral vision, making navigation on congested So Cal freeways that much easier. The Vision Pack also includes a rearview camera when the car is in reverse, and park-assist bumper sensors to avoid low-speed fender benders while you're maneuvering in the parking lot. All this is hugely advantageous considering the XF's deceptively large footprint and a high shoulder line that tends to hamper rearward lateral visibility.
One thing that's hard to overlook is the XF's thirst for fuel. That's not really a complaint, because it's a given when you're stepping on a big 4.2-liter V8. Just don't expect unrealistically high economy. The EPA estimates returns as high as 25 mpg during highway driving and about 19 mpg with combined city and highway use. Sure enough, our best average registered 19.0 on the nose, with about 18.7 or 18.8 registering more consistently on the real-time economy computer located between the tach and speedo dials. But we figure it's a small enough price to pay for 300 hp and 310 lb-ft of torque consistently on tap. We'll have more on the engine and overall driving dynamics in the next update.
Note: In the Jaguar long-term intro (February '09) we inadvertently left the zero-to-60 and top speed out of the spec table. So here they are. Zero-to-60 mph: 6.1 seconds. Top speed: 121 mph (electronically limited).
At A Glance
Relaxed, luxurious interior ambience, forward-thinking touch-activated controls
That irresistable temptation to always have your foot in the big V8Total mileage: 4,749 Fuel economy: 18.8 mpg