I was fortunate enough to be one of the forum members chosen to drive the Jaguar XE and give my impressions. I took it one step further and went to drive the C450 and 340i to get some perspective in the $55-$60K small sports luxury class. I currently drive an 08 Infiniti G35 for my day to day car and have a modified XFR as my weekend car. I will compare the XE more to the G35 than the XFR due to the approximately $30K difference in sticker price.

First impressions of the XE were very good. I picked it up on Friday morning and used it to go to work appointments. This meant a lot of freeway time both in rush hour, as well as open road. It also meant navigating the very crowded surface streets of Santa Monica and downtown Pasadena. The 340hp engine makes very good midrange power (3000 to about 5500 rpm) and initially, I gunned it everywhere I went. The combination of the exhaust note and the playful nature of the car made it fun in each environment. I used both Sport and Dynamic modes combined for the best engine and transmissionperformance. That caused the suspension to be pretty stiff and sporting though and not suited to the more choppy sections of freeway.

The transmission was good if you kept in in Sport and again better if in both Sport and Dynamic. Otherwise, if you left it in Normal, it would often need to skip two gears to find any real acceleration. That's something I don't like about 8 speeds. But if you work to find your combination of settings, the tranny works as it should both in auto and manual.

The interior has a very good layout and some interesting design characteristics I wasn't sure if I liked...but they were unique. The first is the wrap around dash and the way the curved in portion of the door meets the dash where the air vents are located. It seems a bit strange, like the back end of an Audi A7. With the tiered levels for window and mirror controls, it was a bit awkward to adjust to the height of the controls. You would eventually adapt, but more design over function. Behind the two outside air vents and around the shifter trim are LED's that are blue in normal mode and red in Dynamic. A little silly, but fun. I'm not sure I liked the piano black around the stereo either. Would seem to show scratches and fingerprints too easily. Wheel felt very good in my hand and the paddles are typical Jaguar paddles (too short to be truly reliable when used in anger).



Interior Photo




Door Dash Junction

The other is the way the dash was very low and had the rim around it at the base of the windshield.



Dash

I thought this might be a miss on the design, until I sat in the 340i and the C450. Very short dashes and while having more greenhouse and outward visibility, they both felt very tight for me at 6'4", 245 lbs. Not so much in legroom, but sense of space. I also felt the interior space of the XE with regard to seat width was good, but legroom was a little tight. Although I made it through a 6 hour drive on Sunday with little more than a stiff ankle.

There were a couple of things about the interior that I was not happy with though. First, I hope the carbon fiber trim of the production car is better. This did not look right to me. I would order the aluminum anyway, but buyer beware. It looks cloudy and fake. I wanted to comment on something I saw from one of the other reviewers about the shifter. He was unhappy about seeing whether you would be in D or S. The center display between the gauges always shows this info. I also didn't like the control for the performance mode. I'd rather have individual buttons as my XFR has than the left or right arrows the XE uses.



Carbon Fiber Trim - It actually looks better in the picture.

The sunglasses holder was not working well in this particular car and the steering column cowl and a couple of other areas had some rattles over rough pavement when in Sport and Dynamic. Was better in Normal with the softer settings. In it's defense, I like the switch gear better overall in the XE than in either the BMW or Merc. Some of the Merc switches were good, but some were odd (like the stalk on the column to choose gear). I hate the BMW gear selector and always have and all of their switch gear felt cheap, much more what I'd expect in a low end Hyundai than a $55K car.

The exterior styling was very good, except for a few styling cues they missed on, some just on this particular car. The front end is about as perfect as it can be. Muscular, aggressive, wide and looks like it's from a car at least a class higher. Kudos for sure.



Front end

From the side, it looks a little more generic, but still very good. I tend to think it looks like a 4 series Gran Coupe if you just glance. Not a bad thing at all, but not as distinctive as the front. On IRR, I don't like the black side skirts. They just don't seem to add anything to the look and should have been body color. Also, the particular car I had wore all black 19" wheels, yet the side vent was silver. Just not cohesive, but you can fix that with the black pack or different wheels (my choice would be to get the 20's with machined faces to fix the issue and fill out the wheel wells better).




Wheel/Side Vent

The rear is decent, but the exhaust tips need some additional style in a car this aggressive. I also did not like the fact that the leaper and the Jaguar emblem occupied such a large space on the trunk. I'd take the Jaguar lettering off immediately. I think it also made the car look taller and narrower. I'd probably kill the XE emblem also. I wonder if on the black pack if the emblems are black? If so, they need to figure out how to do black exhaust tips as well. I'm more partial to chrome, but you just can't mix and match black and chrome as much as they did on the particular one I drove.



Rear End

The Meridian system is very good for a stock stereo. I am very picky about the quality of what I listen to and I was surprised. Except that it was a bit dry in the midrange, it was completely acceptable and had good bass, nice treble and stereo imaging (very, very few get that rating from me). Would do particularly well for an electronic music fan. I realized it was good when after I set up the fader and bass, midrange and treble settings, I rarely even thought to change them. It worked great on Bluetooth from my Droid Turbo as well. The nav system is fine (I won't go in depth), but I really don't like most nav systems anyway. Better than the old system for sure. Still a bit odd when moving around in the map though. The car I had was a Mexican spec car and one really cool feature was the rear view camera could be used while driving! And the camera was really high quality and made the Merc and BMW cameras look really bad.

Now to the best part of the car...the chassis! This thing is sick. I tried really hard to make it do something bad and it never did. And the combination with the engine made it so engaging and fun. So much so that when I think of that car the one word that comes back to me is fun. Not so powerful to get you into real trouble, but more than adequate. The C450 was heavier and more of an autobahn cruiser than a traditional sports car. Nice, but no real character other than the engine/exhaust which felt and sounded tough. The BMW 340i engine felt the fastest of the group and most technically advanced. But it didn't make good noises. Let me say it again though, it felt really fast for what it is.

With the XE, you can take off from a stop light, never do more than 50 mph and be having a great time. I took a right hand turn at 30 mph and just pulled the wheel right. No drama, no push, just smiles. I took it through a set of tight corners about 3-4 miles long in a canyon I know pretty well and I couldn't believe it. That is where this car belongs...tight canyon corners! I went through there at about 80% and was doing in the low 70's. I ride my motorcycle through there and feel pretty good in the low 50's. I drive much faster than I can ride in comparison with those who are good at riding, but it amazed me. The only time the car EVER made me even think about what it was doing is when I was going through a long sweeper at about 85 mph and the camber changed and went away from me mid-corner. For the first time I felt the chassis flex a fair amount and then I waited to see what was going to happen next...then nothing more happened. I made a small correction to the wheel to account for the camber and away I went, still at 85. Shortly after that I took it up to 125 mph and it was as stable as at 80 mph. Really impressed with the dynamics of the car. And what makes is so engaging is that you don't have to be going fast to enjoy it. The steering isn't the best I've ever felt (pre-electric Porsche), but it's nicely weighted on the light side and does as it's supposed to with good feel. With a chassis this capable, the steering really doesn't matter much because there is nothing you could feel through it that would cause you to do anything other than let the car do what you initially told it to do. Most cars push the front so you have to think about the steering. Or they bounce over bumps and you think about it. Or it wanders around and you think about it. Or it is so stiff that you're tired of driving it on the way home from a good canyon run. It was never something I thought about while driving it.

I'm not going to be all fanboy on it though. It isn't very quiet in the interior. They tuned the exhaust to be heard. It's not loud unless you're using it though and it gives the car so much more character than without it. The part that is noisy is the road noise. It's not what I would consider a well performing luxury car. It's a near luxury PERFORMANCE car! It rides a fair bit rough, even when in Normal mode which does make it better, but not bad for a dedicated sports car with that type of cornering prowess. I think that bodes very well for audience the S is intended for (idiots like me) who will make compromises day to day for that feeling. And I'd trade my trusty G35 for it in a heartbeat, even thought I spend 6-7 hours in that thing some days. It's better in every way, which is high praise.

And the one thing I want to reiterate is how much fun it is at almost legal speeds. My XFR is ridiculously fast and capable, a true gentlemen's express, but for me to have much fun with it, I'm doubling up the speed limit very quickly. I'd be in the XE and was enjoying myself at speeds under 60 in a 45 zone! The C450 couldn't do that and neither could the 340i. If you gave the XE another 40-50 hp, it would be the perfect everyday man's toy (do you hear me Jaguar?).

So that brings me to the same thing that drew me to my XFR that the XE also possesses. Jaguars have character. There's something different about them. They aren't clinically fast, but are definitely fast enough to be fun. They are balanced and lithe. They're flawed but perfect at the same time. When you have an opportunity, go drive a top level XE even if you don't technically want one. Find a tight, curvy road and feel what it was meant for. You will be better for it.

 

Nice review, giving the good with the not so good and in depth too, sounds like you had a real blast!

I saw one today and also thought that they could've done more with the tailpipes perhaps. Absolutely love the front end, but can be mistaken for a few others from the rear at a little distance.
Thanks for sharing...

 

I really did have fun in it. It's just not quite big enough or powerful enough for me. But it should convert some people from the German big 3 because it's different and engaging.

 

Kyanite, great review. In-depth and honest. Nice that you were able to test drive a couple other cars in its class right after being in the XE. The air vents coming into the door right near the switches for the mirrors and seats does look a little odd. The back end is the least prettiest part of the car, but when I saw it in person, I didn't think it looked that bad at all. I'm glad to hear(pun) that the stock Meridian sound system works very well, especially to your discerning ear. I just couldn't justify the $2,600 upgrade for the 825 watt Meridian system. I'm already topping out on my price range as it is. I've yet to own or drive any car for that matter, that I didn't wish had more power. I think getting 40 -50 more horses out of that engine would be pretty easy down the road. Best line I've read about any car in a long time :

" It's not what I would consider a well-performing luxury car. It's a near luxury PERFOMANCE car!

Jaguar may not like that statement, but I do!

Thanks

 

You're welcome. Glad it helped. And in reference to the rear end, I didn't mean to say it looked bad, it's just uninspired. Exactly the opposite of the front figuratively and literally.

 

The rear looks better if seen in a 3/4 view rather than straight on. It is actually pretty smart. But I think it would look better if it had f type tail lights, and the diffuser tarted up a little. http://cdn2.autoexpress.co.uk/sites/...?itok=STFWyvCu

 

See Bruce, a little discussion is getting us on the same page now. "Tarting up the diffuser" would definitely help!

 

Bigger tailpipes and a sporty diffuser would go a long way. Relatively easy to fix either via aftermarket or future releases.

 

Great stuff, thought the front page crowd would appreciate this as well...
Jaguar Forums's First Jaguar XE Extended Test Drive - JaguarForums

 

That's like an elaborate re-tweet! I'm honored to carry the flag for the forum.

And I hope I didn't sound like I was down on the XE at all. Liked it a lot.

 

Great review!! My lease on my XF is up in July and this is definitely contender for many of the pros you state. I've contemplated other brands but I keep finding myself coming back to Jaguar, they just have something that the others can't match.

Is there a difference between the 35t and the S, or is it just different branding for different markets?