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14 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday April 2, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com FAMILY OWNED & OPERATED You'll Love Our Service! OAKVILLE 905-827-3286 Jaguar's XF arrives at a watershed in the history of the fabled marque By Jim Robinson OAKVILLE BEAVER Jaguar chief designer, Ian Callum, describes the 2009 XF sports sedan as, "my dream car, I always wanted to build this one." Callum isn't one of those impeccably dressed and coiffed designers we see at new car launches who are as much showmen as presenters. He incessantly doodles lines and curves on any piece of paper he can get his hands on. He doesn't use strategically placed (and rehearsed) one-liners when he talks about Jaguars. It's a fusion of influences, impressions and, as I have found out, a nearly insatiable curiosity. Callum's credentials are long and include the current Jaguar XK sportscar and the luscious Aston Martin Vantage, but it is the new XF that he feels is his best effort yet. "I enjoyed rally cars, so for me, designing a really great sports sedan is what I've always wanted to do and the XF is it," he said. The XF is seen by many as a watershed car for Jaguar with the recent sale of Jaguar and Land Rover by Ford to Tata of India for $2.3 billion. While it will no doubt be business as usual, the sale to a huge Indian conglomerate raises questions about the future. I remember the same sense of what would happen next when Ford bought Jag in 1989. The result, although Ford actually came out the loser, was a vast infusion of technical and engineering expertise that saw Jaguar go from one of the worst-built cars on the planet into the top five in the J. D Power surveys. Tata didn't get to the size it is by doing anything second rate, so it could be Jaguar will benefit yet again. So the 2009 Jaguar XF couldn't have come at a better time. While it was designed to bring new buyers to the marque and that has worked (4,000 U.S. orders being taken within hours of it going on sale there), it now is the symbol of the new Jaguar image and ownership. Instead of benchmarking the competition, Callum and his team benchmarked the Jaguar XK sportscar with its wind cheating lines. But they also had to create room for five adults. It was a tall order and the engineers had a devil of a time getting the body metal to conform to the curves the styling team demanded, but they did. For example, the rake on the front and back windows is the same angle as the XK coupe. One of Callum's signatures is the very tight roofline that you think would make for a cramped cabin but such is not the case. Two at the front is no problem and three adults in the back are doable, providing they aren't all rotund like me. If you look at the XF from the side or rear, trunk space appears to be skimpy but, again, such is not the case with 17.7 cu ft (540 litres) of useable space. And if you fold down the rear seat back, that increases by another 14.8 cu ft (420 litres). Power is similar to the XK being a 4.2-litre DOHC V8 producing 300 hp and 310 lb/ft of torque or the 4.2-litre DOHC V8 in supercharged form making 420 hp and 408 lb/ft of torque. The engines have a 0-100 km/h sprint time of 65 and 5.4 seconds respectively. The first engine is found in the Luxury XF and Premium Luxury XF models that start at $59,800 and $65,800 respectively. The other engine is in the Supercharged XF at $77,800. All three have a shipping charge of $1,195, Drive to the rear wheels is through the new JaguarDrive Selector that uses an industry-first electronic way to shift gears. It begins with starting the car, which requires one of those proximity keys with a start-stop button that only works when the doors are closed and a foot is on the brake pedal. Pressing it once causes the transmission-mounted start/stop button to pulse red (as Jaguar officials explained is like a beating heart). Press the button again and the car A Jaguar from any angle, the 2009 XF sports sedan arrives at a crucial time in the history of the British maker that has always stood for grace, space and pace. starts while a rotary knob about the size of a small hockey puck rises up and can be used to select one of three modes of drive: automatic, sport automatic and sequential-manual, the last employing paddle shifters on the steering wheel. When you shut the car off, the drive mode automatically defaults to Park and the knob lowers itself again. Rigourous testing including letting big dogs roam around and pouring two bottles of Coke on the knob was done to make sure it works in all conditions. The suspension was patterned after the XK but sport tuned to match the vehicle dynamics of the chassis that is made from 25 grades of steel including incredibly hard Boron steel for the hoops that go around the cabin to protect the passengers. The XF combines Electronic Brake Assist, Electronic, Brakeforce Distribution, Anti-lock Braking System, Dynamic Stability Control, Cornering Brake Control, and Engine Drag Torque Control. And, for the first time in a Jaguar, Understeer Control Logic which decelerates the car and helps to restore grip to the front wheels when required. The new XF has a wide range of driver assistance features including a Blind Spot Monitor, Front and Rear Parking Aids, Rear Camera Parking Aid, Adaptive Cruise Control, Automatic Speed Limiter and Tire Pressure Monitoring System. Bluetooth compatibility, iPod/MP3 player interfaces, JaguarVoice, Digital radio and a single or six-disc CD player ensure owners can listen and talk as they choose. I drove both the Premium Luxury XF and Supercharged XF on California interstates and up through the fire-ravaged Cleveland National Forest to the quaint but tourist-trappy town of Julian that is rife with souvenir stores including one called Pistols and Petticoats which sold both. The grip is quite amazing and makes the car somehow feel lighter than it is. Besides all the technical aids, the track on the XF is the widest in the segment and looks it with the result being a very square tire patch. With good forward sight lines, anticipating the curve ahead means not craning the neck to see around bulky A-pillars. The JaguarDrive is more show than an engineering leap forward but I suspect only a very few will use the sequential mode. But it's good to have nonetheless. JaguarDrive is the name given to the industry-first fly-by-wire gear selector controlled by a rotary knob that rises from the transmission tunnel when the car is started. The interior is a standout with the kind of twin needlestitched soft leathers and meticulous work on the veneers you expect but it also has what Jaguar calls "a sense of theatre" along with a touch of "British humour". For instance, when you press the pulsing start bottom, it also activates the heating/cooling vents that rotate from behind the dash to the open position and rotate back when the XK is shut off. There is, of course, a touch activated monitor for climate, audio, navigation, etc, but there is also JaguarSense that turns the overhead lights on or off by an electronic sensor when your finger is close meaning you never have to fumble for a switch in the dark again. Or how about phosphor blue theatre, mood and halo lighting? The XK package feels and looks right and it is also priced very competitively with established rivals like the BMW 5 Series and Audi A6. But that may not be enough. Now clear of Ford, Jaguar has the chance to re-solidify its place among the upper echelon of premium automakers. Always known by the slogan "grace, space and pace," the XF is the car that should change a lot of minds and make a statement, not just about Jaguar, but about where the Big Cat is about to pounce.