Overall, including much hard charging, we averaged 33 mpg. Given the plus-mpg fuel economy, quiet highway cruising, and plus-mile range, the XE 20d makes for a great long-haul companion. Just make sure to switch off the lane-keeping-assist system, whose steering interventions are abrupt to the point that they led to repeated passenger inquiry about the source of the undesired swerving.
Although it looks compact, the XE actually has more length, width, and wheelbase than the 3-series. And, on an execution level, we were dismayed at the large gap between the rear fascia and the twin exhaust tips. Front headroom, which already is on the snug side, is diminished 1. Our tall drivers found their heads brushing up against the headliner.
The front armrest built into the door is a double-decker design, but the upper rest is too high and the lower too stubby to be useful. The armrests are thinly padded, too. In a similar area, the Audi A4 packages its large MMI knob, all of the ancillary shortcut buttons and switches, and eight preset buttons. But, go figure, the voice-rec then came back the next day and continued to work fine thereafter. There were other gripes: The four-way switches on the left steering-wheel spoke sometimes control the radio and sometimes the screen embedded in the gauge cluster.
When navigating the latter screen, hit the left back button one too many times and—oops! We of course wholeheartedly agree with the idea of a more dynamic entry-luxury sedan, and we could even forgive the tight interior space if the XE were lighter and more involving. New Cars. Buyer's Guide. Type keyword s to search. Today's Top Stories. View Photos. This seems like as good a time as any to mention that we also have a spare set of all-season tires on inch wheels that we have deployed on more than one occasion to keep the Jag on the road.
This was one of those times. One week and miles later, with the bent wheels repaired and the nail removed, we remounted the performance tires. But apparently making an appointment with the dealer was all we needed to do to fix the problem because the following morning the flasher was working just fine.
Similarly, the tire-pressure-monitoring system went awry, signaling a fault when all the tires were actually doing just fine, for once. Then the fault light went out, all on its own. Various staffers had thought they might be coming from the supercharger, or something rattling around in the intake manifold, or maybe a pulley bearing. Well, at least not right away. Maybe now those of us who really like driving the XE can convince the ones who have been avoiding the car to give it another chance.
Then we had the same thing happen not long after. Then in May we hit a pothole in a construction zone that flattened the right front, ripping open the sidewall, while also bubbling the right rear. One month later, both right-side tires went down again, victimized by some railroad tracks.
Add to that the single inch Sottozero winter tire that was damaged by a pothole in March and it makes seven. Lucky us. Our satellite-radio subscription has been restored, which we were thankfully able to do ourselves without going to the dealer. But the infotainment system has also continued its strange behavior.
The steering has earned praise for its feedback, and the car feels balanced and agile. The car puts down the power well, with an all-wheel-drive system that is calibrated to do more than just deploy the extra set of driven wheels as a safety measure once traction starts to go away.
Most of the staff is into the look of the black Venom wheels against the British Racing Green body color, and the understated design is appealing, especially when the XE is parked next to a more extroverted machine, such as a new Lexus. Even afterward, it takes forever to boot up, and we have experienced intermittent crashes. And then there are the sounds, all manner of whirring racket coming from under the hood, like an industrial meat slicer that has gone out of balance.
The first time we were told it was a bad idler pulley, but we had to come back to have a new one installed. At least we got some other recall work done during the four days it was at service, including replacing a hose to the fuel-vapor canister and updating the software for the powertrain control module.
Another trip to the service bay found bad fuel pumps that took nearly two weeks to replace—and then when we picked up the car it sounded the same. It finally got addressed in a separate visit to a different dealer, which took three days to complete because the techs were unable to update the software.
Just Ohio, which is even more miserable and also likely to drain your wallet. Longtime Car and Driver readers might remember a succession of long-term Jaguars, four of them through the s, that did little to dispel the stereotype of unreliable British cars. The last of these Jags born from the Ford-ownership era to finish its tour of duty was a XF Supercharged sedan. When we next took delivery of a long-term Jag, half a decade had passed, enough time for new owners Tata Motors to develop its first model from the ground up.
That F-type proved relatively reliable but was not without its own problems, including an infotainment system that locked up and required rebooting so often we could only presume it was running on Windows ME. That would be the XE, which, along with the redesigned XF, rides on a new modular aluminum-intensive platform called iQ. And what sorts of electronic bedevilment will we have to cope with for 40, miles?
Ah yes, the driving. That has been spectacular. Driving all four wheels, it shot our XE through the quarter-mile in just Those short sidewalls are already losing their battle with our medieval Midwestern roads, as just weeks into our test we had to replace a front tire that developed a bubbled sidewall. But the big Pirellis were good enough to pull 0. Prior to hitting the track, we could tell how grippy our XE is by the scrubbing from its front tires that we could feel through the steering wheel during tight-radius parking maneuvers.
On the street, the steering has excellent feel and weight, with none of the overboosted vagueness that plagued past Jaguars. Toasty hindquarters are a nice bone to throw at rear-seat riders, given the tightness of their accommodations.
At least two editors already have managed to knock their heads against the low roof opening while getting into the back seat. When so dazed, the dull interior is less disappointing, but really we have only ourselves to blame for not ordering one of the livelier two-tone leather combinations.
Initial impressions say that the XE is capable of staking a legitimate claim for Jaguar in an ever-expanding segment. New Cars. Buyer's Guide. Type keyword s to search. Today's Top Stories. View Photos. Marc Urbano Car and Driver. This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.
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