Item: Jaguar XF 2015-2024
Rating: 4

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"A more mature all-round prospect, with class-leading dynamics.” That’s how we described the brilliant second-gen Jaguar XF when we first drove it 10 years ago.

Jaguar axed its mid-size saloon and estate last year and embarked on an exuberant rebrand that only those living in Antarctica will have missed. In the meantime, prices for the XF have tumbled, and now you can bag this swish, left-field 5 Series alternative for as little as £4000.

Of course, the cheapest XFs are leggy examples showing clear signs of hard use, but with a healthier budget of about £9000 you will easily find a well-maintained XF with a more palatable mileage. And that’s still a bargain for a smart-looking executive car that’s pleasant to ride around in and excellent to drive.

Ditching its predecessor’s outdated Ford platform, the Mk2 XF is based around an aluminium-rich structure that’s both lighter and stronger. This well-conceived chassis, coupled with the XF’s weighty, intuitive steering, makes it a treat to thread down a B-road, offering plenty of rear-drive engagement.

Yet it remains a comfortable cruiser, ironing out road irregularities with aplomb and cosseting passengers in an upmarket cabin.

It’s not quite up to Audi A6 standards, but perceived quality is good. The ambience is enhanced by neat tricks like blue ambient lighting, and the second-gen car’s longer wheelbase means there’s more head and leg room in the back.

The saloon also has a 540-litre boot, which trumps its BMW and Audi rivals, while the Sportbrake estate swallows 565 litres.

You can choose from Prestige, Portfolio or the sportier R-Sport and S trims. Prestige has bi-xenon headlights, leather upholstery and heated front seats, but we would opt for the Portfolio’s posher Windsor leather, bigger 18in alloy wheels and reversing camera. A 70,000-mile Prestige costs around £8500, but Portfolios of a similar condition are no dearer.

R-Sport receives a bodykit and firmer suspension, but the S versions get the bigger V6 engines and adaptive dampers. The 375bhp supercharged 3.0-litre V6 petrol sounds sweet and feels quick, but don’t discount the 296bhp twin-turbocharged diesel six-pot. Vast torque – 513lb ft – makes it punchier, it’s generally refined and it will do around 45mpg on the motorway.

The 2.0-litre four-pot Ingenium diesels dominate the small ads, and you can choose between 161bhp and 178bhp variants. They are efficient but plagued by diesel particulate filter and timing chain issues (see ‘Buyer Beware’, right) so are best avoided, especially the twin-turbo 237bhp unit of 2017. Petrol four-pots came with 197bhp and 247bhp, but they’re rarer and cost more to tax.

The facelifted XF, which landed in 2020 and brought in styling and interior upgrades, got mild-hybrid petrol and diesel four-cylinder engines.

The interior is a cut above, with soft-touch materials, plush leather, tactile switchgear and massaging seats, plus an 11.4in Pivi Pro touchscreen infotainment system that’s graphically strong and pretty easy to operate.

Needless to say, the Mk2 XF nails the executive saloon brief. If you need a plush motorway cruiser that’s dynamic, comfortable and premium-feeling, investing in this used Jag is money well spent.

Verdict

Model tested:

Rating: 8

Used Jaguar XF 2015-2024 review

Outgoing traditional Jaguar exec car offers a lot of space and tech, and an appealing drive. It’s no modern, fleet-minded, electrified marvel – just a lot of car for the money

Good

Poised yet pillowy ride

Engaging, balanced handling

Mid-sized exec space for a compact exec price

Bad

No PHEV powertrains

Back seats aren't the roomiest

Four-cylinder diesel engine is polished, but not exactly punchy

DESIGN & STYLING

Pros

Classic Jag 'fuselage' styling is retained across the range

Lighter than its more widely electrified German rivals

50:50 weight distribution with lighter, stiffer platform than predecessor

Cons

Engine range is limited with post-facelift cars

No plug-in hybrid option

If the previous XF was about dramatic insurrection into German territory, the second-generation was a more methodical expansion of its hard-won place in buyers’ minds.

Being instantly recognisable as a Jaguar was rule number one, necessitating that it adhered to the same raked shape that had gone before.

To this tester's eyes, it doesn't actually matter which specification you order the XF in because it will always look pretty elegant.
Jonathan Bryce
Social Media Executive

Fitting this familiar profile onto the new platform was the more pressing task, the smaller XE’s size having helped to dictate the dimensions that its modular aluminum-intensive architecture adopted.

The move to a cutting-edge amalgamation of exotic alloys, self-piercing rivets and structural adhesives was the latest model’s defining feature. Its chief benefits – as much as 190kg shed from the kerb weight, a 28% increase in rigidity and 51mm gained in the wheelbase – had a direct impact on the car as a whole.

Aesthetically, though, they were cleverly hidden in the car’s elongated rear deck and dramatically shortened front overhang, resulting in a car that was 7mm shorter than before.

The body delivered near 50/50 weight distribution, with the chassis again based on front double wishbones and Jaguar’s own integral link rear suspension. It also featured new passive dampers, which had an extra valve in the piston that remained open at urban speed, and then closed as the pace increased to make the ride progressively firmer.

Powering the XF was predominantly the work of the 2.0-litre, all-aluminium Ingenium diesel engine, which could be had in 161bhp and 178bhp form.

Jaguar’s go-to gearbox, the eight-speed ZF automatic, remained an option across the board (and standard on the 296bhp diesel and 377bhp petrol V6s), but a six-speed manual – also co-developed with ZF – was the default transmission.

A more streamlined front end, a more aggressive rear diffuser and new headlights were rolled out on the facelifted XF that launched in 2020, with inspiration taken from the updated F-Type. There was an elegance to this car's design that played into the strengths of Jaguar's classic 'fuselage' styling.

INTERIOR

Pros

As much room as in any commensurately priced exec option

Perceived quality and infotainment sophistication are much improved

Cons

Not quite as much boot or back-seat space as in a Mercedes E-Class

Pedals are significantly offset to the right

If you were looking for evidence that the Mk2 XF was intended as a cagey evolution of the old, its cabin provided it. Like the XE, this was now a Jaguar suited and booted primarily for business.

Fit and finish hadn’t improved dramatically over its predecessor, and the Jag failed to reach the same high standards as a high-spec Audi A6, but it still managed to evoke a premium and purposeful sense of style.

Don’t like the black-on-black leather interior of our test car? Jaguar offers some lovely ivory and tan hide options, which you could even have extended over the upper doors and dash with the money you saved from not buying a BMW or Merc.
Matt Saunders
Road test editor

Space had improved over the previous-generation, however. With its roofline and wheelbase tweaked in the right directions, it conveyed a more liberal sense of space, certainly in comparison with the XE. This stopped short of outright capaciousness, but with 24mm more room for knees and 15mm more for legs, adults wouldn't feel short-changed if they were consigned to the rear.

Anyone given to grumbling about boot space would need to be even more scrupulous, because there looked to be a lot of it, added in no small measure by the potential to fold the rear seats flat, thus creating more than two metres of shallow load length.

Cabin quality was taken to another level with the introduction of the facelifted XF. It was less recognisable if you hadn't cast your eye over this car for a few years because Jaguar had made a big improvement to the perceived quality and classy material allure.

Chrome trimmed elements immediately caught your eye, and various clusters of buttons and knobs on the steering wheel and centre console were neatly presented and better finished than they used to be.

The 11.4in Pivi Pro infotainment screen, meanwhile, was also very attractive. It was standard on even entry-level cars, as was Jaguar’s digital instrument pack, and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto

The line of shortcut buttons on the margin of the display, as well as the easy configurability of the home screen, meant it was easy to use on the move.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

Pros

Refinement, drivability and economy all impress for a four-pot diesel

The diesel's strong mid-range torque

Cons

Outright performance is nothing special

Petrol engine's economy could be better

Criticism of the refinement levels of modern four-cylinder diesel engines was widespread but Jaguar Land Rover’s motor was similarly not quite up to snuff in this regard.

With the noise came a tepid pitter-patter of vibration, too. It was insufficient to grind an axe on, yet begrudgingly noticeable when you ideally wanted to feel nothing from the dirty work being done up front. Up to working temperature, it did improve, and the soundtrack settled well beneath the wind noise when you were up to speed.

The diesel engine's start-stop system is seamless and operates without any vibrations or judders, despite working with quite an old engine.
Jonathan Bryce
Social Media Executive

Jaguar claimed a 7.7sec 0-60mph for its higher-powered Ingenium lump, but it took 9.4sec to reach that speed when we road tested it in 2015. That wasn’t unreasonably slow, but it was behind the Skoda Superb at the time.

Ultimately, the early Ingenium diesel meant that the XF didn’t qualify as a class leader from under the bonnet, and given JLR’s huge investment in that particular area, that was disappointing.

JLR’s hybridised Ingenium diesel four-pot performed better. It offered usefully stout-feeling mid-range torque, good refinement and equally good economy for a car of its size. During mixed-speed touring, an indicated 50mpg was easily achievable with a fairly light load on board.

Mild-hybridisation had made a perceptible difference to how torquey the engines felt on the road and mechanical isolation has also improved over the years.

The later 2.0-litre petrol engines offered better, more responsive straight-line performance. Even the standard P250, with 247bhp and 269lb ft, managed 0-62mph in 6.5sec and a top speed of 155mph. In its most powerful guise, the P300, its 296bhp helped cut the 0-62mph time by 0.4sec, but top speed remained the same.

The eight-speed gearbox wasn’t the smoothest and seemed to hesitate at times but also rushed its engagements and actuations at lower speeds.

RIDE & HANDLING

Pros

Supple ride

Rare rear-driven handling poise for a fairly large car

Cons

You'll want to pay for key options for get the perfect Jaguar driving experience

Louder at motorway speed than most of its rivals

The challenge of making a modern saloon agile, comfortable, fast, grippy and confidence-inspiring all at once had – to varying degrees – been accomplished by many of Jaguar’s rivals. Where they had been less successful was in making what was a sophisticated product feel fun or feelsome.

It was this quality that the XF keenly addressed. You’d struggle to find a better-tuned chassis, with four doors, a large boot and heavy oil-burner. Separate any of its constituent parts – traction, turn-in, responsiveness, ride comfort – and from the driver’s seat, the compromises struck by Jaguar were uncannily well judged.

The XF takes camber change and quick corners in its stride.
Matt Saunders
Road test editor

Despite a lack of feedback, the electric power steering was progressively weighted, with an oily, intuitive feel to it. Jaguar had also outdone itself with the ride. The passive configuration deftly managed secondary intrusions, while maintaining good body control at pace.

Even towards the end of its life, the Jaguar maintained its broad range of dynamic qualities.

Fitted with its standard passive suspension and 20in rims, there was only a hint of noise and excitability to its ride. Fluent, composed body control, balanced rear-drive handling, and tactile steering let you enjoy threading what was a large saloon along a winding road as if it were much smaller.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

Pros

Even accounting for weaker residuals, monthly finance rates are low

A real-world 50mpg from a car this size isn't to be sniffed at

Cons

There's no tax-saving PHEV powertrain

Petrol engines don't have mild-hybrid assistance and can be thirsty

There are lots of Prestige, Portfolio and R-Sport models to choose from, but you’ll have no trouble sourcing a well-maintained car for between £5000 and £12,000.

There's a greater choice of trims and engines above £12,000 – and you'll likely find a tidy example with either low owners or a full service history. Prices for facelifted XFs start from around £20,000.

The petrol engines have CO2 emissions that are way off the pace with similarly powered rivals
Jonathan Bryce
Social Media Executive

The diesels are pleasingly efficient despite their mixed reliabilty - you'll easily get 50mpg from an oilburner, if not more on longer motorway stints.

Petrol-powered XFs are less frugal and can achieve around 32-35mpg.

VERDICT

Verdict

Model tested:

Rating: 8

Used Jaguar XF 2015-2024 review

Outgoing traditional Jaguar exec car offers a lot of space and tech, and an appealing drive. It’s no modern, fleet-minded, electrified marvel – just a lot of car for the money

Good

Poised yet pillowy ride

Engaging, balanced handling

Mid-sized exec space for a compact exec price

Bad

No PHEV powertrains

Back seats aren't the roomiest

Four-cylinder diesel engine is polished, but not exactly punchy

‘Good to drive’ was convenient enough shorthand for the previous XF’s most likable quality.

But with its updated platform, pleasing mix of engines and class-leading dynamics, the XF had grown into a more mature, better all-round prospect for its second-generation.

Sitting in a tastefully appointed XF, it was hard to believe that it was of a similar price to an Abarth 500e
Jonathan Bryce
Social Media Executive

Around the XF’s excellent steering, good ride quality and feelsome balance, Jaguar had clustered a spacious, well-finished and very handsome car. It would have been a near-flawless one if Jaguar had succeeded in polishing the Ingenium powerplant to the same standard.

Updates made to the XF in 2020 only made it more desirable, and at the very end of its life its package was as strong as it had ever been. It had the cabin quality and sophisticated on-board technology to go with its appealing ride and handling that had always set the car apart.

TECHNICAL SPECS

Model tested:

Jaguar XF D200 R-Dynamic HSE Black

Price:

£42,750

Price as tested:

Unspecified

Engine:

4 cyls in line, 1998cc, turbo, diesel, plus 48V hybrid assist

Transmission:

8-spd automatic, rear-wheel drive

Driveline layout:

Front, longitudinal, RWD

Model tested

Jaguar XF D200 R-Dynamic HSE Black

Price

£42,750

Price as tested

Unspecified

View all specs and rivals

Engine

4 cyls in line, 1998cc, turbo, diesel, plus 48V hybrid assist

Transmission

8-spd automatic, rear-wheel drive

Driveline layout

Front, longitudinal, RWD

Power

201bhp at 3750rpm

Torque

317lb ft at 1750rpm

0-62mph

7.8sec

Top speed

143mph

Kerb weight (DIN)

1795kg

Fuel economy

50.6mpg

CO2

146g/km

BIK tax band

34%

Rivals BMW 320d Touring Mercedes C220d Estate

Power

201bhp at 3750rpm

Torque

317lb ft at 1750rpm

0-62mph

7.8sec

Top speed

143mph

Kerb weight (DIN)

1795kg

Fuel economy

50.6mpg

CO2

146g/km

BIK tax band

34%

Rivals BMW 320d Touring Mercedes C220d Estate

Jonathan Bryce

Title: Social Media Executive

Jonathan is Autocar's social media executive. He has held this position since December 2024, having previously studied at the University of Glasgow before moving to London to become an editorial apprentice and pursue a career in motoring journalism.

His role at work involves running all of Autocar's social media channels, including X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, YouTube Shorts, LinkedIn and WhatsApp.

Sam Phillips

Title: Staff Writer

Sam joined the Autocar team in summer 2024 and has been a contributor since 2021. He is tasked with writing used reviews and first drives as well as updating top 10s and evergreen content on the Autocar website.

He previously led sister-title Move Electric, which covers the entire spectrum of electric vehicles, from cars to boats – and even trucks. He is an expert in new car news, used cars, electric cars, microbility, classic cars and motorsport.

Sam graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 2021 with a BA in Journalism. In his final year he produced an in-depth feature on the automotive industry’s transition to electric cars and interviewed a number of leading experts to assess our readiness for the impending ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars.

Matt Saunders

Title: Road test editor

As Autocar’s chief car tester and reviewer, it’s Matt’s job to ensure the quality, objectivity, relevance and rigour of the entirety of Autocar’s reviews output, as well contributing a great many detailed road tests, group tests and drive reviews himself.

Matt has been an Autocar staffer since the autumn of 2003, and has been lucky enough to work alongside some of the magazine’s best-known writers and contributors over that time. He served as staff writer, features editor, assistant editor and digital editor, before joining the road test desk in 2011.

Since then he’s driven, measured, lap-timed, figured, and reported on cars as varied as the Bugatti Veyron, Rolls-Royce Phantom, Tesla Roadster, Ariel Hipercar, Tata Nano, McLaren Senna, Renault Twizy and Toyota Mirai. Among his wider personal highlights of the job have been covering Sebastien Loeb’s record-breaking run at Pikes Peak in 2013; doing 190mph on derestricted German autobahn in a Brabus Rocket; and driving McLaren’s legendary ‘XP5’ F1 prototype. His own car is a trusty Mazda CX-5.