Prospective Jaguar XE buyers invited to test rival cars

Prospective Jaguar XE customers can test drive up to three of the compact executive saloon's main rivals under a new initiative launched by Jaguar.

Jaguar dealers across the country have taken delivery of the three main rivals to the XE – which occupies the fiercely competitive compact executive saloon class – for potential XE customers to compare with the XE.

Unsurprisingly, the other cars in the group test are the BMW 3 Series, Audi A4 and Mercedes-Benz C-Class - the latter of which is in the UK’s top 10 best-selling cars of July 2016 and is the 10th best-selling car in the UK so far this year, with more than 25,000 units shifted. Due to availability issues, however, not all dealers offering the group tests will have all three cars available to test; some may only have one rival available. 

Jaguar claims to be the first manufacturer in the UK to allow customers to carry out the ‘magazine-style’ group tests, with JLR UK’s managing director, Jeremy Hicks, saying: “Our offer is simple: if you are interested in test driving a Jaguar XE but are uncertain about how it will compare against its key rivals, then contact your local Jaguar retailer and arrange your own personal group test.”

The ambitious scheme only runs for a brief time; the first weekend of September is the window in which customers can undertake the group tests, although Jaguar has secured more than 250 examples of the rival cars for the tests.

The XE is approaching 30,000 global sales in 2016 so far and marks a key area of business for Jaguar. Meanwhile, the brand has had a healthy start to the year in the UK, with a growth in registrations in January-July of almost 57% compared with the same period last year. UK sales totalled 19,236 cars in this period.

If you don't have time to head out to your local Jaguar dealer to try out the XE and its rivals, our sister publication, What Car?, has carried out its own comparison of the XE against the BMW 3 Series. Find out how both cars did here.