2012 Jaguar XF 2.2 Diesel Review: The Motor Report

New Jaguar XF 2.2L Diesel

Jaguar XF 2.2 Diesel Review: Highlights

What’s Hot: XJ looks, punchy diesel torque, sweet fuel-saving technology
What’s Not: Pricey options, not keen on the 'space-saver' spare
X-Factor: The stunning powertrain is going to win lots of friends
Vehicle Style: Luxury Sporting Sedan
Price: $78,900 (plus on-roads)
Engine: 2.2-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel
Power: 140kW@3500rpm
Torque: 450Nm@1200rpm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Fuel Economy (claimed): 5.4 l/100km
Fuel Economy (tested): 7.1 l/100km

OVERVIEW

The MY12 Jaguar range arrives with a raft of subtle design and performance changes, and two big additions to the brand: the bombastic XKR-S performance coupe, and the frugal XF 2.2-litre diesel sedan.

Oddly enough, it's that 2.2 diesel that has most eyebrows raised. With stop-start technology, and mated to an eight-speed automatic gearbox, it's Jaguar's first small-capacity diesel – in fact the smallest engine the Brit manufacturer has ever made.

Small it might be, but there's no shortage of torque on tap. It hauls 1700kg of luxury Jag around with total ease. Setting a new entry-level price, it's this model that will be the big seller.

INTERIOR

Quality: Pardon the pun, but Jag has made a huge leap in quality with the XF range. The ‘base’ XF oiler is no exception.

Trim of double-stitched leather with alcantara seat-inserts (for added grip) doubles with soft-touch surfaces and smart dials. The retina-roasting chrome of the previous car’s centre console, which reflected sunlight uncomfortably into the driver’s eyes, is now in a soft brushed silver.
Only the wood trim-panels on the test car, which sound and feel synthetic, dulled what is a quality cabin.

Comfort: Standard four-way seat-adjustment on both front seats makes getting settled a breeze. The alcantara and leather trim grips the body and cossets the hips and shoulders for lateral support in both rows.
Our test car’s 'six/six-way' adjustable seats were a $440 option; lumbar adjustment is also in the next spec of seat.

Equipment: The XF now gets the lovely swoopy headlights of the XJ, with the best daytime running-light design going around – and shaped in a 'J' (of all things).

In base “Luxury” trim it comes with leather, multi-function steering wheel with paddles, and a seven-inch colour touch-screen for the multimedia interface.

This includes a 30GB hard drive, iPod and Bluetooth connectivity, and an excellent speaker system.
But as with any base-level car, the options list is rather long and pricey. Our “Luxury” test vehicle, sitting below a “Premium Luxury” spec, featured front parking sensors and a rear camera ($1,390), a mirror pack ($1,570), 'six/six-way' seats ($440), split rear seat ($1,000), carpet mats ($350), keyless entry ($950), 18" Vela alloys ($2,490), Rosewood veneer ($320), metallic paint ($2,650), sat-nav ($2,495) and a sunroof ($3,920), making it a $102,565 car.

Storage: The Jaguar bests Audi and BMW rivals with a narrow but deep glovebox, cupholders, cubbies and deep door-pockets.

The boot is very large but unfortunately, with the batteries relocated to the boot, the floor of the Jag hides only a skinny spacesaver spare.

ON THE ROAD

Driveability: Punchy and powerful, the 2.2 diesel hardly feels like a four-cylinder.

In fact, it’s easy to forget it’s a diesel. The power and torque curve is very precise, with power kicking in as torque wanes, making a very smooth powerband. Its slick operation is underpinned by not six, but eight speeds, in the ZF sports auto.

It takes a little getting used to. Using the paddles around Mt Tambourine on the Queensland/NSW border, the 'usual' two or three taps to change down suddenly becomes four or five.

But the gearbox is super intelligent, allowing gear stacking with multiple hits of the down paddle, and even dropping down a gear during heavy braking to utilise engine compression.

It’s a genuine performance package, this four-pot oiler, with stunning throttle response, rear-drive accuracy and light-footed ability despite its 1700kg-plus heft.

Refinement: It is easy to forget you are in a diesel such is the XF's on-road refinement. Only when the stop-start activates – when you're first listening for it – do you notice at all that it’s a diesel.

The stop-start tech is a first for jag and only available on the 2.2 litre model. The battery, located in the boot, regenerates during the drive to always be on hand (for instant start-up, with a single revolution of the engine). The combined fuel sip is a miniscule 5.4 l/100km.

Suspension: The suspension is just short of sublime, with long travel and excellent rebound and bump control (despite the car’s weight and size).

It’s hard to set off the traction/stability control, even over upsetting dips and cambered corners.

Braking: The brakes too are excellent, without fade, though the pedal feel and travel is a bit remote.

SAFETY

Safety features: Front, side and curtain airbags, front load limiter/pretensioner seatbelts, rear pretensioner seatbelts, front active headrests, Brake Assist, Electronic Brakeforce Distribution, Traction Control, Electronic Stability Control,

WARRANTY AND SERVICING

Warranty: Three year with roadside assist
Service costs: Servicing every 26,000km!

TMR VERDICT | OVERALL

If it seems this review is glowing, it's because the XF diesel absolutely shines.

For $84,990 on road, and with a host of options to tailor the car to suit, it sinks top-of-the-line HSVs and FPVs.

Of course, it's more the big three German competitors that are in the Jag’s crosshairs; in particular, their sub-$90k diesel sporting sedans. Jaguar's new XF diesel is their match.

In Europe, the 2.2 makes up almost half of XF sales. If you're shopping in this part of the luxury segment, we'd recommend a close look at this very good new car from Jaguar, the XF diesel 2.2.

Source: The Motor Report

Tata Motors aims to raise $750 mln via overseas borrowing

Tata Motors

Tata Motors plans to raise $750 million or Rs 3,675 crore via overseas borrowing to trim debt and meet the working capital needs, Business Standard website reported.

The external commercial borrowing or ECB with a spread of six years will be priced about 350 basis points above the London Interbank Offered Rate, stated sources familiar with the transaction. Largest bank State Bank of India is one of the arrangers for the deal.

The largest automotive company had a consolidated debt of Rs 14,500 crore at the end of June. Meanwhile, the company’s stand-alone debt stood at Rs 13,700 crore according to disclosures made by the company.

A company spokesperson said, “We do not have any guidance to provide you with. Suffice it to say that, as a prudent practice, Tata Motors raises debt capital from time to time to increase its debt maturity profile and reduce its interest cost.” The company’s net automotive debt equity at the consolidated level stood at 0.69 at the end of June, at par with 0.68 at the end of March.

Tata Motors which owns the UK’s premium and luxury brands like Jaguar and Land Rover has managed to bring down its net automotive debt considerably over the past two years, when it stood at Rs 23,750 crore with a debt-equity ratio of 4:1. For Tata Motors, this will be the second big-ticket fund raising event after its $1.6 bilion bond issue for JLR.

The automobile company is eyeing newer markets for expanding its passenger and commercial vehicle operations. Tata Motors and JLR had announced their plans to spend $561 million in building an engine plant in central England in September.



Both companies will jointly spend £1.5 billion over the next five years on new product development and expansion of engine range. Tata Motors is the largest automobile company and is a leader in commercial vehicles. It has products in compact, midsize car and utility vehicle segments.

Source: Stock Market Digital

Jaguar Land Rover workers to get 6.1% pay rise

Jaguar Land Rover

More than 12,000 Jaguar Land Rover workers are to get a “double your money” pay rise of 6.1 per cent next month – because inflation has jumped to a 20-year high.

Thousands of hourly paid and staff employees across Solihull, Castle Bromwich, Gaydon, Whitley and elsewhere will qualify for the bumper pay rises after unions won an inflation-linked deal just a year ago.

The agreement was for a five per cent increase from November 1, 2010, and three per cent or the Retail Price Index plus 0.5 per cent from November 1 this year.

With the Government’s RPI measure at 5.6 per cent, its highest rate since June 1991, workers at the Midlands biggest manufacturer will now receive more than last year’s five per cent rise, itself hailed as an industry-leading deal.

Many hourly paid engineers on around £35,000 a year will now see their pay rise by over £2,000 a year when the new 12-month deal kicks in on November 1.

Roger Maddison, national officer for Unite, said: “Last year, we could have settled for three per cent for Year Two, and that would have been a popular deal. Three or four years ago, we had zero inflation and now it is nearly six per cent.

“If you are going to do a long-term deal, you have to make sure that you are protected against inflation.

“You could look at this as a positive sign – we managed to protect the workers at Jaguar Land Rover.

“But you have to remember that it is desperate times for those people who have not got inflation protection for their pay. I believe that everybody should have inflation-linked pay rises.”

The two-year pay deal unveiled a year ago was part of a package that saw JLR reverse plans to close either Castle Bromwich or Solihull and announce a £5 billion package of investment, with new models. The two-year offer was agreed following a 74 per cent vote in favour by workers.

A JLR employee bulletin at the time said: “The company’s offer of a two-year pay and conditions agreement provides much needed predictability and stability for the company and employees.”

According to the UK findings of Aon Hewitt’s 2011-2012 European salary increase survey, salaries rose 2.5 per cent in 2010, 3.1 per cent this year and were projected to increase 3.2 per cent in 2012.



* The number of cars made in the UK accelerated ahead last month, it has been announced.

A total of 136,051 cars were produced in September, a 7.5 per cent increase on the September 2010 total, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said.

Source: Birmingham Post

Current Defender to live on to 2017 atleast

Current Defender

The bulk of the current Land Rover Defender range is likely to continue in production until 2017 or later — and that will be at least two years after the launch of the all-new Defender replacement in 2015.

The long-wheelbase 110 and commercial 130 versions of the Land Rover Defender are likely to be beneficiaries, staying in production well after the arrival of the new short-wheelbase Defender, previewed at the Frankfurt show as the DC100 concept.

“There are a number of changes to the legislation that mean we can keep the current Defender in production longer than we thought,” said a Land Rover source.



The first is the ability of the new 2.2-litre diesel engine to meet EU6 standards — the tough next step in emissions regulations that will align diesel engine pollutants with those of petrols in 2015/16.

There is also a suggestion that the Defender might not have to comply with EU6 until a later date. A few years ago the Defender was reclassified as a commercial vehicle, which might help.

Pedestrian impact laws were due to pull down the shutters on the Defender in 2015, but Land Rover now understands that a ‘derogation’ — exemption from the law — might apply until 2020.

Source: Autocar

The Jaguar XF Wins Executive and Luxury Used Car Awards

The Executive and Luxury category in the 2011 What Car? Used Car of the Year Awards has been won by the Jaguar XF, with judges calling it a 'seriously desirable and sophisticated car'.

Chas Hallett, What Car?'s editor-in-chief, said: "The Jaguar XF's combination of sharp, contemporary styling, build quality, refinement, sporting agility and equipment is a winning formula, especially in the secondhand market where a highly specified model can now be bought for less than £20,000."

The judging panel was were from all areas of the motor industry including experts from What Car?. The judges picked the winners based on running costs, reliability, driveability, quality, longevity, safety features and desirability.

Andy Whyman, XF Chief Programme Engineer commented: "We worked tirelessly on the development of the XF for its introduction in 2008. Since then, over 38,000 have been sold in the UK and the momentum continues. To be recognised by What Car? means a great deal to the whole XF team and we're delighted to add another award to our ever-growing tally."

The next generation Jaguar XF has been on sale since 1st September 2011 and is available with a new 2.2 litre Diesel engine with Stop-Start technology. Sales have risen 12.8 per cent compared to September 2010.



Source: Car Pages