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Video: 2013 Jaguar XJ

03:53 min
By Cars.com Editors
May 8, 2013

About the video

Need convincing that full-size luxury sedans don't need a V-8 for a fun driving experience? Cars.com reviewer Kelsey Mays says you need look no further than the 2013 Jaguar XJ.

Transcript

(car hood closing) (dramatic music) (car tires screeching) (upbeat music) Hi, I'm Kelsey Mays for Cars.com.
Top shelf luxury cars don't always need to have V8's and some European automakers are figuring that out with cars like the BMW 740i, the BlueTec S350, the diesel from Mercedes-Benz. That brings us to this, the Jaguar XJ, which now offers a three liter supercharged V6 for 2013. It joins a few other engines, including regular and supercharged V8's, and I gotta say, it doesn't seem like you're missing out that much with the V6, we'll show you why. We're in a regular wheelbase XJ with all wheel drive, which is now optional for 2013. There's also Portfolio, Supercharged, Supersport, and finally, a handful of Ultimate editions, a regular and extended wheelbases are available. Extended wheelbases are called XJL's. So how does the lowly V6 feel? Actually it feels pretty good. Revs pretty strongly, plenty of torque, as you're coming off, launching up freeway on-ramps, a nice supercharger whine that kind of crescendos up the tack. It really helps that this is a very light car. It uses a lot of aluminum architecture. To put it into perspective, the lightest Mercedes S-Class is more than 400 pounds heavier than the heaviest Jaguar XJ, get all the way up to a loaded Lexus LS. That's about a thousand pounds heavier than the heaviest XJ. All of that helps and not just in terms of acceleration. You can really throw the XJ around. It feels very light on its feet. The steering isn't very heavy at low speeds, but it's very precise at higher speeds. The brakes are very firm, they're very confident. A lot of fun to drive, and that's not the way it is with a lot of full-size luxury sedans. (upbeat music continues) Petty handsome interior, lots of leather, wood, metals, chrome, and piano-black textures going on. A leather wrap-around dashboard is standard. Pretty nice in some competing cars you have to pay extra for that feature. I'm not as wild about some of the electronics though. The simulated gauges here are on the screen, in front of the steering wheel. They're already starting to look kind of outdated a little bit pixelated. The center screen here, which houses the navigation system and some other features. It's refreshingly simple, a lot better than some of the knob based systems you get in competing cars. In terms of usefulness, you just press wherever you need to go. It's a little bit slow on certain things. And the backup camera for some reason is really low-res. Jaguar says headroom upfront is a competitive 39.5 inches. It seems tighter than that number suggests though. I'm six feet tall, I have to sit a lot lower in this car than I would normally want to sit to avoid brushing my hair up here, coming out looking like Calvin. Backseat headroom, just 37.2 inches. That's on the low side of this class. And it feels like that if you sit all the way up here, leg room is modest, but bear in mind, this is the regular wheel-based car. The extended wheel base XJL adds 5.2 inches of rear leg room. (car engine roaring) EPA gas mileage is as high as 18 city, 27 highway with rear wheel drive and the V6 engine. Pretty good considering it's a full-size luxury car and it's as fun to drive as it is. But as with any Jaguar expect reliability to be about as good as my jokes are funny that's because in various major leading surveys, Jaguar is rated well below average. In some cases, even dead last. Our test car has less than 5,000 miles on it, but we've already experienced our share of creaks and rattles. So plenty to watch out there. Maybe not that big of a deal if you plan to lease this car, but definitely watch out if you plan to own it. Now, does all of that make up for the fact that this car is a lot of fun to drive and has a posh interior? I don't know. I think I need a couple more hours on a winding road to find out. (upbeat music continues) (car engine revving)

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