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Video: 2017 Jaguar XE - First Look

02:36 min
By Cars.com Editors
April 6, 2015

About the video

From the 2015 New York International Auto Show, Cars.com's Kelsey Mays takes a look at the 2017 Jaguar XE.

Transcript

(engine revving) The all new XE is the first Jaguar since the ill-fated X-type to take on sports sedans, like the BMW three series and the Mercedes-Benz C class.
Now both are especially good competitors in current form, so let's see how this JAG measures up. The XE has nice proportions with the cabin kind of pulled back, and the wheels, especially the front ones, really close to the corners. Nice car to look at from the side, and from the front here, you get a kind of shrunken down XF, that's Jaguars kind of mid tier offering here. Similar themes with just sort of a three portal lower section to the bumper. Obviously a very upright central Jaguar grill here. In back, some similar themes to the F-type Jaguar is a two door sports car with some circular themes that are going on in the taillights. Kind of a nice way that the car cleans up. Now, Jaguar says the new XE, has a very aluminum intensive frame that helps to shave down weight. Engines will include a turbocharged four-cylinder, a supercharged six cylinder, and a diesel version, and that's for the Global XE. We don't know yet which of those engines will make it to the American version, but we do know the diesel version, reportedly, is coming this way, and it'll get EPA highway mileage somewhere in the 40s. Very business-like interior with a couple of different split levels for certain controls, things like, power windows up here, interestingly, and then memory settings for the seats, and power door locks all the way down here. Very interesting kind of layout there, but overall pretty logical where things end up getting placed, and cabin quality remains kind of a mixed bag here. We've got some very nice stitched areas, here in this car at the auto show, but you got to down below like, you know, elbow and kind of arm level, and there's some cheaper, harder plastics down there. And those are areas, actually now, where some of Jaguar's German competitors have really improved things. Now, overall, the XE remains a very wide car in its class. Yet, some editors have found that the cabinet is kind of narrow, especially with your knees kind of pinned in between these kind of bulky doors, and this center tunnel right here. Not a ton of room on the inside, and we'll show you how that carries over to the rear seat. Now, some cars in this class, the Lexus IS brings to mind, have particularly snug back seats. The XE, maybe isn't quite that tight, but it's definitely not generous back here. I'm six feet tall, and that's where I'd sit to drive. As you can see, my knees are very nearly touching the backs of the front seats. And again, this sort of sense of overall narrowness to the cabin, carries over to the rear. So a tight cabin and some inconsistent materials are potential downsides of the all-new XE, but both are plenty forgivable if the car is a lot of fun to drive. We won't know that until we get behind the wheel, which will be sometime closer to the XE's on sale date in 2016.

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