Jaguar XF 2009 review
With its hi-tech audio system, our luxury saloon has hit the right note.
Believe it or not, the audio speakers pictured here are nearly the same price as our Jaguar XF long-termer! The huge snail shell-like units are made by British hi-fi specialist Bowers & Wilkins, the firm which also supplies the fantastic sound system fitted to our favourite executive saloon.
When we winced at the £1,116 price for the car audio set-up in our previous report, Bowers & Wilkins got in touch to prove that the Jaguar is in the speaker premier league with its specially developed set-up.
Based in Worthing, West Sussex, the British audio company brought along its flagship Nautilus speakers to be pictured with our long-termer. Yours for the princely sum of £44,000, they make the XF look like a bargain! Even with the luxurious optional extras fitted to our model, it still weighs in at less at £41,989... Needless to say, the money-no-object speakers aren’t top sellers (around two sets of the hand-built units are bought each week), but the technology they showcase has helped Bowers & Wilkins to come up with one of the finest in-car systems we’ve ever sampled.
While driving the XF is never a hardship, being able to plug our iPod into the Jag and enjoy better sound quality at 70mph than we have in our front room at home is a treat. With 14 speakers, Dolby Pro Logic II 7.1 and a DAB digital radio, the XF has the lot.
Bowers & Wilkins brand manager Shaun Marin talked us through the challenges the firm faced in building the system: “In cars people are sitting in fixed positions, but you have to factor in the noise and vibration of a moving vehicle.” The only solution was to work alongside the XF’s development team from the start, perfecting the sound over three years. The audio set-up was then fine-tuned by the same sound engineers who
put the finishing touches to the Abbey Road Studios in London!
So the Jaguar has been music to our ears, but how has the rest of the ownership experience measured up so far? Let’s start with the gripes. For a frustrating couple of weeks, the fuel filler cap would open only with the help of a credit card prising it free. With our local Jaguar dealer unable to provide a replacement part straightaway (recommending we call the marque’s roadside assistance instead!) we were relieved when the fault fixed itself.
Our only other complaint is with the low-speed ride quality. While the 20-inch wheels look great, they ruin the XF’s ability to soak up rough surfaces. Only when you get up to speed does the suspension start working properly, and the Jaguar shows its true colours as a perfectly poised, athletic saloon.
Perhaps it’s enjoying the car’s sporty set-up a bit too much that has caused our economy to suffer... We were surprised to see it drop to a poor 29.5mpg average. Nevertheless, the XF is proving one of the most rewarding long-term test cars on the fleet. Next to the Nautilus speakers, the sleek four-door looks like a bargain as well!
Second Opinion
The stereo in our Jaguar sounds great, and couldn’t be easier to operate. The Apple iPod-compatible touchscreen set-up is one of the best in-car audio systems I’ve ever used, and choosing the tracks you want to listen to is a real joy. It’s so good that I rarely bother listening to the radio when I’m driving the XF – but as the reception of the digital radio is poor, that’s probably just as well. At £685, the television fitted to our car is also expensive.
Ross Pinnock
Road test editor
