SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8
This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
*To read one of our road tests, just select from the menu on the left.
*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.
This is a launch report. In other words, it's simply a new model announcement. The driving experience was limited to a short drive over a prepared course chosen to make the product look good. We can therefore not tell you what it will be like to live with over an extended period, how economical it is, or how reliable it will be. A very brief first impression is all we can give you until such time as we get an actual test unit for trial. Thank you for your patience.
Pics supplied
Published in Weekend Witness Motoring on Saturday October 8, 2011
Everybody secretly loves Jaguars. OK, there were problems with quality control and lack of financial muscle for development during the BMC and British Leyland years. Then came the Ford era and some devices that even faithful employees found difficult to stomach. Things are different now. Indian industrialist Rattan Tata took the abused orphan under his wing and gave it the wherewithal to develop and thrive. There’s more to come, with a further 1,5 billion pounds per year in R&D money for the next five years.
But when will he shut off the taps of largesse and demand a decent return, you ask? Actually, the tide has turned already, with returns of £1,4 billion last year. He paid about that many dollars for the company, so his bankers are presumably relieved. I personally think he bought Jaguar-Land Rover in order to get a decent company car and a luxurious weekend off-roader, but whom am I kidding?
While Jaguar is unashamedly a niche product that performs comfortably within its chosen milieu, there is always room for improvement. The range was extended to include two-door sports cars (XK) and luxurious big saloons (XJ), but fifty percent of the executive car market is for units priced below R500 000 and Jaguar had no presence there. Hence the new XF with 2.2-litre diesel motor, released in Limpopo recently.
It’s a 2197 cc, 16-valve, four-cylinder turbocharged unit putting out 140 kW of power and 450 Nm of torque versus 177 kW and 500 Nm in the basic version of its three-litre stable mate. It features low-friction pistons and a water-cooled turbocharger to increase efficiency, while active engine mounts and modifications to the sump and block reduce NVH levels. Additional sound deadening material and computerised design to smooth out exterior airflow provide further refinement.
A new ZF eight-speed automatic transmission optimises performance of the willing engine that also improves dynamics by contributing less front-end mass. Gear changes are completed in 200 milliseconds – four times as fast as the average human resting heartbeat – while being able to use the paddles to perform multiple rapid downshifts enhances driver control.
Thanks to lightweight materials the transmission’s overall weight remains the same as before, while improved pump design and gear control elements increase its efficiency. That’s not all; intelligent stop and restart technology has been brought in to help reduce fuel consumption to a claimed average of 5,4 l/100 km, with CO2 emissions of 149 gm/km.
It’s not only about mechanical bits and pieces; a new model year cries out for new cosmetics and there are plenty of those. Sheetmetal revisions to grille, bonnet and front wings, incorporating new triangular side vents, give the car a more muscular, purposeful appearance. New high intensity discharge xenon headlamps are slimmer and more compact while still providing good beam resolution. LED daytime running lights are arranged in a distinctive ‘J-Blade’ signature pattern. Tail lamps have been renewed and extend onto the central portion of the boot lid. Stop, taillight and indicator functions are full-LED. Separating them is a revised boot lid finisher with a gloss black lower edge for a cleaner appearance. The final few centimetres of boot closure are powered.
Interior changes include revised front and rear seats with a ‘hoop’ feature on both squab and backrest that not only looks smarter, but also supports better, with added bolstering. New hide colour combinations, veneers and headlining choices add to personalisation options. Centre console, fascia and steering wheel have been treated to a new ‘Aurora’ colour finish to replace the previous ‘Tungsten’ theme.
There is a formidable amount of technology, but it’s integrated seamlessly into the functioning of the car and controlled through a central seven-inch touch-screen that’s polarisation-filtered to improve viewing contrast. To make it user-friendlier, additional buttons have been added below the screen to instantly switch between functions. New graphics are based on those in flagship XJ models.
Three new audio systems, upgrades on those previously available, are offered on the XF. Top of the range is a 1200W, 17-speaker, premium setup with concert hall-like sound reproduction, from British audio gurus Bowers and Wilkins. All three can be fitted with a hard drive-based satnav system incorporating a ‘virtual’ CD multichanger. This allows the owner to copy ten CDs at a time into memory storage. The system offers a few options for connecting MP3 players. There are two USB ports, one of which is iPod-specific, while Bluetooth connectivity allows music to be streamed from a smart phone.
For the orientation drive, we were pointed in best boot camp tradition to a mountaintop 120 kilometres away and asked whether we were back yet. Just kidding – there was a route guide. The XF proved to be quiet, comfortable, sweet-handling and very responsive – a worthy candidate in the sub-R500 000 luxury bracket.
The numbers
Prices: XF 2.2D Luxury – R452 480, XF 2.2D Premium Luxury – R522 480
Engine: 2197 cc, four-cylinder turbodiesel
Power: 140 kW at 3500 rpm
Torque: 450 Nm at 2000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 8,5 seconds
Maximum speed: 225 km/h
Combined cycle fuel economy (claimed): 5,4 l/100 km
Tank: 70 litres
NEDC combined CO2 emissions: 149 gm/km
Warranty and maintenance plan: 5 years/100 000 km
This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.
What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.
My articles appear every Wednesday in the motoring pages of The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles most months of the year (press cars are withdrawn over the festive season - wonder why?) so not everything gets published in the paper. Those that are, get a tagline but the rest is virgin, unpublished and unedited by the political-correctness police. Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so I do actually exist.
I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax.
So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!
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SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8