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our test drives or view them all

Jaguar XF 3.0 S V6TD Sport Portfolio

I HAD the audacity to doubt Jaguar’s chief design officer Ian Callum when I drove the new XF for the first time.

As we circled the car on the roof of an exclusive hotel in Monaco he sensed my discomfort and asked: "What don’t you like?"

The patient Scot heard me out. I loved the sides, the beautiful boot and the classic rake of the rear window that mirrored the original rear hatch glazing on the E-Type Coupe.

"It’s the front," I said. "It doesn’t look like a Jaguar to me."

But Callum is no prima-donna. If he was offended or irritated he didn’t show it.

He simply smiled and started to explain why the XF looks as it does. Why it really does echo earlier Jaguars, despite my doubts. And why he believes it should grow on every one of its doubters.

Ian Callum and his team have integrated many of the classic curves and architecture of previous Jaguars into the front of the XF. It’s just not obvious until he points them out.

I was flattered he’d taken the time to explain. He needn’t have bothered. We were, after all, on the open top of a sixth floor hotel overlooking Monaco Harbour and could have cut short this "Doubting Thomas" by hiking me over the edge for an early bath.

But it’s in the nature of the man to explain.

"How do you follow something like the S-Type?" he said. "I had to deliver something modern and different, but with the feeling and feline looks of a traditional Jaguar.

"It was hard. There are many beautiful Jaguars. But everywhere you look on this car you will spot a Jaguar theme."

He’s right, of course.

Some 18 months have passed since that rooftop chat – and the XF has grown on me as he suggested it would.

I still don’t like the front as much as I should, but it sits better in my eyes than it did and the sides, rear and interior seem to be even more striking than when I first saw them.

This is a beautiful executive express. The XF is the epitome of the fast Jaguar saloons. A thoroughbred. A cat poised to jump. In fact, a leaper!

It drives superbly, handles brilliantly, is luxuriously appointed, sounds and smells like the modern classic it is and is a joy to pilot around Highland roads – even when they are ridged and potholed with ice and snow.

But what makes the latest XF model even better is the magic that’s been breathed, not on its fiery 385bhp five-litre V8 petrol engine, but on the original 2.7 litre V6 turbodiesel.

The new three-litre version is a quantum leap in every respect – an advance that almost deserves a new model name.

More powerful, quieter, smoother, more economical, cleaner burning and even more responsive than the 2.7, it’s a remarkable transformation of an already impressive compression ignition design and one that should do more to convert petrol heads to diesel than ever before.

My test car was a well-appointed ‘S’ model – the more powerful of the two three-litre turbodiesels offered in the XF with 275bhp and an incredible 600lb.ft of torque from 2000rpm. Even more impressively this 1.82 tonne saloon will average 42mpg.

Driving it in this month’s heavy snow was a bit of a nightmare. Even with the "winter" setting on the fine six-speed paddle-shift transmission and leaning only gently on the throttle, its 20-inch 35-section tyres struggled for grip. Moving off from a standstill in deep slush, snow and ice was a joke. I was going nowhere.

But given black tarmac and that recent north rarity – a properly treated road – it showed its true colours.

Using the self-erecting transmission control turret to select how I wanted to manage this rear-drive super saloon was easy.

Left to its own devices in "Drive", and even when slipped into "Sport", the transmission was silky smooth and instant-changing.

But I preferred to use the paddle shift controls – left for up and right for down – to enjoy the connectivity of the magnificent driveline. It was here the 3.0 V6 shone. The turbocharged pulling power delivery is astonishing – subdued until it approaches peak revs and utterly effortless.

Steering, brakes and chassis are superbly in tune and if there is a better upper executive class sporting saloon on the market I have yet to drive it.

In the right conditions it is remarkably fast and eats up the miles. The large diameter 255/35-section tyres generate a lot of road rumble, but the XF in its Sport guise lends itself to that kind of audio inconvenience. Like the rather lumpy low-speed ride, it really takes nothing away from this sporting masterpiece.

In the dry its cornering ability is breathtaking with a delightful hint of tail-happy bias that is always under control thanks to advanced and very sophisticated electronic chassis and traction programming.

Overtaking is a "point & go" exercise. Pull out to clear a slower vehicle at 50mph and just over three seconds later you are past the obstacle and travelling at 70mph. It’s effortless.

The Sport Portfolio model I had on test drips equipment. But there was one feature I appreciated more than any – a heated steering wheel.

When the outside temperature gauge nudges -8 I can assure you the charms of a gently-warmed leather steering wheel cannot be overstated. Almost as impressive are the electrically heated windscreen and a cabin heating system that delivers heat from cold quickly – a real boon when it comes to winter driving in the north of Scotland.

I drove this car in some of the most extreme winter conditions I’ve encountered since piloting a Volvo XC70 through Arctic Sweden last year and, apart from frustrating failures to pull away on snow-covered slopes, it was rock solid and sure footed.

Modern traction systems are so good these days that even my massively powered XF "Snow Cat" was easy to tame in slippery conditions.

As an express saloon this is a benchmark quality car. It is comfortable, superbly trimmed and delivers a golf bag swallowing 500 litres of boot space that can expand to 963 litres by lowering the rear seats. Mind you, the boot aperture is rather narrow with a restrictive sill.

In nit-picking mode I could describe the secondary controls and dash as confusing – but even this is just a matter of familiarity. And anyway the rich oak wood trim was aesthetically sufficient to take my mind off the complexities of the touch screen controls and sometimes hard-to-see console switches.

As a premium sporting luxury saloon they don’t come much better than the XF Sport Portfolio.

Rating: 9/10

FINAL THOUGHT: Ian Callum and his team hit on a winning design when he penned the XF. The front is still rather anonymous but the side and rear elevations are superb and the interior architecture fresh and modern. However the car’s crowning glory is the new three-litre V6 turbodiesel – the smoothest, most powerful and cleanest of its type.

Jaguar XF 3.0 S V6TD Sport Portfolio

• Price: £44,200
• Capacity: 2993cc
• Power: 275hp
• 0-62mph: 6.1 seconds
• Maximum speed: 155mph
• Economy: Combined 42mpg; Urban 30mpg
• CO2 emissions: 179g/km
• ESP: Standard
• Insurance: Group 18