Published:
24 October 2023JLR’s gently hybridised Ingenium diesel four-pot retains the occasional funny driveline engagement when you’re just tipping into the throttle pedal, as it juggles that transient blending of its electric and combustive power sources. Such instances are pretty rare, though. Most of the time, it just offers usefully stout-feeling mid-range torque, paired with good refinement and equally good economy for a car of its size. During mixed-speed touring, an indicated 50mpg is easily achievable with a fairly light load on board.
This phase of mild hybridisation has also made a perceptible difference to how torquey these engines feel on the road and mechanical isolation has been incrementally improving over the years in parallel. (The new XF has an active noise cancellation system that works to dampen the effect of its various sources of noise on your senses.)
The eight-speed gearbox may be the last piece of the puzzle for Jaguar to sort. It still seems to hesitate at times, but also to rush its engagements and actuations at lower speeds and at other times.
It isn’t the sharpest-feeling thing, either, when you start to flick the nicely chunky, metallic shift paddles the XF has - although that shortcoming isn’t enough to take the shine off what is a very rounded and increasingly well-polished powertrain.
