Weighting 188 kg (414.5 lbs) more than the sedan, the vehicle offered more room in the trunk. The Sportbrake, according to designer Wayne Burgess, was developed for people who want more space to carry stuff but expressly do not want increased ride heightperhaps because they want to make it easier for pets to climb aboard, or because they just cant abide by a higher center of gravity. It quite literally is the only sport-luxury wagon in its price range, pricier than the outgoing BMW 3-Series Sports wagon and more affordable than the Mercedes-Benz E AMG E 63 S wagon. Note: The following story was excerpted from the April 2021 issueof Collectible Automobile magazine. And free is good, right? Our office mates at Consumer Guide found their 2018 Sportbrake S test car quick off the line with road manners described as comfortable and highly competent. Sportbrake came exclusively with XFs top engine, a 380-hp supercharged 3.0-liter V6much more power than competitors like the V6 Mercedes-Benz E400 and four-cylinder Volvo V90 T6 wagons carried. 35t Premium 4dr Sedan AWD (3.0L 6cyl S/C 8A), 35t Prestige 4dr Sedan (3.0L 6cyl S/C 8A), 25t Premium 4dr Sedan AWD (2.0L 4cyl Turbo 8A). Curb weight rose 165 pounds to 4045. Then theres the cargo volume under the Sportbrakes long roof. While its engine/transmission can occasionally annoy, the Sportbrakes ride/handling balance and its usefulness as daily transportation may be beyond reproach. As the age of the SUV approaches the dawn of autonomous mobility, clear and obvious soul shouldnt be minimized. Check out price savings and popular options here! These will add equipment thats optional on the S, including Jaguars wearable Activity Key bracelet, an 825-watt Meridian stereo, wifi hotspot and a control feature that allows front-seat occupants to operate the roof shade by waving a hand in front of the mirror. The XF sedan, noted for its near 50/50 weight balance, is actually biased slightly toward the front. So you think the station wagon is dead. Wed guess this might be learned behavior, in that the algorithms arent necessarily anticipating full fuel when you punctuate stretches of steady, light-throttle operation with deep jabs at the gas pedal. Email. Ads can be annoying. With fewer than 250 XF Sportbrakes roaming the American landscape, finding, Already-steep pricing increased quickly with pricey options, so grabbing a. If alive means nearly a million sales a year and 25 or 30 options to choose from, as it was from the late 1960s through the mid-70s, then, yeah, the wagon is probably dead. Controls: Well-sized buttons and knobs that are easy to reach in the center stack.
Still, we think this lovelyand scarce Jaguar wagon will be rediscovered someday. The exact text will differ depending on the actual application you have running. Please follow the instructions below to enable JavaScript in your browser. The white contrast stitching only helps a little. Up to the B-pillar, the Sportbrake was the same car as the regular XF. Subscribe to Collectible Automobile Magazine, Photo Feature: 1966 Mercury Park Lane Convertible, Consumer Guide Car Stuff Podcast, Episode 122: Neoclassic Bustlebacks, Ford Creates New EV Division, Historians Group Hails Collectible Automobile Tucker Article, Historians Group Honors Collectible Automobile Electric-Car Article, Future Collectibles: 2018-2020 Jaguar XF Sportbrake. The XF Sportbrake is new to Jaguar but takes the sport-luxury sedan and makes it even more family-friendly. Find a used Jaguar XF for under $26981 | Check out price savings and popular options here!
Driving Factors: We drove about 75 percent on local roads and 25 on the highway in Dynamic mode. It takes 5 seconds to do so but it fails to capitalize on its rivals during the quarter-mile run. Rear passengers in the Sportbrake get a bit more knee room and 2.75 inches more headroom than those an XF sedan. The crossing over will be left to Jaguars hot-selling F-Pace SUV and the forthcoming E-Pace compact. The XF Sportbrake is medium-sized inside and more of a fast daily driver than it is a hauler. Read the vital details ahead.
If there was any evidence that wagons were a dying segment, Jaguar certainly hasn't heard about it. With all three segments flat, cargo capacity increased to 69.7 cubic feet. The 2018 Jaguar XF Wagon doesn't play around when it comes to the braking prowess. Steering: The steering is nicely on center, and turn in is quick. This page is for personal, non-commercial use. Wed guess its suitable for towing here, too, if you want to install a hitch. Thats about as troubling as it gets, and the good stuff is really good, because the Sportbrakes lackluster powertrain dynamics are more than balanced by its chassis. We especially love the long, sloping greenhouse. Thanks for that. In the back, the split 60/40 seatback extended the trunk space. It has 32 cubic feet of space behind its rear seat, compared to about 19 cubic feet in the XF sedans trunk and 33.5 cubic feet in the F-Pace SUV, which happens to be one of the roomiest in its class. Engine note is intoxicating, almost as much as the F-Type. But even manual shifts can feel imprecise and less than authoritative. 2008-2022 SoftNews Net SRL.All rights reserved. It really does look fantastic and even upstages the XF sedan by quite a bit. At $71,445 with the $995 destination charge, the Sportbrake S comes with standard front and rear parking sensors, blind-spot monitoring and adaptive cruise control. The best thing to say about the XF, wagon roof or otherwise, is that its easy to find its soul. We get it. Thats total sales over three model years, or on average, less than seven cars a month. At 20 percent of all U.S. XF sales, the Sportbrake would barely break 1000 per year. And thanks for reading Autoblog. To promote a nice, flat load floor and maintain an even keel when its fully loaded, the Sportbrake gets its own self-leveling rear air suspension.
Acceleration: This thing pulls like a freight train. The 2018 Sportbrake was based on the second-generation Jaguar XF sedan that made its debut in America as a 2016 model. Yet if alive means a small but stable chunk of automobile sales, then the wagon aint dead yet. Ride Quality: The ride is firm with the fat tires, big diameter wheels and sport-tuned suspension, but it's compliant enough to be daily comfortable. 35t Portfolio Limited Edition 4dr All-wheel Drive Sedan. More sporty/performance-car news, reviews and fun. Select the option to run ads for autoblog.com, by clicking either "turn off for this site", "don't run on pages on this domain", "allow this site" or similar. The extended roof-line and the raked D-pillar and the tailgate offered a different view. We're admitted wagon nuts, and the Sportbrake really floats our boat in best of ways. Click on the icon for your Adblocker in your browser. The Sportbrakes steering is light, but it rolls off center authoritatively, maybe perfectly, with no hint of nervousness. Storage Space: There's a cubby at the base of the center stack, and nice cupholders with a retractable sliding door, but the armrest is too small to hold any more than change and tiny items. By clicking subscribe, you agree to receive news, promotions and offers by email from Top Gear and BBC Studios. If the Sportbrake were the car, this guy would not be put off by the cabin treatment, but that comes down to what one wants from life. Given the buying publics limited appreciation for wagons, the XF Sportbrake probably moves further toward the fringe. Logos 1996. Residents of the United States will buy roughly 200,000 station wagons in 2017, counting crossover things like the Subaru Outback, VW Golf Alltrack and Audi A4 Allroad. 2018 Jaguar XF Sportbrake Wagon Exclusive Interior and Exterior Pictures | View latest Pictures, 35t Prestige 4dr Sedan AWD (3.0L 6cyl S/C 8A), 25t R-Sport 4dr Sedan AWD (2.0L 4cyl Turbo 8A). Jaguar Land Rover has started XF Sportbrake production at its Castle Bromwich plant in England, and the first U.S. spec cars are due by the end of the year. The First Edition priced from $73,095, while the S started at $71,445. New-car buyers continue snapping up SUVs of all sizes, while increasingly snubbing traditional cars. Sure, it's still impressive in terms of efficiency, but it's hard to look at and not especially fun behind the wheel. The Sportbrake is the sort of vehicle that builds brand loyalty and re-affirms a companys soul, and it should only help Jaguar continue to claw its way back into the consciousness of American luxury-car buyers. The kernel should remain nonetheless: youll look long and hard for a more dynamically enjoyable drive with comparable utility to the Sportbrake, and you wont find it even in Jaguars own F-Pace. Suspension changes from the sedan were modest: modified front dampers and self-leveling air springs rather than steel coils in the rear. This wagon is crisp, athletic and nearly perfectly sorted, and it gets down the road with a dexterity many very good luxury sedans (or wagons) cant matchparticularly those fitted with all-wheel drive. Witness the 2018 XF Sportbrake. The Sportbrakes one-piece polymer tailgate gave access to a 31.7-cubic-foot cargo area.
Front Seats: The seats are a bit on the hard side, but support and bolstering are pretty good. They've had to adjust to become either sportier (Buick TourX) or more crossover-like (Subaru Forester). Driving the Sportbrake through canyons and switchbacks is an organic, satisfying experience no matter how fast youre going (though it helps to hold gears as long as possible), and nothing in its comportment suggests a 4100 pound curb weight. Theres something to be said for that. Lower the Sportbrakes rear seatbacks, and there remains a perfectly flat load floor at least 42 inches wide stretching to the front seatbacks. If there isnt enough room inside, the Sportbrakes roof rails will support 220 pounds.
Theres nothing to describe as flash. Given that this automatic is entirely satisfying in lots of other automobiles, including some Jaguars from an earlier era, one has to think that the Sportbrakes uninspired shift management has something to do with Jaguars tuning or ultimate objectives (which largely escape us). This assessment might change if the drive route ran southwest from Pittsburgh to Wheeling, rather than over the mostly new, rarely bad roads around sunny Porto, Portugal, or if U.S.-spec Sportbrakes ship with all-season rubber rather than the sport tires on the test car. This time, the Crown returns as a hybrid crossover-style sedan that kinda reminds us of both the Subaru Legacy Outback Sedan and even the AMC Eagle. That weight gain has some value in its own right. The Sportbrake is identical in length, width and wheelbase to the aluminum-intensive XF sedan, and it will be offered stateside only in the XFs driver-oriented S trim. The 8 touchscreen with intuitive touch and swipe controls handles audio, climate and navigation.
The XF Sportbrake S is truly thrilling to drive. BBC Studios is a commercial company that is owned by the BBC (and just the BBC). Optional Tech: Our tester came with the $3,500 Driver Assistance Package that comes with Adaptive Cruise Control w/ Queue Assist, Traffic Sign Recognition, Adaptive Speed Limiter, 360 Parking Aid, Surround Camera System, and Blind Spot Assist & Park Assist. According to a recent report from Road & Track, Jaguar sold fewer than 250 XF Sportbrakes in the United States.