BUYING GUIDE
With diesel being a dirty word and electric the supposed future, is now the time to rediscover the petrol-powered early XF? We find out what you need to know.
MBETWEEN2008 and 2015, the first generation of the Jaguar XF (known internally as the X250) was a huge success and this rear-wheel-drive saloon and estate is still a popular choice on the used car market. When new, the diesel engine models outsold the petrols, but in the light of the diesel emissions saga, the tide has turned. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, a mere 72 petrol models were for sale online through Autotrader.co.uk, although there are plenty more of them for sale through other online classifieds, dealers and independent specialists.
The petrol-powered XF was available from the beginning of the production life of this Jaguar, with a 3.0-litre V6 and 4.2- litre V8 (including 410bhp supercharged). By March 2009, the V8 engine had been stretched to five litres.
The XF was lightly facelifted in 2012, the Sportbrake (estate) was introduced and the naturally aspirated V8 was replaced with a supercharged 3.0-litre V6, although the supercharged V8 continued to be available. The blown V8 was fitted to the XFR and XFR-S, producing over 500bhp and a sub- five seconds 0-60mph time.
These V8-powered supercharged saloons are still highly desirable, providing you can put up with fuel consumption in the low 20s and car tax at around £630 per year. And they’re not cheap to buy at around £40,000 for the most collectable, although we also found a few XFR models for around £15,000.
However, Matt Norbury at North Wales Jag Centre notes the supercharged 4.2-litre XF SV8 is the bargain high-performance saloon to have, costing around £6000 or more. What you get for your money is astounding – 410bhp and 413lb.ft of torque, a 5.1 seconds 0-60 mph time and a limited top speed of 155mph.
The naturally aspirated, non-R models can be cheaper still, with prices starting at around £3500. If you are prepared to spend around £5000 for instance, you can easily find an early model with a full service history and low mileage.
Running costs for a V8 are the same as the supercharged model when it comes to car tax, and mpg is around 25. The naturally aspirated V6 isn’t much better with road tax at £615 and economy around 26mpg.
These are practical cars, too. The saloons can swallow 540 litres of luggage in the boot and the Sportbrake 550-565 litres with the rear seats up, or 1675 litres with them down, which is more than a BMW 5 Series Touring or Mercedes W218 estate.
By 2016, a further set of revisions were added to the XF to introduce the secondgeneration (X260), including a range of smaller 2-litre petrol and diesel engines, and an all-wheel-drive version for the US but we’ll consider the second generation in a separate guide.
Aside from the
