Jaguar XE - Over-hyped or just me?

kitkat9933 · 2 Jun 2018 at 14:43

So my Tesla S100D was in for some work and as they don't provide insurance on their Tesla courtesy cars any more and I didn't want to pay for insurance I was given an enterprise rental Jaguar XE 2.0d R-Sport.

Firstly, as any rental car it was battered with alloys half disintegrated etc..

But even worse was the car itself, I've never driven a car so bad. Feels horrible to drive, the interior is tacky and cramped (no leg room in the back and in the drivers seat I touch the roof being only 6ft), the infotainment is the worst I've ever used from a 'premium' or better brand, the steering while has more buttons than the space shuttle and feels weird to hold, the kit is poor for a higher end trim level especially.. Not even auto-hold... The only positive I can muster is the exterior shape looks pretty nice..

Now I'm lucky to have a great car now and had a 640d before, but I used to have a 65 plate C220D with AMG trim back and PP (the jag is 16 plate) and that was miles better than this Jaguar which it's meant to compete with.

Looking online, it has amazing reviews, how? Is it just me that hates it?

Jonnycoupe · 2 Jun 2018 at 15:00

I think the hype has well and truely passed on it now

aowc02 · 2 Jun 2018 at 15:02

i felt quite claustrophobic personally - in the passengers seat. Had a rental while in Ireland for a 2016 XE. worst journey ever

Jez · 2 Jun 2018 at 15:21

Completely with you, the XE is horrible. JLR products, unfortunately almost universally rubbish in the past few years

rodenal · 2 Jun 2018 at 15:31

I drove an S on track and quite liked the way it went about things considering the type of car it was - good engine and felt pretty composed.

However I tend to agree the interior wasn't really up to an equivalent standard of the Germans (though in all honesty the C class and 3 series are hardly standouts) and the infotainment feels really unnatural to use

MichaelAwkward · 2 Jun 2018 at 15:49

Eh? The C Class interior is great IMO. Better than a 3 series by miles, so long as you avoid the gloss trim.

[TW]Fox · 2 Jun 2018 at 16:02

A year ago I had an XF Portfolio for 10 days as a hire car in which I covered some 2500 miles.

The engine and gearbox were excellent. The rest of the car was really sub par and felt like a top end Kia rival and not a credible 5 Series or E Class rival. The worst thing was the awful looking instrument cluster that felt like something out of a Toyota and the infotainment system that felt like the Dynavin Chinese Ebay unit in my E39 and quite literally ran the same satnav software as said Dynavin unit!

rodenal · 2 Jun 2018 at 16:50

MichaelAwkward said:
Eh? The C Class interior is great IMO. Better than a 3 series by miles, so long as you avoid the gloss trim.

Only ever been in a gloss one, that and the tacky stick on screen really cheapen it. Still think it's probably the best of them like you say though

aowc02 · 2 Jun 2018 at 16:54

who remember the days of old when sitting in a Mercedes actually meant sitting in/with luxury :S

Roland Butter · 2 Jun 2018 at 18:02

I think it's just you, the XE has had favourable reviews since it came out.

An abused rental car is not the best example to base an opinion on.

I had an 16 plate XF Portfolio for a while and liked it apart from the poor Xenon headlights and the
the annoying pop up big aloominum volume knob gearshift thingy that car designers got a hard-on about and everyone else hated .

[TW]Fox · 2 Jun 2018 at 18:04

I read some XF reviews once I handed mine back and it was like we were reading about another car. I cannot understand where the praise came from.

Jonnycoupe · 2 Jun 2018 at 18:15

They are certainly competitive in driving dynamics, but that’s just too niche and something you grow into through ownership. Showroom appeal and perceived quality simply puts people off getting that far.

19MY the infotainment is the Pro system as standard with the bigger 10” screen (no hard buttons on the side). But no V6 petrol anymore

[TW]Fox · 2 Jun 2018 at 18:17

The problem with a focus on driving dynamics is who is the market for that?

Driving dynamics are important to people buying cars in this segment but they are usually not the number 1 requirement. It's just something the car has to do well, amongst other things. I don't want the best handling car in the universe, I just want something that handles well. Once it handles well, I care more about other things. I suspect many other buyers of these sort of cars are similar.

Jonnycoupe · 2 Jun 2018 at 18:27

Yep. Totally the wrong USP. Facelift is going to have to be pretty significant.

Rroff · 2 Jun 2018 at 18:41

kitkat9933 said:
Firstly, as any rental car it was battered with alloys half disintegrated etc..

Yeah rental/hire often aren't a great start to any experience and can set the tone - I got some flack on here of my experience of a rental BMW awhile back since that got some experience of a nearly new one and found the impression a lot different.

That said things like cramped leg room doesn't really change in that regard.

Joe T · 3 Jun 2018 at 10:24

Shock as Tesla owner finds mainstream cars 'out-dated'!

Oggie · 3 Jun 2018 at 11:51

Just got rid of my XFR after 3 years of ownership, great engine but the build quality is terrible. Seals that don't fit properly and were perishing already, a windscreen that was rapidly delaminating, continual errors about something popping up on the dash, rattles from both front doors and an infotainment system that felt like it was designed over 20 years ago. Add to that two cracked alloys and a chain of dealers that are as good as useless.
As much as I wanted to like Jag ownership it's really nice to back in a BMW.

kitkat9933 · 3 Jun 2018 at 13:06

Joe T said:
Shock as Tesla owner finds mainstream cars 'out-dated'!

Not what I said though. I’ve had a current (I think it had a slight facelift recently) gen C Class and 640d 14 plate and both of them were great cars.

J1nxy · 3 Jun 2018 at 17:26

The XE and to some extent the XF are very spec dependant, the XE Portfolio I had with the 2.0 Petrol was not a bad place to be, but the stock satnav is downright awful. The XFS I now own is a compeltly different kettle of fish, but then it has a decent base spec and mine has had the option list dropped on it, including the InTouch Control Pro and Digital dash which make a huge amount of difference to the interior. To be fair to the XE it did drive very well, but I'd be looking at a 50K car to spec it with what I'd want, and the XF is noticeably better for similar money