Geneva 2012: Jaguar XF Sportbrake

Looking smooth-for-cruising in bright white, fresh from the show floor at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, is Jaguar’s first estate car since it was owned by Ford and remodelled the Ford Mondeo into the X-Type estate. But this longer cat is a whole different animal; the Jaguar XF Sportbrake is all Jaguar, and all long flowing lines.

We’re looking at the production-ready Sportbrake in these here pics and Jaguar have told us that it will handle as well as the XF saloon, which is indeed a fine-handling executive cruiser, when the estate hits the Jaguar dealers later this year.

The Sportbrake is only 5mm longer than the saloon, but what it doesn’t gain in length it clearly must gain in taller and longer roofline volume because the Sportbrake is said to swallow from between 550 litres - rear seats up - and up to 1,675 litres with the seats folded down. And that’s one big wardrobe.

Neat touches for XF estate practicalities include optional power boot lid struts to look auto-cool in the car park at the touch of a key fob button, remote fold levers inside the boot that drop the rear seats without the usual clunking and wrestling and a soft-close function that gently latches the boot lid in a seductive style.

An air suspension system also comes into play when that rear load is as heavy as it is big, so we shouldn’t see any new XF Sportbrakes rolling around with their snarling cat-face hood ornaments hoisted into the air in an ungainly fashion.

Sportbrake will also make use of Jaguar’s latest, fleet-friendly 2.2-litre turbodiesel engine that takes smaller fuel sips while still delivering plenty good enough performance through its 8-speed automatic gearbox. The 3-litre V6 turbodiesel motor will also be offered which we can confirm is a torquey chap indeed.





By Daniel Anslow

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