After a few days apart from the Jaguar XF during some inter-team car swapping, followed by a trip back to Jaguar for its first service, I was a little surprised just how much I missed the old fella.
Whoops – ‘old fella’, but of a Freudian slip there; that pipe ‘n’ slippers, oak-panelled stuffy image is one that Jaguar is looking to bury firmly in the past.

To be fair, the XF is doing a great job of that. Design-wise it’s dynamic, with sharp lines cut along the bonnet, a sleek side profile with a roof line that sweeps through to the boot, and an imposing front face. It should be bringing down the average age of a Jaguar buyer by the odd decade or two.

The ride is excellent, handling is well weighted and accurate and the 2.2-litre engine is eager when pushed. This car has shod its slippers in favour of some Nikes; replaced the pipe with a can of Red Bull.

The XF has also been designed to make life easy for the driver. With the keyless entry, you just walk up to the car, pull the handle of any of the four doors and it opens. Push the start/stop button, turn the rotary controller to D, the electronic brake de-activates automatically and away you go.

At the end of the journey, pull the electronic handbrake switch, push the start/stop button and lock the doors by pressing the little button on any of the handles. It couldn’t be simpler.

I’m also slowly starting to gradually eke greater efficiency from the car. After re-setting the trip computer, I underwent a number of longer journeys totalling 630 miles of mostly motorway and A-roads. Result: 46.2mpg – 11% down on the official combined figure but a significant improvement over the 38mpg I had been getting.

Since reverting back to the usual daily commute, the figure has dipped slightly, to around 44mpg. If one of your drivers is getting better than this, please let me know (stephen.briers@bauermedia.co.uk) because we’ve spoken to a few fleets whose XF’s are returning sub 40mpg.