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" LONDON\u2014It&amp;#039;s been more than six months since we first laid eyes on the new Jaguar XF. And though there&amp;#039;s considerable debate about its looks amongst the PM auto team, this writer says, well, only a mother could love that nose. Sorry, but it&amp;#039;s true. We&amp;#039;ve even tried creeping up to our test car with fresh eyes each morning, as if the surprise might convince us that the grill is now beautiful. But it still looks like a car in a fright mask.  And that&amp;#039;s a shame.   But debates about the grill notwithstanding, the rest of Ian Callum&amp;#039;s design is near perfection. Now, with this V6 diesel version, we might actually have discovered true love. Here&amp;#039;s a big, five-seat sedan that&amp;#039;s fast, refined, spacious and economical. What&amp;#039;s not to like? The Specs  Actually, there are a few things. But why don&amp;#039;t we start at the beginning? Remember the retro-styled Jaguar S type sedan? Not a bad car, but there were aspects that never were quite right. It seemed \u2026 old. But the new XF is the first Jaguar in a very long time that doesn&amp;#039;t look like your dad&amp;#039;s car. It&amp;#039;s modern\u2014hip even.  Under the hood is the carry-over twin-turbo 60-degree V6 diesel from the S-Type. It&amp;#039;s actually a Peugeot/Citroen design\u2014now four years old and built in Dagenham, Essex at a plant belonging to Jaguar&amp;#039;s former owner, Ford. The compacted graphite iron block, aluminum-alloy head engine has twin camshafts per bank, four valves per cylinder and weighs just 445 pounds.   In other words it&amp;#039;s modern, clever and lightweight.   It&amp;#039;s also powerful, delivering 204 hp and 320 lb.-ft. of torque though a six speed automatic and on to the rear wheels. And that&amp;#039;s enough to sprint to 60 mph in 7.7 seconds and manage a top speed of 143 mph. But this big cat also delivers a friendly European Combined cycle economy of 31.3 mpg, though we could only average 29.4 mpg in our tenure of mixed driving, including a couple of 100-mi. journeys.  If the S-type had a glaring fault it was that cheap interior. It looked a bit as if it had been won at the Minnesota State Fair. The XF has changed all that. And now Jaguar&amp;#039;s mid-size sedan surpasses nearly all the opposition including BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Made with the traditional materials of wood, leather and aluminum, the XF&amp;#039;s design brings the whole equation up to date with wit and charm. The rotary gear selector that rises out of the center console, the air vents that blink open like an Owl&amp;#039;s sleepy glare when the car is started\u00AD\u2014they all work well and never once feel contrived. Even the RAF roundel sticker on the dash, which hides a proximity switch that opens the glove box is clever and original. Not everyone likes the front seats, but we found them supportive and accommodating. The rears are suitable to anyone up to six feet in height and the trunk is generous, even though access is a little restricted and the floor isn&amp;#039;t completely level.  The Drive  The V6 fires quickly and idles with almost an industrial whirring, like some huge air conditioning plant. The JaguarDrive gear selector smoothly turns (remember the XF does have a rotary knob as a gear selector) to Drive and the cat pulls away with a polished alacrity. What the XF&amp;#039;s V6 doesn&amp;#039;t have in absolute wheel-spinning urgency, it makes up for in refinement and mid-range pulling power. There&amp;#039;s a slight band of vibration around 1,800rpm, but everywhere else in the rev range the engine never betrays its turbocharged compression ignition origins. The six-speed automatic suits the engine perfectly, with burnished ratio changes that never feel slurred. The gear-change paddles also work wonderfully, allowing the driver to access the mid-range performance at the brush of a finger and there is a sport function to shorten changes if pressing on.   Jaguar&amp;#039;s reputation for ride and handling is never more severely tested in this mid-range car with a diesel engine stuffed into the nose. The fact that the XF offers an unparalleled combination of a magic-carpet ride, together with sharp and poised handling is a tribute to its test engineers. Where Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi resort to increasing spring poundage until the drivers&amp;#039; eyeballs start to rattle, Jaguar&amp;#039;s test drivers have developed a more intelligent mix.   The XF is stiffer that previous big cats: It can smooth out a backwoods road without floating or pitching, and still match a BMW 5-Series when it comes to all-guns-blazing, flat-top cornering. The steering system gives the driver huge confidence when the fires are lit and the hammer is down\u2014it&amp;#039;s so accurate and makes this machine very easy to place. Likewise the brakes are linear and powerful with an easily judged pedal effort. Around town, the 3,904-pound XF will cruise like a stretch, button-back chesterfield, its occupants perhaps slightly more aware of the road surface that in an old S-Type, but also more comfortable in the way the car handles the bumps and pot holes.  The Bottom Line  So should Americans want one? The short answer is that with gas at $4-plus a gallon, you probably do, even if you&amp;#039;ve got the same issues with the XF nose that some of us do. Trouble is, it&amp;#039;s just not that simple. As of August, Jaguar has delivered about 23,000 XF models worldwide and still has an order book going 7,000 strong. In other words, they couldn&amp;#039;t deliver one even if they wanted to. And getting that twin-turbo V6 diesel through 50-state compatibility in the States is a long and expensive job, which isn&amp;#039;t going to be finished anytime soon. So that&amp;#039;s that. The diesel XF offers most of the refinement of its petrol counterparts, but with far better fuel mileage. If you haven&amp;#039;t started your letter-writing campaign for European cars not yet in the U.S., start letting Jaguar know now. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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