Jaguar XK Review

Jaguar XK

Ease of Use

All round vision is very good, especially over the shoulder rear vision which makes the XK relatively easy to manoeuvre. Our test car was fitted with front and rear parking ultrasonic sensors which can detect objects up to 1.8 metres away from the front and rear corners of the car. The warning comes through the car’s audio system and there is a visual representation displayed on the touch screen housed in the dashboard. If you don’t wish to avert your gaze from the direction of travel the audio warning changes tone (different for front and rear) with the proximity of the car to the object. There is only one reversing light, which might be OK in Knightsbridge but out in the country reversing in total darkness can be difficult.

Front seat passengers sit comfortably on leather electric memory seats. The driver’s memory also memorizes the door mirrors and steering column position. Our only criticism would be that the seats don’t offer much in the way of lateral support. Legroom and headroom is relatively good and it is fairly easy to get in and out of the Jaguar XK.

Rear seat passengers are not accommodated for, yes there are two rear seats but they are not usable. There are three point ISOfix child seat fixing points in the rear.  Our ISOfix child seat fitted in the back but when adding the all important child, the front adult passenger could not sit in the front in any comfort as there wasn’t any leg room.  We tried another non-ISOfix seat and that too suffered from the same problem - not good.

We liked the optional (£430) Keyless Entry and start system which does away with a conventional key. There is a normal looking key fob which contains an emergency key should the system fail. This key fob needs to sit in the pocket or handbag of the driver then the doors can be unlocked by simply grabbing the door handle and is locked by pressing a button on the handle. The car is started by a red starter button on the central console with your foot on the brake. The key fob has to remain inside the car; otherwise the XK will complain that it is missing. In theory it is impossible to lock your key fob inside the car.

The XK is a hatchback (Jaguar call the XK a liftback); access to the boot is easy and it can accommodate 300 litres of luggage. You can fit in a bag of golf clubs and there should be enough space for two on holiday. Shutting the boot can be a little awkward and if you are short you may find it difficult as the handle it quite high, but it is quite light to operate.

Jaguar XK