BRINGING UP THE REAR

Germany’s latest crop of compact executive saloons draw on front-drive hatchback hardware for their mechanical make-up. Does that put the latest Jaguar XE at an advantage? Matt Saunders finds out

- Matt Saunders

The Jaguar XE is a car that has always deserved greater showroom success than it has achieved. With the latest updated version, its maker has thrown caution – and, apparently, quite a lot of profit margin – to the wind, by taking the most direct route imaginable to commercial headway.

Having made some revisions to the car’s interior and equipment specification, Gaydon slashed more than £4000 off the price of an entry-level diesel XE earlier this year, while at the same time giving the car a 20bhp power hike. A 201bhp, rear-wheel-drive XE S D200 automatic thus became cheaper at list price (which is now only a whisker above £30,000) than a whole heap of cars you simply wouldn’t expect to compare it with. Is a 2.0-litre diesel Volkswagen Golf R-Line with a DSG gearbox on your shopping list? What about a mid-spec 2.0-litre diesel Vauxhall Insignia, or an entry-level Toyota Camry hybrid, or a diesel-engined Ford Focus ST? Well, if you like, now you can have an XE instead.

Higher up the model range, the price ‘realignment’ has brought Jaguar’s most compact of executive saloons into competition with other new-found rivals. The XE line-up has been trimmed down since it was introduced in 2015 and now consists of only two mechanical derivatives: that rear-driven, 201bhp diesel and a four-wheel-drive, 296bhp four-cylinder P300 petrol junior performance saloon. The latter has benefited from an even bigger price slash than the former: a range-topping P300 R-Dynamic HSE is now £5000 cheaper than it was, and so it lines up almost exactly on price with an Audi S3 Saloon and BMW’s four-door M235i xDrive Gran Coupé.