It’s not a large market, but the major auto manufacturers have realized that targeting those in businesses that require chauffeuring clients from the airport to meetings or to look at commercial real estate can be lucrative – and they’re offering flagship vehicles to fit such needs.
While Genie and I don’t normally find ourselves in such vehicles, a mix-up in scheduling led to a 2015 Jaguar XJL Portfolio AWD landing in our driveway. We had it for a week and did lots of “let’s pretend” drives, chauffeuring friends to the San Francisco Symphony, driving around Silicon Valley to see new research and development buildings going up and doing stop-and-go errands around Los Altos.
Our conclusion: This car is attractive, with its sleek lines minimizing its overall size, and easy to drive, as the steering, brakes, engine and transmission work together to put a magic carpet under its passengers. But the real value for the bottom-line price of $96,663 on the private limousine we drove is all on the inside.
A spacious ride
We can take for granted the exceptional space offered to rear-seat passengers; the “L” in “XJL,” after all, refers to the long wheelbase, with just more than 10 feet separating the front wheels from the rear wheels and the length of more than 17 feet front to rear. That space translates into 44.5 inches between the front and rear seatbacks (for comparison, a typical airline main cabin has less than 34 inches between seatbacks).
With that much rear-seat space, it isn’t unusual to find five-star hotels and limo services using the XJL as their primary vehicle, though they probably aren’t spending the extra $7,750 for the Premium Rear Seat Package our test car was equipped with.
That package is built around two separate rear seats, rather than a bench seat with a pull-down divider. The seats can be individually adjusted to partially recline, using adjustments on the elaborate armrest between the seats. The right-hand rear seat can even recline nearly completely, with the front passenger seat folding forward and out of the way.
The elaborate rear armrest between the seats includes cupholders, USB ports, storage space and controls for the audio system. If work is the order of the day, extended trays fold out from the front seatbacks, with ample room for a computer or file folders.
The rear-seat package includes laptop-sized computer screens mounted on the backs of the front headrests that can be controlled from either the front or the rear console. There is a separate heating and ventilation system for backseat passengers with its own set of controls in the console between the front seat backs.
And we couldn’t neglect to mention the massage system built into the rear seats as part of that package. In a nice egalitarian touch, our test car also had the optional front-seat massage system to minimize driver and co-driver fatigue on long trips.
As one might imagine, the entire cabin is upholstered in fine leather and trimmed in lovely wood with an excellent sound system to take advantage of the quietness engineered into the body.
Driving experience
But what about the driver? Although it seems almost like an afterthought, the driving experience is worth a mention. We could find few things to complain about, even though our test car came with the basic XJ engine, providing “only” 340 horsepower and 332 pound-feet of torque from the 2,995 cc supercharged V-6 engine. The 3-liter engine has a fuel economy rating of 19 mpg in combined use (16 city, 24 highway), quite respectable for its size and weight.
A major reason for the magic-carpet feeling is the Jaguar sequential-shift eight-speed automatic transmission, which always seems to have exactly the right gear ratio for every speed, with none of that roaring exhaust sound from high-rpm acceleration that might disturb the passengers. An active-damping suspension system contributes to the smooth ride, and the all-wheel drive assures that the driver is able easily to handle slick conditions.
The only complaint we had is that the turning radius of this long-wheelbase car is nearly 42 inches, meaning that a U-turn requires all the space of three lanes. A 360-degree camera system would be a worthwhile addition.We hope it’s added to the upgrades expected in 2016.
