When you're in the market for a saloon that exudes class, performance, and the practicality of a magician’s hat, slipping into a Jaguar XF might just be like finding the automotive equivalent of a winning lottery ticket. This British masterpiece offers more than just a handsome facade; it's got a boot big enough to haul your golf clubs, designer luggage, or if you're particularly adventurous, a small battalion of corgis. But just like a fine wine or my waistline, the boot space of the XF has changed over the years, and its latest incarnation tells a different story than its forebears.
Back in the heady days of 2008, the XF X250 emerged onto the scene with a commodious 500-litre boot. It was spacious enough to make Mary Poppins do a double-take. But then, Jaguar decided to sprinkle a little fairy dust, or whatever engineers use, and the capacity ascended to a whopping 540 litres in the 2011 facelift. Fast forward to 2015, and the refreshingly new XF X260 maintained this voluminous vitality. However, in a plot twist reminiscent of an Agatha Christie novel, the latest 2021 facelifted iteration saw a rather baffling reduction to a modest 415 litres. Perhaps in their relentless pursuit of sophistication and design, Jaguar has forsaken the boot space once boasted by its predecessors.
In the grand Jungle Book of Jaguars, the XF's boot space is like Bagheera: elegant and more than capable, but not quite the king of the jungle. If we take a stroll down the Jaguar lineup, the nimble F-Type Cabriolet offers a mere satchel-sized 132 litres, while the F-Type Coupé offers a more palatable 336 litres. However, the real beasts of burden in this big cat family are undoubtedly the SUVs: the E-Pace and the F-Pace, flaunting their 494 and 482-litre boots respectively, and the XF Sportbrake, which roars with pride at a bountiful 563 litres. It's the I-Pace, though, that takes the crown with a regal 638 litres, proving that eco-friendliness and practicality can indeed go hand in hand.
But how does the XF compare with the vehicular wildlife beyond the British savannah? Well, the XF's 415-litre current offering is a tad smaller than the boot of a Subaru Legacy, which is as roomy as a bear's den at 455 litres, based on the elongated 2650 mm wheelbase paralleled with Subaru's practicality. Meanwhile, the Volvo S90/V90, renowned for their IKEA-friendly swedespace, boast a generous 500 litres, supported by an even longer 2941 mm wheelbase. It’s the executive lounge on wheels, the BMW 5er-Reihe, that serves up a bit of German competition though, at an equal 460 litres, and let's not forget the Mercedes-Benz E-Klasse that ups the stakes with 540 litres, perfect for stashing all your fine suits and perhaps even a small butler. And if you think that’s spacious, Renault's Talisman has a sizeable 608 litres which almost warrants its own postcode.