If you’re one of those drivers who like to keep an eye out for rare and expensive cars on your daily commute there are two things you will have noticed. One is that the sheer number of luxury sedans on the road is quite mind boggling. It seems that almost every tenth car on the road (at least in a metro like Mumbai) is designed in Germany and carries a price tag upwards of Rs 30 lakh. Seeing a BMW on the road today is as passé as spotting a Honda Accord five years ago. People have the money and they want to spend it. However there is a problem - the 5 Series/E-Class/A6 just don’t have the same levels of exclusivity anymore. And that brings me to the second thing you will have noticed – the steadily rising number of Jaguars on the road. Now what’s interesting about this is that while the average starting price point for the German cars is about Rs 45 lakh, the Jag XF S diesel is almost fifteen lakh more expensive. This huge price difference is because the German cars are assembled in India. They also offer smaller and more affordable four-cylinder diesel engines while the Jaguar XF was a CBU only available with only a six-cylinder diesel motor or a V8 petrol. Despite the massive price gap Jaguar has been selling quite a few XFs and that number is only going to increase with the much more affordable XF 2.2.
VERDICT
The E-Class was a fantastic car when launched and it won a quite a few of our tests. But age catches up and the car struggles to keep pace with its younger competition. The upcoming refresh should take care of most of our complaints and will be worth the wait. If waiting is not an option then we suggest you look at the BMW 5 Series. It’s the best driver’s car here but there’s more to it. The car has great presence and gives you plenty of features. The downside is that it isn’t as spacious or as comfortable as its rivals, which brings us to the A6. The Audi is the least enthusiastic, but is comfortable, easy to drive and comes loaded with features. The top end Navigation variant costs a whopping Rs 60 lakh on road but is stuffed with features like those dazzling full LED headlamps (a Rs 3 lakh option), a reverse camera, the Jukebox sound system and MMI touch pad. If you think you can manage without those toys the price gets as low as Rs 50.95 lakh on road in Mumbai for the Premium variant. And that makes it fantastic value which is why it grabs the second spot. Which brings us to the Jag. One look at it and objectivity dissolves into pure desire. This is one car that could entirely sell based on its looks. But thankfully there’s substance under the skin. The car drives well; it’s quick and fairly efficient too. The beautiful interiors sacrifice no functionality and while it’s not as spacious at the rear it’s far from cramped. The JLR dealer base is constantly growing and Jaguar have just released information that XF sales grew by a massive 37 per cent in January this year - a sign of things to come. The best news however is that being locally assembled has made the XF far more affordable and it now costs just about a lakh more than the equivalent E-Class. There was a time when the cat could only purr but now it can finally roar.
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