• Ingenium diesel is the cheapest to run
• Mild hybrid tech limited to diesel
• Fuel and servicing costs increase with petrol

What are the running costs?

Running costs can be low with the XF Sportbrake, provided you stick with the diesel engine. This engine’s fuel efficiency is slightly bolstered by mild hybrid tech in stop-start traffic conditions, and electrically assists the engine under certain periods of acceleration to remove some of the strain. This won’t make a huge difference in day-to-day driving, but this engine still commands the lowest running costs in the XF range. This also achieves the lowest CO2 output.

All-wheel drive versions of the D200 are expectedly less frugal, but we still managed to achieve 36mpg with a mix of low-speed town and spirited country driving, before climbing up to 41.2mpg on several motorway trips.

Fuel tank capacity is 66 litres for the diesels and we saw a predicted range of over 550 miles to a tank. The petrols have a larger 74 litre tank, which should help compensate for the lower mpg figures and allow for a meaningful amount of range per fill-up. One downside on diesel cars is the location of the AdBlue filler – found inside the boot, high up on the left hand side, so be very careful when refilling your tank…

Servicing costs favour the Ingenium diesel engines too – with Jaguar claiming intervals of 21,000 miles or two years between trips to the dealership. You can pay for a five year fixed-price service plan with prices depending on engine when you buy the car, with AdBlue top ups included.

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Servicing and warranty

Jaguar offers a number of Service Plans, which are designed for cost-effective maintenance of new and approved-used vehicles up to 10 years old with fixed up-front payments. You can make a one-off payment or spread the cost with monthly payments. Service plans are transferable between owners as long as the schedule is adhered to via Jaguar dealers.

Warranty is three years and unlimited mileage, which you can extend to four or five years at an additional cost. Compared with up-to 10 years offered by rivals, Jaguar’s warranty is off the pace.

Reliability

• Not a traditional strong point but an area of improvement
• Lots of new, modern engines shared across the JLR range
• Well-constructed interior plus stiffer body means fewer rattles

Reliability is a real focus for improvement for Jaguar – and a lot of money has been invested in the new line-up of Ingenium engines.

While the Sportbrake shares a lot of its engine and gearboxes with other JLR products, there is a lot of new componentry in this car, which is radically different from the old one.

The XF family is also a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to reliability though; the saloon was subjected to two recalls, which should have been sorted by now.

Build quality on the other hand feels strong, with robust switchgear and a stiffer bodyshell, which should mean fewer squeaks and rattles over time.