Jaguar XE 25t Portfolio India review, test drive

What's it like inside?

The sporty demeanour of the exterior is reflected inside, but you also see some elegant touches from the bigger XJ limousine incorporated here. The most obvious is the ‘Riva Loop’ - a continuous band of trim that runs around the rear of the dashboard and unites the two front doors. The multi-layered door pads take a little getting used to, with pockets, grab handles, seat controls and window controls placed at four seperate levels, but it’s quite a unique-looking design. You’ll love the way the dash is laid out though - simple and classy, with a wide central stack incorporating AC controls and the InControl touchscreen, culminating in Jaguar’s signature rising ‘hockey puck’ gear selector, which will be a great novelty in this segment.

The seats look rather simple, but slip into them and you’ll find they’ve been beautifully engineered. Snug, well cushioned, widely adjustable and with incredible support, it’s easy to get comfortable here. What’s also easy is seeing out the front of the XE even if you’re short, thanks to a nice and low dash that lets you see the end of that long bonnet over the thick steering wheel and racy dials. Quite the opposite is the visibility behind - the rear deck is high and the windscreen small, meaning you only see the tops of cars coming towards you. Get used to using the wing mirrors and the rear-view camera, which, incidentally, is not available on the ‘Pure’ trim. Quick mention has to be made of Jaguar’s new InControl touchscreen system, standard on all XEs. It’s a huge improvement on the ancient system you’ll find in other Jags and Land Rovers, with better functionality and smoother, quicker operation. However, it’s still a little off the high benchmark set by the likes of BMW’s i-Drive and Volvo’s new touchscreen.

As for the all-important back seat, Jaguar seems to have taken a leaf out of BMW’s book to maximise space here. The bench is placed low to get enough headroom out of the low roofline, which is also scooped out a little. This makes ingress and egress a little tedious, and it’s not helped by the really long rear door and the fact that the seat is placed a bit far back in the cabin too - you effectively have to climb around the rear wheel arch. Once you’re sat here, though, it’s a pretty solid experience - good thigh support, good legroom and surprisingly decent headroom too. But a tall, wide transmission tunnel, big rear AC vent and a heavily contoured seat make this all-but-unusable for a third passenger. The flat, wide boot is very usable and the best part is, unlike some rivals, you get a space-saver spare tyre tucked under the floor.