2015 Jaguar XF vs. Two thousand fifteen BMW five Series: Which Is Better?
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Car Comparison
If you’re interested in buying a fresh luxury sedan, your shopping list might include the two thousand fifteen BMW five Series and the two thousand fifteen Jaguar XF. Both are midsize models, falling below their brands’ flagship seven Series and XJ sedans but above the entry-level BMW three Series and Jaguar XE. Both also feature a broad range of engine options, trim levels, features and spectacle capabilities. But which is the better choice? Our latest article takes on that very question in a close comparison of both models. But very first, let’s see what’s fresh with the XF and the five Series for the latest model year.
2015 Jaguar XF
The XF adds two fresh trim levels — Sport and Portfolio — for 2015. Equipment levels in other trims are also revised to help make way for the fresh additions.
2015 BMW five Series
The five Series sees only minor switches for 2015, like freshly standard LED fog lights and a revised standard steering wheel.
Reliability
Neither the BMW five Series nor the Jaguar XF are exactly paragons of reliability in a segment topped instead by American and Japanese brands. Looking at J.D. Power studies over the past few years, the five Series and XF never scored above Average in terms of predicted reliability — and sometimes, they earned Below Average scores.
The good news is that both cars are covered by long warranties. Regardless of whether you choose the Jaguar or the BMW, you’ll get four years or 50,000 miles of bumper-to-bumper coverage. Still, there aren’t enough differences inbetween the five Series and the XF for us to award this category to either model.
Fuel Economy
The five Series offers five different engine choices. In terms of gasoline powertrains, base-level 528i models get a 240-horsepower Two.0-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder, which comebacks fuel economy figures of up to twenty three miles per gallon city and thirty four mpg on the highway. The midlevel 535i uses a 300-hp Three.0-liter turbocharged 6-cylinder and boasts twenty mpg city/31 mpg hwy. Ultimately, the muscular 550i touts an incredible 445-hp Four.4-liter turbocharged V8, which comes back seventeen mpg city/25 mpg hwy.
Drivers looking for even better fuel economy can also choose from two other five Series engines. There’s diesel-powered 535d, which uses a 255-hp Three.0-liter turbodiesel 6-cylinder, or a hybrid-powered ActiveHybrid5, which boasts a 335-hp Trio.0-liter hybrid 6-cylinder. Diesel models come back up to twenty six mpg city/38 mpg hwy, while the ActiveHybrid5 offers up to twenty three mpg city/30 mpg hwy.
As for the Jaguar, there are three engines to choose from. Base models also use a 240-hp Two.0-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder, however fuel economy reaches only nineteen mpg city/30 mpg hwy. Drivers who want more power can upgrade to a Trio.0-liter supercharged V6, which comebacks eighteen mpg city/28 mpg hwy. Topping the range is the XF Supercharged, which makes a potent four hundred seventy horsepower and comebacks just fifteen mpg city/23 mpg hwy.
Both the XF and the five Series also suggest high-performance versions (the M5 and the XFR), tho’ we suspect drivers interested in fuel economy most likely won’t have those models on their shopping lists.
All told, those are a lot of numbers — but who’s the winner? The response is the BMW, which gets better gas mileage at every single level than its Jaguar rival. The BMW is also the only model to suggest diesel and hybrid variants for even better fuel economy.
Safety
Albeit the two thousand fifteen Jaguar XF has not yet undergone the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) crash tests, the two thousand fifteen BMW five Series earned a ideal five starlets in overall testing. The XF has also not been submitted to testing carried out by the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), however the five Series has received only average scores by that rock-hard after a troubling Marginal score in the challenging petite front-overlap crash test.
As for safety equipment, the BMW is light-years ahead of the Jaguar. Yes, the XF includes a few features you’ll want — like anti-lock brakes, side-curtain airbags, a backup camera and a blind spot monitoring system. But the five Series goes above and beyond, suggesting all those features plus a forward-collision warning system with automatic precollision braking, a lane-departure warning system, a night-vision system and even a unique feature that wipes the brakes dry in moist conditions to preserve stopping power. Duo that with the Jaguar’s unproven crash-testing record, and the five Series is our safety pick.
Technology
As you might have guessed from its effortless victory in our safety section, the five Series lightly pulls away from the Jaguar when it comes to technology. This isn’t much of a surprise, considering that the Jaguar’s basic design dates back to 2009, while the five Series was fully redesigned in two thousand eleven and updated significantly since.
So what exactly are the technological differences? It goes beyond the safety items we’ve discussed above. Other five Series advantages include a head-up display, adaptive cruise control, multiangle parking cameras and four-zone climate control, just to name a few. The Jaguar doesn’t suggest any of those features. As a result, we’d say that technophiles attempting to determine inbetween these two cars should undoubtedly pick the BMW.
Value
If you’ve been following along so far, you’ve very likely noticed that the BMW has topped the Jaguar in basically every category — from fuel economy to safety equipment; from technology to crash test ratings. It also boasts a newer design — and we happen to think it drives better than the Jaguar, too. But all of those things could be forgotten if the Jag was cheap enough to justify its shortcomings.
Unluckily, it isn’t. In fact, a base-level XF is $225 more than a base-level five Series — a price difference that only increases through the lineup until you reach the XF Supercharged’s $6,000 price premium over the BMW 550i. Simply put, we don’t think the Jaguar is worth the extra money — and that means this category goes to the BMW, too.
Autotrader’s Advice
For some people, the allure of the Jaguar name is all it takes for them to sign the papers on a fresh XF — and if that’s the case for you, then you’re certainly not buying a bad vehicle. After all, the Jaguar is a luxurious, well-appointed luxury car with gorgeous styling and a lot of desirable equipment. But in virtually every objective area — including pricing, spectacle, equipment, features and fuel economy — the five Series is the better car. In a comparison inbetween these two models, we’d take the BMW every time.