SWIPE AND DRAG SCREEN

SWIPE AND DRAG SCREEN The XF’s new infotainment system is state-of-the-art and the air vents have been moved up to make way for its eight-inch (and optional ten-inch) capacitive touchscreen which swipes and drags just like your smartphone. The main instruments can be optioned as a 12-inch TFT screen which can be configured in four different themes, with key information displayed on the windscreen via a laser-based head-up display. MORE HEADROOM Despite its lower roofline, the new XF offers 24mm more headroom than the outgoing XF, and by giving equal priority to front and rear occupants provides best-in-class rear legroom. Up front, there’s the signature, speedboat-inspired ‘Riva hoop’ from the bigger XJ that runs from the deeply sculpted doors right across the dashboard. Interior trim options offer a range of themes from the traditional to modern, all lit in a choice of ten shades by the LED interior lighting. 22 j THE DYNAMIC ISSUE

NEW XF THE NEW INTERIOR IS TRIMMED IN HIGH QUALITY MATERIALS AND HAS CAPACITIVE TOUCHSCREENS JUST LIKE A SMARTPHONE which a body must be stretched. So the design team was free to start from the correct first principles, positioning the wheels exactly where they wanted them for perfect proportions and stance. Although this new car is actually slightly shorter than the outgoing XF for improved city manoeuvrability, it looks like a bigger, more serious car because the wheelbase has been lengthened and the wheels pushed out to the corners. A shorter nose balances the more formal, upright grille to maintain the car’s dynamism, while the elongated section between the front axle line and the steering wheel lends the car an even more premium feel, emphasising the proportions you expect of a luxury saloon with a big engine and rear-wheel drive, (even though you can have your XF with a four-cylinder engine and all-wheel drive too). “We can reposition the XF slightly because we now have XE in the portfolio,” says Hatton. “The outgoing XF had to do everything. It was the entry car, the business car, the four-door coupe. Having the XE really allows the XF to develop into what you see here.” Of course, more length between the axles creates more space in the cabin, and the new XF will have the best rear legroom in its class. So the design team chose to communicate this with a ‘sixth light’, an additional window set into the C-pillar behind the rear doors. This, and the slightly more pronounced, formal ‘deck’ over the boot are probably the most striking changes to the outgoing XF. But it’s only when you speak to the designers that the subtleties of their work become apparent: the way they capture, control and direct light to bring a shape to life, and make us fall in love with a design without entirely