The 2020 Jaguar XE P300 R Dynamic SE has too many Letters and Numbers in its Name

I'm Yuri. I'm Jacob. And we're going for a drive. 2020 Jaguar XE. P300 R-Dynamic SE without launch control. Okay, that's kind of slow. It's not bad though. I mean, it doesn't like have anything violent to it. It's definitely not violent. Horsepower and torque. 296 horsepower, 295 pound-feet of torque from a 2-liter four-cylinder turbo engine. So this is what that Jaguar Project 8 is based off of, right? Yeah, so the Project 8 is based off an XE just like the Mercedes C63 Black Series exists. Okay, so this is a competitor with the 3 Series and the C-Class. Yeah, and the Audi A4 and the Genesis G70. So let's start with the looks because they did slightly redesign it. Yeah, so the biggest thing that they probably changed from the front end are the headlights. Yeah, all of Jaguar has that same front end now that they kind of brought to the F-Type as well. Yeah, and I think it works better here than it works on the F-Type. I think this car actually looks really good from the front. Yeah, it definitely looks good, but we do have like one full fake vent and one full real vent at the front, which is pretty funny. Well, I guess they didn't need the extra cooling, so they kind of blocked it off. And the most noticeable part about the front end that you can see in every Jag now are the DRLs. Yeah, and it looks pretty nice. Like I have no issues with it on a sedan, but I'm a little upset that that's the front end of the F-Type. Yeah, so let's talk about the side view. Do you like anything about it? Does anything stand out? It just looks beefy and muscly to me. It does, especially in Project 8 form. Yeah, yeah. I mean, in this form, it looks pretty good. It looks pretty menacing in black on black. I like it. Yeah, it's sleek. Not crisp, sleek. Yeah, because there's no chrome on this version. I think it looks really good. And these wheels are pretty basic, but they look really nice in black. Yeah, it's like a whole black on black package, which kind of blends into the background, but it does look good. It does, and keeping it clean in the winter kind of sucks, but it does look good when it's clean. And what is the Continental recommended tire? The Extreme Contact Sport. Back end. I think it looks pretty good, especially the taillights. I really like the taillights. It is slightly updated. It does look better. And again, kind of like the F-Type. I don't like what they're doing with the F-Type to make it look like this. I think this should have just looked like this, and they should have just kind of left the F-Type to its own thing. They should have made the F-Type even crazier and, like, less Jaguar-looking. Exactly. But we have a fake vent along the bottom, and then we've got cutouts for the exhaust. It kind of looks like they're ready to make this full electric and not have exhaust at all. But at least it does have exhaust, and the exhausts are real, and they look really good. They're nice and simple. I like them. Does it sound really good? No, it doesn't. Yeah, it's kind of like a... Yeah, it's a 2-liter 4-cylinder. Like, it sounds okay. It doesn't crackle and pop. And Yuri, floor it for me so we can hear this interior audio. And that is definitely pumped in in dynamic mode. I wonder if I can... Okay, I can't toggle the modes to make it trigger. No, it's not as crazy as, like, a Ford Edge ST or something. So driving this thing through Cliche Corner is pretty fun. It handles well. We'll talk about that more later, but let's get to some of the stuff that kind of sucks in this Jaguar. Yeah, so they updated the outside, but they also updated the inside. And they did some good, but they also did some bad. So we've got a lot of the buttons from the Range Rovers that we've been driving. So we've got, like, buttons that change on the steering wheel. We've got the climate control. They have to, like, pop the buttons in and out, and two screens. And they deleted a lot of the buttons, so there's a lot less hard buttons in general. Pretty much the same complaints as the Velar and the Evoque. Yeah, so the infotainment's pretty laggy. The push-pulls on the seat controls and the climate controls are pretty laggy. But we have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which is very nice. Yeah, and they look really nice on this high-def screen. But we don't have satellite radio on this one. No, this particular one does not actually have satellite radio. How does that not come standard? Like, I just don't get it. At this price point, which we'll get to later, that's actually insane. And then our gauges are very nice. They're very responsive. Do you have any issues with them at all? To be honest, the gauges themselves are really nice. But controlling them with the little scroll wheel with your left thumb is really laggy. Yeah, it's super frustrating. And when I first got in the car, I'm like, how do I adjust my steering wheel? I was going through the gauges and everything, because I look here on the right, and I see this unlock button. I'm like, oh, that can't be it. That's got to be something with ignition. No, you need to unlock this, and then you can move it. Yeah, it literally looks and functions like a key, like the ignition to a key. I thought that, like, when I open this, it's going to come out, and then I could pop, like, a real key in to start the car in an emergency. I did the same thing. When I got in here, I literally spent five minutes fondling, like, underneath, sticking my fingers into everything. I'm like, no, that's got to be it. Yeah, that's how you adjust it. Once you figure it out, it's fine. Yeah, but I mean... It's so weird. But it should be automatic at this price. So then we've also got the older lane keep assist in here that doesn't work that well. It kind of just bounces you left to right. We had really great lane keep in that F-Pace SVR. Yeah, so they're updating certain things, but not everything. Oh, and by the way, this doesn't even have adaptive cruise at this price. Crazy. And another thing that sucks, rear seat room. Yeah, the rear seat room is actually terrible. So at six foot one and a half, you're not having a good time. No, I'm not. And there's also a weird thing about the driver's side, at least for me. So the B-pillar is so far forward that getting in and out of this car, I'm basically slamming my shoulder into it every single time. Okay, I haven't had that issue yet, so I guess it's a tall person thing. Yeah, because it depends where you have your seat, basically. And you know what else I found about this trunk that I didn't really like? It's small. Not that much room for two carry-ons. You're like, damn, this is like not that much. And if you're wondering why we didn't do the box test, we only do it for hatches, supercars, wagons and SUVs, which this is not any of those. If it has a trunk, we don't do it. That's right. That's a supercar. But I really like sedans. And then this model only has a backup camera. It doesn't have a front camera or 360 camera, but it does have one of those mirrors that switches and shows the screen. Yeah, and it is high res. So if you do like that kind of thing, it does work. And the actual backup camera is also high def. But I mean, at this price, like you kind of want 360 camera. Yeah, for sure you do. So is that pretty much everything we don't like about the interior? Pretty much, except the gloss black, which is actually quite a bit of it. It is disgusting. Yeah, there's like a lot of smudges and stuff already on it. Yeah, it's pretty gross looking. So if you're going to buy this, you're going to have to spend some time cleaning this. So let's talk about the rest of the good in the interior before you get behind the wheel. I think it looks really nice. Yeah, very premium in here. It's got cool materials everywhere. Lots of soft touch. This pattern is really nice. Yeah, down in the center console other than the gloss black. And my favorite part is how the steering wheel looks. Yes, it looks really cool. Very interesting shape. But my favorite overall feature about the steering wheel and this interior are those amazing paddles. We'll talk about that when you're driving. Yes, because I'm going to use them and I love them. We also have a really good head up display. Yeah, the resolution is great. The brightness is great. And down in the center console, we also have a wireless charger, which is pretty cool. In the trunk, we have grocery bag hangers and pulls from the very back so we can drop the seats from back there for a hockey bag and sticks. That's pretty convenient. What do you think of these seats? The seats are really comfortable. I've had no issues with them. They're bolstered just enough. No massage though. I know. And these ones are only heated as well. But I'm very, very comfortable in this. Should we do the visor test and the cup holder test right now or when you're behind the wheel? Let's do when I'm behind the wheel. Let me just adjust the steering column with my, yeah. It's so weird. It's insane. All right. Let's start with the visor test. Three, two, one. All right. And it does fit a small cup perfectly in both cup holders. One is slightly higher than the other. It's very nice. And they're very grippy as we previously complained in every drag and Land Rover. It's not really bad if it's a full cup. It pushes right through the grips. Makes sense. All right. So let's talk about these amazing paddles. The look, feel, and function of them. Okay. The F-Pace we drove recently had the sharp paddles that felt like they were going to pierce your skin. And these have been smoothed out and they have plus and minus on the bottom and top. They feel so nice. Yeah. I think they extend a lot more towards the bottom now in these. Yeah. These are some of my favorite paddles ever. They're metal. I love them. And they shift pretty quickly, especially on the way up. On the way down, I find that the ZF 8-speed shifts pretty laggily. I'm just going to make that up right now. That's a word. Laggily. That makes sense. Yeah. So it's very slow on downshifts, but it's very quick on upshifts. And let's use these paddles to downshift into cliche corner. And man, this thing actually handles way better than I expected. It's really good. And it feels kind of rear-wheel drive for an all-wheel drive car. Honestly, this probably handles better than some of, like, the BMW and Mercedes of this. I would say the base models, yes. Yes. But the M340i and the 643 is not even close. But for what this is, this handles really, really well. You do have to turn off one traction to get the back end out a little bit. And it is definitely rear biased. But, I mean, it's pretty fun. And there's a little bit of body roll, but not as much as I expected. Yeah. And for the amount of power that this is lacking, I think the handling makes up for it. It's down on power if you compare this to the M340i, the C43, the S4. But if you compare this to the base engines, this actually has more power on paper than all of those. But I feel like we should also add that there's fast, and then there's, like, normal people fast. Because, like, normal people fast isn't fast to us. That's right. Like, this is probably decently fast, but the XE Project 8 is not normal people fast. Yeah, that's, like, R fast or R pretty good. Yeah. So when people complain that a Camry from now is only a second slower than a Ferrari from the 90s, like, it's completely different and completely different to every person. Yes, everything is relative. So, yeah. This feels pretty good, though. It is good. When I got into this at first, I genuinely thought it was a V6. The way it delivers power is very good. It's very responsive. There's a little bit of lag, especially on downshifts if you leave it in automatic. But if you're in the right gear, it feels great. But it would feel a million times better if it had the whole F-Pace SVR drivetrain or anything from the F-Types. It would for sure. But we haven't driven the XE Project 8 yet, which I would absolutely love to drive. Please, please, please, please. It's a Nürburgring record holder, so you know me and my Nürburgring stuff. What record is it? I don't even remember. The four-door with the roll cage. I don't know. There was, like, a weird thing with the AMG GT four-door. It was a four-door two-seater. Yeah, yeah. It was something. With the AMG GT four-door, they were, like, fighting about it. Anyways, I did have fun sending this through cliché corners, so I'm just going to do it again. Because it understeers less than I thought, and the steering response is also really good. And the suspension is amazing. It's so soft, but it's also sporty at the same time. So you don't really miss out on anything. Also, we should probably add that this is the better way to go through cliché corner. You can go through two directions. It's your favorite way, right? It's definitely my favorite way going uphill, going west or north, whichever way cliché corner is. Maybe south. I don't know. Maybe south. I don't know. Where is it? Yeah, who knows? Don't post it in the comments. One thing I did notice that's really weird about how it drives is the brakes. They're very touchy and inconsistent. Yeah, I'm not exactly sure what's up with that, if that's just this model or the way they are across the line. Yeah, so if you do end up buying one of these, make sure you test drive it and see how the brakes are. But the one thing that sucks when they refresh this whole model is they totally got rid of the V6 supercharged. That would have been super cool if they kept that, but apparently nobody bought it. But more importantly, does anybody buy this? What's the price? Well, it starts at $55,800. Canadian. And this one is sitting at $61,630. Honestly, it doesn't seem like that bad of a price because Jaguar is a luxury brand, and it's a little more niche than Mercedes or BMW. Yeah, if you look at it like that, then yes, I agree. But if you look at it directly compared to its German and potentially Korean rivals, this is kind of bad. Okay, so what does this compete against exactly? Technically, the base models of the Mercedes C-Class, the BMW 3 Series, and the Audi A4. But it just depends how you spec them because you can also get the M340i at how this is specced, kind of. And then this also kind of competes against the G70. Yes, it fully does. All right, and that's got a lot more features, and it feels a lot faster than this. And it's cheaper. But it's a new Korean luxury brand that's not an established British luxury brand. Indian. Yeah, yeah. And with the G70, not only do you get more features, a lot of those features actually function better, like the lane keep assist and stuff like that. Like, this has lane keep assist on paper, but that has lane centering, and it works really well. But I feel like if you bring someone into this car, you pick someone up, they're going to be astonished with how everything looks in here and all the screens, just like how everyone's very excited when they get into a Range Rover. 100%. They're going to be more impressed by this, and if you roll up in a Jag, you're rolling up in a Jag. All you have to do is not floor it, and then they won't realize. But even if you do, it's not that bad. Like, it's pretty quick. Normal people fast. That's right. Just the sounds that it makes are a little weird. So overall, I understand what they did with this. Like, they need a four-door sedan in the segment. Yeah, and horsepower-wise, they actually do undercut its German rivals. But personally, all the features and the way everything works in here isn't the way I like it compared to the competition. Like, I'd probably go G70 over this, to be honest. I actually would, too. I really like the G70, especially the 3.3 twin turbo, which is cheaper than this. But I don't know if I would go base BMW or base Mercedes over this. If we're talking base models, I would go with the base BMW over the Mercedes for sure. But if it was, like, a C43 sedan, then, like... I would actually still go with the M340i. Let us know where the Jaguar falls in with the other four-door sedans. Don't forget to subscribe. We don't even say that anymore. Don't subscribe. Check out this playlist. Right here. Old habits die hard. It's still here. Click that right there. Yep.