Jaguar XF : Police pursuit version under evaluation

Jaguar’s new XF Police car: ready to pounce…

Jaguar UK has launched a high performance Police pursuit vehicle based on the company’s XF Diesel S model and Police forces across the UK are currently evaluating the car.

The Police specification XF features the 271bhp 3.0 litre twin-turbodiesel engine, a roof-mounted light bar with 3600 blue flashing lights and three other sets of blue, red or white flashing LED lights. Jaguar maintains that the XF’s combination of a fuel economy figure of 42mpg, CO2 rating of 179g/km, best-in-class torque and class-leading residual values beats other competitors in this significant niche market.

Geoff Cousins, Jaguar’s UK Managing Director, said: “Police forces are looking for vehicles that represent value for money, have good environmental credentials and deliver the power and performance required of a pursuit vehicle.

“The Police Officers driving pursuit vehicles demand a very high level of performance and handling, as well as safety and comfort. We hope that with this amount of torque on tap – and a 0-60mph time of 5.9 seconds, we will meet and exceed the exacting standards of any Police Officer driving this car.”

Clive Goldthorp

20 Comments

  1. I really hope they see sense and buy these. It would be just ace to see a British marque being used as high speed pursuit cars – just needs the proper old airhorn type siren (instead of the silly American affair) and we will really be cooking on gas. I suppose they will still stick with German tat though.

  2. The BMWs really haven’t been as reliable or endurable as one might think and the Vectra still possesses a poor chassis, despite the modifications Opel/Vauxhall have made to them. The Jaguar XF has pretty much been a smash in most of the important surveys on both sides of the Atlantic – I reckon that the ACPO should take these cars very seriously…

  3. I hope for once that our Police see sense and buy British. The German stuff is taking over everything now (and they’re not even anywhere near as reliable or as good to drive as people think). Come on ACPO, let’s see more Jags on our roads!

  4. High time we saw some Jag police cars again. They will find it much easier to break into this market once they have the XF estate – more room for traffic cones, emergency signs, etc. – the X-TYPE isn’t big enough for all that clobber. For unmarked cars, how about an XFR or two? They smoke M5s, let alone the 540s they use around here.

    PS: Three thousand six hundred blue lights seems a bit OTT.

  5. It would be good to see the Police buy some British cars again – just a shame they are under Indian ownership. Hopefully,the Ambulance Service may follow suit and give LDV a much needed boost – it is fairly clear that previous LDV vehicles were not quite up to scratch but surely, if they all got their heads together, a suitable vehicle could be more fit for purpose than the French alternatives. Indeed, it would also be nice to see the XF or another Jaguar model being used as Rapid Response Vehicles by all the Emergency Services…

  6. Being a Jag lover, it would be great to see these on our roads but, like most things, it will come down to cost.

    Police forces pay pennies for the likes of Volvo T5s and BMWs and most of them are on a contract with Vauxhall.

  7. Hopefully, they will come to an arrangement on cost -Jaguar are in partnership with Land Rover and the Police love their Range Rovers.

    No doubt that the EU will pass a law saying all EU counties have to buy the same Police cars… BMWs will, of course, be chosen after undergoing a ‘fair’ EU test…

  8. I, for one, wouldn’t mind carrying out a pursuit in a Jag – far better than the Skoda Octavia vRS we currently have to use.

  9. Of course under the EU we should consider all EU products fairly!

    It’s just how often do you see a BMW or Mercedes Police car in France and a French Police car on the autobahn. Does Milan use anything other than Alfa’s and Turin use anything other than Fiats?

    We need our MPs to stop filling in their expense claims and start putting pressure on the Police autorities to buy local products. I don’t want to see my money being spent abroad while we have world beating products like the XF being built in Britain.

  10. It would be good if the Police start using Jag XF’s. In my area (Northumbria) they mainly use Volvo S60s and Ford Focus’s (The Focus seems to be getting replaced by Astras). The Jag’s price might, of course, work against it unless good bulk discounts were offered!

  11. @Hilton
    Northumbria are currently replacing their Volvos with BMW 5 Series…

    They are, at least, replacing their foreign-built Focus’s with Astras though.

  12. I know there is hardly much in the way of choice nowadays, but why do the Police and other Emergency Services insist on using foreign vehicles? Vauxhall is just a brand name for GM which it would ditch in favour of Opel given half a chance. Go to France and you would see Peugeots, Renaults, etc being used. We are a laughing stock.

  13. I am a retired traffic Police Officer and had the misfortune to use Rover 825 and 827s as traffic cars. As everyday cars they are crackers but as high speed pursuit and response cars they lacked brakes and their handling was a touch wallowy.

    2.6 Vectras were too narrow and cramped with little performance and suspension so hard it adversely affected handling – hit a bump on a bend at speed and the car would dance all over the road. It is fact that Audis, BMWs and, up to a point, Volvos are ideally suited to Police work. In my experience the trim doesn’t fall off, the engines and gearboxes last well and the handling is well sorted. All I needed was a car that went where it was put, had good acceleration and equally good stopping power.

    We were told that the Impreza was too fast for us????? and the BMW too expensive.The older Volvo T5 was too big for town use and Peugeot 406s too fragile. With over 50 Police Forces in the UK including Ports Police and BTP UKAE forces etc., why has no manufacturer yet asked for a specification and modified a production car to cover every need? Ford came close with the Galaxy, the 2.8 VR6 made a good traffic car, could be a caged van and a section Panda car with the 1.9 diesel fitted, whilst still having room to be a mobile office. It really isn’t rocket science.

    Re the comment about lights and overkill, drivers don’t see emergency vehicles at the best of times so the more lights and noise the better. Don’t stop dead but find a safe place to pull over – it may be you they are responding for next time…

  14. I agree that the XF would make a cracking Police car – not because of the half-baked patriotic reasons peddled here, but because it’s a damn good car!

  15. I reckon that this XF jam sandwich really needs a V8, nugdebars and a Remmington pumpaction shotgun (IMHO).

  16. @Graham Ariss
    You are quite right, but here in Spain they use all sorts: from SsangYong Actyons (for some local Police forces and not EU) through to Alfa Romeo 159s for the Guardia Civil Trafico division.

    At one time the Local Police in Lugo Galicia even used a Rover 400 but, sadly, that seems to have been retired. However, I have never seen any SEATs being used.

    Ian, (Living in Galicia, Spain)

  17. With over 50 Police Forces in the UK including Ports Police and BTP UKAE forces etc., why has no manufacturer yet asked for a specification and modified a production car to cover every need?

    Hi Mark – the manufacturers have started to work with forces on “turnkey” solutions for traffic cars – BMW and Volvo have made specific models now – more than just a few additions to civilian spec cars – but vehicles built with the Police in mind – from existing models of course. But, probably because of the current economic climate, no-one is buying them! It’s also true to say that with 50 forces, all of them seem to want something different in their cars – which puts the manufacturers off. Forces can’t even agree on a standard lightbar so what are the chances of agreeing on a whole car!

    However, as everyone says, it would be great to return to the days when British-built cars were used as patrol cars on the UK’s roads – and, perhaps if it’s cost effective enough, the XF will be the one to do it. The Met. Police bought 260+ S-Type’s in the 1960s after all…

  18. @Russ Jones
    The LDV was actually a very underrated Ambulance -in full on LAS V8 Auto form, even after years of minimal maintenance and abuse on London streets, they are outliving the first 53plate Merc Sprinters that are suppposed to replace them.

    @Mark Lee
    The LAS has tried the one fits all approach to fleet, but ended up with an underpowered overweight minicab as a response car, in other words the 120bhp Zafira Auto in full on bright yellow. They thought it would tick all boxes, DSO, ECP, FRU, but all they do is breakdown. But then they didn’t do as you suggest, have different specs for different uses. After 10 years they have trouble fixing LDV V8’s which are all the same, so god knows how they would cope with 3 or 4 different engines and specs.

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