The Vehicles Earth

I first drove the XF 2.2D in 2011, when we pitched it against four-cylinder oil-burning rivals from Audi, BMW and Mercedes – and when photographer John Wycherley took this rather good shot of me airborne. I loved the facelifted XF then, especially thrashing it across the Yorkshire Dales National Parks, and I was in fact so keen that OV61 MYW was originally due to be my successor to the Nissan Leaf – only the combination of an insistent Greg Fountain and a certain purple Lotus Evora S (which you can read more about tomorrow) stopped it being mine.

But the longer the XF 2.2D is on our fleet, the more I love it. Right now I’m in Vienna, on the Mazda CX-5 launch, and the XF is at Heathrow airport. I’ll land back in the midst of rush hour, and then I’ve got a slog back to Peterborough. But I know that (when I remember where I’ve parked it) I can just walk up, tug the handle and the XF will open as it registers the key in my pocket. The start button will pulsate red, when I press it the air vents will rotate and the rotary gearbox selector will rise, and as I join the madness of the M25 it’ll stop/start when I come to a standstill.

The XF's DAB radio will keep me sane, and when it goes dark outside the turquoise lighting will look so very cool. I won’t need to stop for fuel on the way home either, even though the XF is down to a quarter of a tank.

I must sound like a broken record, as I said all this a couple of months ago, but I keep using the XF for the same jobs as it keeps getting better and better at them. Great car.

By Ben Pulman