Jaguar XF 2013Change

If you live in Southern California or south Florida, Jaguar’s two best markets, an all-wheel-drive Jag is as useless as a chocolate teapot. But if you live in the Northeast, another hot zone for luxury nameplates, almost all of which make good money on AWD, it’s a different matter. Jaguar needs this all-weather option, and the price-leading XF and the flagship XJ get it for an extra $3000 and $3500, respectively. It comes in both cars, teamed exclusively with the new supercharged and direct-injected 3.0-liter V-6 that pulls 340 horsepower.

Neither the steel-bodied XF nor the aluminum XJ was originally designed for this electronic wet-clutch front-drive system, which echoes BMW’s xDrive. A short propshaft angles slightly left from the transfer case behind the eight-speed automatic to an open differential on the side of the engine’s sump. The right wheel’s halfshaft passes through the sump so that the engine stays low. The gear adds 154 pounds and, on dry surfaces, can shift half the torque forward.