This reality was reinforced last week when, en route to a car launch, I found myself wedged in some miserable charter plane with a fuselage no wider than my desk. Already feeling queasy from picking through the contents of my snack box, it weaved, bucked and lurched in a way that made my face clammy and the man next to me stare in horror as I searched frantically for that white bag hiding in the seat pocket.
While fighting back the waves of nausea, I prayed for many things: Valoid, solid ground, even a violent midair explosion, but top of my list was to be back inside the Jaguar I left at OR Tambo.
The polar opposite of any aeroplane in the world today, the Jaguar XF dishes out the sort of comfort that turns even the longest trek into a high-speed, chill-out session.
Open one of its chunky doors, take in all the modern splendour of those blue illuminated dials, and you'll immediately feel the urge to plonk yourself behind that heated steering wheel and hit the road to nowhere.
Lovingly put together and filled with all sorts of British design quirks (that pop-up gear selector knob on the centre console never gets boring), not only is this big cat a great machine to kill travel time in, it's also immensely capable of devouring kilometres once you hit that pulsating red starter button and awaken all eight of those cylinders slumbering beneath the bonnet.
Thumping away in an all-new 5litre aluminium block, these steely fists of fury now give the XF even more of a performance punch; one that shuffles its 1780kg kerb weight along at a most impressive rate of knots.
A lot more urgent than the smaller 4.2litre it replaces, it results in a notable increase in off-the-line acceleration and gives the XF even more legs out on the highway, something any high-powered executive is sure to delight in.
However, pulling cleanly from idle all the way up until the horses run out at 6500rpm, the best thing about this monster engine has to be the soundtrack it manages to woof out from deep within its innards. Falling somewhere between the lazy rumble of an American muscle car and the race-bred yell of an Aston Martin Vantage, the deep baritone growl snarling through those two over-sized exhausts causes your foot to squeeze hard on the loud pedal whenever the road conditions allow it.
Guaranteed to thrill any enthusiast, this glorious noise is just one of the many elements that makes the XF such a peach of a car to drive.
Its road manners, in particular, are nothing short of exemplary and thanks to an extra-stiff body shell and sporty suspension, this Jaguar is an absolute blast to punt down your favourite B-road at pace.
The steering could do with a tad more resistance, but other than that, there's not much else to find fault with in the dynamics department.
In terms of overall ride quality, things are equally pleasing as that fine damping manages to be firm without coming a cropper over everyday bumps. In fact, only the very worst roads seem to unsettle this Jag.
Quick when you need it to be, relaxed when you don't, the Jaguar XF is still an effortlessly cool alternative to Mercedes-Benz's new E-Class and BMW's soon-to-be-replaced 5 Series.
And what with that useful hike in power and torque, I think it just might just give its nearest winged rivals a proper run for their money too. Well, in my book anyway.
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