My Jaguar X-Type
First Impressions - March 30, 2010.
I recently purchased a used Jaguar X-Type. It's a 2004 model with the larger engine, the "Sport" package and a manual transmission. This was the "baby Jag" that Ford, when it owned Jaguar, "encouraged" Coventry to produce in an effort to expand the marque to a newer, younger clientele. The underlying platform was based on the second-generation European Ford Mondeo - Americans will recall the first generation Mondeo as the Ford Contour/Mercury Mystique. So this is a small car, by Jaguar's standards.
I can see some of what Jaguar traditionalists and the trade press faulted when the car first came out. This is a compact car, and every once in a while - particularly on really bad, pot-hole ridden roads - you're reminded of its size. And when I drive a few of my coworkers to lunch - two of whom are really big guys - they don't fit quite so well in the passenger's seat as they did in my old Volvo S70. And there's plastic - actual, man-made, petroleum-derived, molded material(!) - on the dash and center console. That's not the leather and wood that those traditionalists are used to.
However, the quality of the materials is certainly a step up from what I'm used to, compared to my old Volvo. The seats are comfortable - though not as good as the Volvo's - and the Alpine stereo does its job with 320 watts powering 10 speakers. No need to upgrade this system.
It's a nice car, especially when you consider what it is - Jaguar's attempt to steal away some business from Lexus, Infinity and Acura. And they were largely successful, considering that this was the best-selling Jaguar model ever produced. I'm sure that some of those buyers were enamored with the idea of buying an ultra-luxury brand at a bargain-basement price, but in the process, they happened to get a pretty nice car.
Still though, for me, it's not about the leaper on the bonnet, or the name on the deck lid. More than anything else, it's about how this car drives. The ride is decent - again, a step up from my old, larger Volvo. But the handling is on par with a decent sports car. How Jaguar managed to get this ride and handling combination is beyond me! The shifter and steering-feel rival what I've felt in a friend's Porsche Boxster. And the All-Wheel-Drive was a God-send in the snowstorms that hit my area during my first few weeks of ownership. There's plenty of power that, unlike any of its front-wheel-drive competition, all gets to the ground whenever you want to use it. Jaguar took a handful of common Ford parts and designs and tweaked them such that whole far exceeds the sum of its parts. It's the perfect introduction to the Jaguar family.
By the way, I picked mine up in February 2010 for about $9,000. I couldn't be happier.
It's been nearly a year since I wrote the article above. And I still love this car!
It's been rock-solid reliable. Sure, I've had some minor maintenance to do: rear brake pads and a new battery, and I caught up to all of the fluid changes that every car should have at this age - besides the engine oil, I've flushed the transmission fluid, coolant, and brake fluid. But all of that is pretty standard maintenance. One extra effort that most cars won't need is changing the all-wheel-drive system's transfer case fluid. This is a known weak point on the X-Type, but the fluid change is cheap and easy insurance. I'm now self-imposing a 30,000 mile transfer case fluid change interval on my car.
I've learned much more about the car over the past year. To call it a Ford Mondeo in Jaguar sheetmetal is way off the mark. That's a statement that demonstrates ignorance (or arrogance) about the car, more than attesting to any experience from behind the wheel. I'll fess up that I was initially just as misinformed about this car's Ford roots as most of the world is.
In fact, this car is more of a Jaguar than the S-Type, which shares more parts with a Lincoln LS than the X-Type does with the Mondeo. As for the X-Type's significant Ford-shared parts: there's a bit of stamped steel in the engine compartment (the strut tower mounts), and the engine block (and only the block) is a derivative of the Ford Duratec V6. (An engine which, by the way, probably has Porsche engineering in its bloodline.) With Jag heads, and Jag everything else for that matter, this engine is super smooth and torquey, and loves to rev to redline at every on-ramp. Jag wouldn't have used the same engine in other Jags if it wasn't up to their standards of performance and refinement.
(You can read much more about the development and history of the X-Type in this excellent article from Austin Rover Online.)
The All-Wheel-Drive has proven to be a God-send through two snowy winters now. I have decent all-season tires on the car, and that seems to be enough to keep me going in any weather.
Speaking of tires, that's probably my only complaint about this car. The previous owner apparently bought the wrong tires for the car, just before unloading it. These Toyo Proxes 4 tires are fine in the dry, wet, or snow, but they're the noisiest passenger tires that I've ever heard. They have a very aggressive tread pattern, and the end result is tire noise like an off-roading tire, up to about 55 mph. Fortunately, the noise disappears at typical highway speeds. Regardless, I'm looking forward to replacing them when they wear out. Other X-Types will not have this problem - it's specific to this model of tire.
Early on, I didn't think I'd need to change anything about the stock stereo. It still sounds great, but I've since added an auxiliary input and Bluetooth to the stereo. (Read about that in the tips section of my Jag page.)
All in all, this is a great car. Did I mention that "I love this car!" ?
This page last modified on January 17, 2011.