I was one of the very few people that I know of who were familiar with the industry in my circle, yet still liked the Jaguar X-Type and would have even gone as far as to buy one. It was probably a byproduct of many years of mostly trouble free second-gen Ford Mondeo ownership, and the knowledge that the platform was basically the same, as were the diesel engines, but clad in a sexier Jaguar body and featuring a much nicer interior than the Blue Oval could ever offer at the time.
However, a rival for the BMW 3-Series and the rest of the premium compact execs of the time, it was surely not. Launched in 2001, it was a rapid response by Ford-owned Jaguar, which produced what some called “not a Jaguar,” and “just a car.”
Now, years after it has gone out of production, its existence still seems to be bugging both of the involved parties, even after they parted ways in 2008, when Tata Motors took control of Jaguar-Land Rover.
Pistonheads is reporting that now, with the onset of a new model meant as the spiritual successor to the X-Type, Jaguar wants to get it right, and they’re doing so by reliving the failure the front-wheel drive model brought about. So, this new offering will not have strange proportions, drive going to the “wrong” wheels or cliché classic styling which did perhaps look a bit out of place given the compact dimensions – if anything, the swoopy, tapered styling made it look even smaller than the much more angular Mondeo that it was based on. Either way, neither Ford nor Jaguar liked it, but not because it was a bad car, but rather because it sends a bad message that is detrimental to the latter’s image.
Finally, what we’re going to be left with is a Jaguar designed specifically to rival the 3-Series, and I think it has a very high chance of becoming a very similar car to the Cadillac ATS in practice. It too was also heavily benchmarked against the BMW rival, as was the larger CTS…
Moreover, the X-Type is really getting old now, and frankly it doesn’t look any worse than when it was new and I think makes for an interesting second-hand buy. If you find one with low miles, either a 2.2-liter diesel (in Europe) or V6 engine and all-wheel drive at a good price, it’s not the worst thing in the world to take it for a spin, before predictably going to Germany with the rest of the pack.
By Andrei Nedelea
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