Due to other commitments/needs I’ve been spending a little less time here at CC than usual, this being one of the reasons why I’ve at least paused the New Car Reviews for the time being. However, on one of my very recent trips to Laramie, Wyoming to finally start refurbishing a languishing rental house I’ve been needing to work on amongst other things, I passed by a small used car dealer on the main drag. Usually they feature a bunch of SUVs and trucks but have often had the odd older Audi, which always made me interested. Well, the other day they had this, probably my favorite Jaguar shape of at least the last couple of decades. So let’s go check it out!
If you’ve been here at CC for a while, you might remember that I once owned an X-type, in that case a 2002 sedan with the smaller engine and quite liked it (above). That was back when they were pretty new. Here’s the link to the COAL on that, but the most interesting part of it is the last sentence: “Maybe I’m the only one, but our Jaguar never left us stranded, the electrical system was flawless, the car was a pleasure to drive and own, and overall I would not refuse to own another. (But it would definitely be the wagon next time)!” So I am predisposed to liking them and absolutely love the styling of the wagon. However, I’ve never driven one or any X-Type with the bigger engine. So I thought I might as well take the time to do so and see how the idea has held up over the last decade and half or so.
I’ve been playing around with video for a while now, if only on my phone, but ended up making an impromptu video about this car (above). Walking around it, looking under the hood, and while driving it, all included – but none of it planned out or ahead, just on a whim, I wasn’t even sure I would write this piece when I made it. I don’t know and didn’t ask about the rules in Wyoming regarding holding a phone in one hand while driving even if not actively really interacting with it, but the state’s all about Freedom, so whatever, I just assumed it’s fine(ish).
Some of the in-car shots may though have a lower horizon than ideal since I’m afraid of The Tase and didn’t want to be obvious about it, but what the heck, it’s eight minutes in total, I narrate/speak throughout, there’s no bad music, and if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video must be worth much, much, more. And I wasn’t about to do a Take Two. I’ll also pen my thoughts below, but note that in my opinion you’re really missing out if you don’t watch as some things cannot be fully explained in writing. Or at least I don’t have the patience for that.
In any case, the short version of the car’s history (in general, not this particular one) is that the Jaguar X-Type was introduced in the United States for 2002 in two versions – 2.5l and 3.0l engines (both V-6) being the biggest difference. All were full time AWD, all were pretty loaded, even the basic ones like the example we used to own. Most importantly they all smelled fantastic. Both a 5-speed automatic as well as a 5-speed manual were available. The common refrain is that they are Ford Mondeo based, it’s about 20 percent parts commonality from what I understand; they were produced back when Ford was on their foreign luxury car brand owning, uh, jag.
Most that drive and/or own them, love them, most that criticize them seem to have never even driven one (kind of like some others regarding anything Nissan, Chrysler, and Tesla). People seem to think being Ford based is bad, the reality is the Ford-era Jaguars seem to have been some of the best ones ever from a quality standpoint. So maybe things are not as great as they could ultimately be, but they are far better than Jaguars used to be.
For 2005 the wagon (Jaguar called it Sportwagon over here, Estate elsewhere) made the trip across the pond, exclusively offered with AWD and the 3.0 V6. Most tended to have options slathered on them and a (to me) surprisingly very low total of 1,602 were sold here over a three year span. So if you see one, it’s quite a sighting (over here at least, they sold many more in Europe and elsewhere, The Queen even had one). The X-type was sold here until 2008, in other markets to 2011.
The transfer case as of 2005 was electronically controlled (viscous-coupled prior to that), and starts with a 40/60 F/R torque split that could apportion more or less power to each end as needed, so not a fixed ratio. No knobs or buttons, just always in play. Engines here stayed the same over the entire run, there were extremely minor updates inside and out, none that would be noticeable to anyone but a dedicated fan – even most owners wouldn’t quickly be able to pin down a year just by looking at one.
Let’s start outside with the styling. The X-Type has been variously described as a rip-off, a dumbed down XJ, and a bit awkward-looking. By its detractors anyway. Others liked or loved what they saw and when you tell someone “Jaguar” what they tend to picture in their mind is a vague 1970s/1980s XJ6 shape. Jaguar (under the design eye of Geoff Lawson) took that idea and shrunk it a little to make the X-Type. Use your strengths and all that, in hindsight I think it was good, as the modern crop of Jaguars could be Anycar.com. (But I’ll happily review one if Jaguar USA takes note of this).
The part that was the least successful in my opinion was the rear of the sedan, looking a little bulbous. Gloriously the wagon fixes all of that as part of Ian Callum’s rework of the sedan into the wagon, his first Jaguar design assignment that I am aware of. The back looks fantastic and as a whole the thing is marvelous. In my opinion of course. You’re free to disagree below but you’re wrong, I’ll inform you now.
Not only does the back have a proper hatch but the glass actually opens separately from the tailgate. I forgot to take a picture so can’t display it but it does, making it FAR more practical than lots of other wagons, CUVs and SUVs.
Everything from the B-pillar forward is identical to the sedan version. The paint on this one seems to be the Quartz Gray, currently in various states of fading with the roof being the worst and the body endowed with various nicks and small scratches but no serious depressions in the metal beyond a few dings. However on the plus side it doesn’t appear to have been in any (major) accidents, any paintwork would be quite obvious. This all looks equally old and ill-maintained. The front does feature a clearbra applique so at least there are no rock chips. Just the slightly cracking and starting to peel clearbra applique. It’s on the mirrors too.
At first walkaround it’s a smaller car than remembered. Or more accurately most other vehicles on the road are now larger. Getting in though demonstrates that there is plenty of room for myself. Even with a sunroof in this car my head and hair do not touch it or the surround, there is room for my legs, my arms are at a natural height and everything falls to hand nicely.
Sure the material quality isn’t completely up to 2022 model year standards but it’s still far ahead of most other 2005 vehicles, and would not be out of place in a 2012 or so vehicle. The wood is plentiful (if cracked on this example like on most), the leather still fulfills its olfactory mission, is not torn, and on the seats supports the body wonderfully. The seat bottom cushion is plenty long and surprisingly is shaped in a way that the bottom (seat) bolsters do more to hold the body laterally than the upper (back) bolsters do. A triple seat memory is included as well.
Seat heaters are present and work in two levels, the gauges are clear and easy to read and the center stack on this one features a large and I have to say early implementation of touch screen. However, 16 and a half years after leaving the Halewood, England factory the touch screen still shines bright, responds quickly, and has no faults. Well, beyond fairly crude graphics and type fonts reminiscent more of a Coleco or Nintendo game than the high-res stuff used these days.
But there are lots of buttons too that act in concert with the screen. The navigation system works and shares the screen with the HVAC system as well as the Radio, although both have redundant buttons on the surround, there’s even a CD player but no visible AUX input. The audio system is by Alpine and includes a subwoofer in the cargo area, and three of the four speakers in the doors work – the passenger door one is taking a break. In the middle of the console is the J-Gate shifter, finished in real wood veneer like the rest of the wood along with a wood shiftknob, and two cupholders sized for cans or slim bottles. And the traditional lever handbrake.
An armrest slides fore and aft and can open as either a small top or not quite as small lower compartment. There is some minor wear on the console and the chrome buttons, but the leather bits are just slightly worn-in. The ashtray lid hinge is broken but that seems an easy replacement at the junkyard of your choice. Or ebay. The cigarette lighter provides the only port to perhaps add an adapter for a phone charger. There is no Bluetooth, but a built in phone was apparently an option, not included on this one, complete with steering wheel buttons to activate it. The wheel also has buttons and toggles for the audio volume and tuning.
The back seat is finished as nicely as the front, and headroom is great, no issues for myself. Legroom is a little tighter when the front seat is adjusted for myself, I can either sit with my knees in the scooped-out back rest of the front seat or man-spread, but then nobody is sitting in the middle.
For those who may not know, I am 6’1″ with a 32″ inseam, important to know in order to compare to how you might fit. There is an ashtray on the back of the center console as well as a fold down armrest with two cupholders. There are zero places to plug in anything.
Behind the rear seat is the cargo area. This is very nicely carpeted with a compartment to the side and another compartment below that holds the jack. It also features another 12V cigarette-lighter style power port, handy back here. Below the styrofoam tray thing is the spare tire. The back seats fold flat 70/30. While the rear hatch and glass unlock electrically there is no power assist either up or down.
Moving to the front of the car is the grille with the famous leaper. Opening the hood presents the transversely mounted 3.0l naturally aspirated V-6 engine that produces (produced?) 227HP@6,800rpm and 206lb-ft of torque at 3,000rpm. It’s closely related to the base engine in the Jaguar S-Type as well as the Lincoln LS and technically part of the Ford modular Duratec family. The difference between this and the smaller 2.5liter is the stroke of the piston, everything else is apparently identical/interchangeable as with most of the rest of the car. Other markets offered a couple of other engine options as well including a 2.1liter and a diesel.
Using the switchblade style key causes the engine to fire to life instantly. This example has over 168,000 miles on it and is currently displaying a Check Engine light. The seller tells me that there are two codes present, a P0171 and a P0174, indicating a lean condition on each bank of cylinders, likely a vacuum leak of some sort in the intake system.
In Wyoming this does not matter as there is no required emissions check to register a vehicle. It’s usually so windy all of that ends up in Nebraska anyway within minutes but then again one of the main industries is coal mining so not a surprise. Wyoming is though also becoming a leader in wind energy with vast wind farms to harness that free resource. (For the record, I like Wyoming, both the state from a scenery and landscape perspective as well as the people I’ve met there.)
Pulling out reveals a somewhat worn suspension but quick and light steering with an excellent turning radius of under 18 feet. Driving over potholes or sharp lateral pavement breaks reveals more of a crashing than a smooth thumping, and heavy cornering causes more sway than your Aunt Marge after a few cocktails. When giving it the beans, apparently due to the trouble codes the engine computer will cut the fuel when a threshold is exceeded, causing a hesitation and major stumble at around the 1/2-3/4 throttle mark once about 3,000 rpm is hit.
A lighter throttle still allows higher speeds to be reached as I found out by taking it on the freeway. However these foibles all for some reason went away at least temporarily during the test drive, showing an engine that pulls very well and is enjoyable to listen to, if you can hear it over a little wind noise and a greater amount of either very worn tire noise or a wheel bearing going out noise. The steering is a little vague, brakes are likely in need of replacement but the car overall gives off a vibe of being a willing dance partner once the stitches are pulled from the engine and everything is all healed up after some other minor (to perhaps moderate) surgeries. The video explains it better.
Tires on this one were varied, with perhaps up to three brands represented and varied amounts of tread (that’s charitable, at least two were quite bald – or slick for the racers among you; think feature, not bug, I suppose). Eh, whatever, easy enough to replace with one’s preferred brand, O.E. tires often leave a lot to be desired, even when brand new. The wheels here are 17″ alloys, all uniformly curb-rashed and with most of the center caps heavily faded. The tire pictured is the one with the most tread by a very large margin. Tire size is 225/45-17.
Beyond the one speaker and the engine (emissions?) fault along with the worn tires and suspension, remarkably everything electric worked. And worked well. Power locks both from inside and via the fob, power windows and sunroof (all one-touch), the radio, interior lights, power seats (a little slow but they got there), and everything else commonly used, all present and accounted for.
Pricing for this very loaded example is a (these days) not entirely unreasonable $2,988 but the purveyor quickly indicated that $2,600 should be doable. When new, the base price of this car was $36,330 (about $51,450 today) plus Destination Charge. And options of which this one has many. Of course you have to appreciate the marque, enjoy the looks, and not being afraid of doing a little dirty work yourself would help immeasurably too to keep this as a reasonably fun little automotive mistress on the side of the driveway to be taken out as the whim arose.
Never would I suggest this (particular example) as an only car for a household or someone that would be dropping their entire bundle on the acquisition price. And of course realize that nobody is impressed with down-on-its-heels paintwork on an erstwhile “luxury car”, no matter how entry-level it was when new. But work on it in the garage to get it all in excellent mechanical shape without feeling a need to have any concern about the exterior? That may be the biggest luxury of all.
Wow, a functional sub-$3k car in today’s market is not something I expected to see. But then again, there is a lot of oldjagophobia out there to overcome. I will confess to being among the afflicted.
I wonder what is in store for a car like this. I fear that it will be bought by someone desperate for a presentable car, and that it will be driven until the first mid three figure repair bill comes due, and then offloaded (with the source depending on whether it is drivable without the repair or not). Which is too bad, for something that has survived in this condition.
If I was as good with a wrench as I was as a kid, I’d go for it. Would need a carport or garage to work on it when the Jaguar mystic kicked in. Don’t understand why the car was so discounted by the press.
Knowing better, I’d go for the Ford Escape parked next to the Jaguar. Parts are readily available unlike the Jaguar.
Fun review, Jim, thanks for doing this spur-of-the-moment and providing it. Regardless of what some may think of its Mondeo roots, I’ve always really liked the way the X-Type looks, and an AWD wagon with the 3.0 is the creme de la creme of this Ford-ified Jag. Far more distinctive and interesting than the contemporary anonymous could-be-anything styling language they adopted afterwards.
This would be a nice car for a capable at-home mechanic. Spiff up the interior finishes and paint as well as can be done with $30 of bottled shiny stuff from Autozone, get the mechanicals sorted, and off you go. A clean car with an oxidized clearcoat but a clean, well-kept interior is still more respectable to me than a new car with a shiny finish but disgusting neglected interior.
I would have bought that in an instant… Very nice find!
I had no idea there was such a thing Jim, I’ve never seen an X type sportwagon before.
I like it too, although a 5-speed manual would make it ideal. I don’t mind the burnt paint, and geez no rust either?
Did I mention that I don’t have a car at the moment? People get confused finding our house because sometimes there’s zero cars in the driveway.
I could just walk over and pick that up, oh wait that’s 478 hours of walking to get to your place. Nice find though, and I like the informal video shoot.
Oh, no! What happened to the cars? No Beetle? No Van? No…Focus? No need to walk, you could ride your bike! Just think of the stories. And you’d shave off about 3/4’s of the time too. It would fit in the back for the return trip.
Well, let’s see:
Mustang and popup trailer are away stored in a barn for the winter
Focus is with my son who is living/working in Toronto. I get it back at the end of the year when he returns to school.
Motorcycle and Beetle are stashed in the garage. Beetle didn’t run this year 🙁
And van is taking Mrs DougD to work.
I could ride the motorcycle over if it wasn’t snowing..
Not really related to the subject, but Ford in Europe sells the current Mondeo (a clone of the no longer sold here Fusion) as both a station wagon and a 5 door hatchback sedan. The U.S. was(?) rumored to get this Mondeo/Fusion station wagon as a Ford version of the Subaru Outback. I haven’t heard or read anything about it in a year. Apparently Ford has its hands full with CUVs and SUVs.
The word on the street is that while the upcoming “Outback competitor” may use the Fusion/Mondeo CD4 platform, it will be much more thorough than a lifted Mondeo wagon with some cladding…and *may* reprise the Fusion nameplate.
Great writeup! I do recall these when they were new and I never really gave them a second look but you really sell the merits of these and I found that interesting. Thanks for taking the time!
The most likely causes of those lean codes are a dirty MAF hot wire, weak fuel pump or clogged fuel filter, or leaking intake manifold gaskets. On Fords the MAF is secured to the housing with tamper proof torx screws, sometimes the head of the screw is also filled with epoxy to prevent access. Simply heat a pick with a torch and use it to melt and pick out the epoxy.
The lean codes are for both banks, so whatever is causing it is common to both banks.
As for “fixing itself”, the PCM strategy likely is able to utilize a speed density failsafe algorithm via the throttle position sensor and engine rpm. I don’t think there is any baro sensor on these, so it will only be an approximation, but still adequate for driving. It may run a bit on the rich side, so you’d want to address it asap to prevent cat damage. Those were a giant pain to R&R on a common/mistake, and I can’t imagine how nasty it must be with an AWD transfer case attached.
I love it! The car and the review.
The car is as practical as a Pontiac Vibe and luxurious as, uhm, an entry level luxury car. Maybe I can find one of those 1600 or so that were coming on shore. I will be retiring soon and this would be a nice pass-time doing the deferred maintenance. —Just daydreaming.
Thanks for this enjoyable review!
Great review Jim, and I too am surprised to find a reasonable driver for under $3,000. Its Ford roots might even make this a decent commuter for occasional use.
My favorite line though: “You’re free to disagree below but you’re wrong, I’ll inform you now.” At least we know where you stand! 😂
That is a sharp-looking wagon. If I was still on the front range and needed a car, I would seriously consider this. At 185.5″ long it is a couple inches longer than my Octavia wagon…just about the perfect size. With some TLC, I don’t why it shouldn’t make it past 200K.
The only Jaguar I ever drove (briefly) was a X-type sedan. Not too memorable to be honest, but then I only got to drive it through the exurbs between Denver and Boulder…a place with so many bad drivers and poorly-timed lights that it takes the joy of driving out of any car.
Count me as one of the people who completely (unjustly?) dismissed the Jaguar X-Type when it was new.
I referred to it as the “Jaguar Contour,” and thought it was a generic Ford with a ‘leaper’ mascot glued on.
I thought it was absurd that a RWD-steeped make would use a FWD platform as the basis for a car. And it smacked of desperation and pretension that they would go out of their way to engineer an expensive AWD system just to dance around that fact.
I thought it was absurd that a low-volume boutique manufacturer like Jaguar expected to…what, double? triple?…its output with this model.
I thought it was absurd that Jaguar’s styling department under Ford was trapped in 1969, grafting outdated and neoclassical styling cues (round headlights, chromed radiator shells) onto ostensibly-modern cars instead of doing anything to modernize and evolve the design language. And the nose of the X-Type came off as an especially bad pastiche, with too-small lights and a squished grille.
I thought it was absurd that Jaguar, of all makes, would create a station wagon. (Yeah: A station wagon! What would they come up with next: A Jaguar SUV? Oh, wait…)
My opinions of the X were also coloured by Automobile Magazine’s four-seasons test reports, which were absolutely *savage* in their vicious sarcasm and nonstop mockery of the model. (“Hey, there’s no CD player! Even a freaking Chevy Cavalier has a CD player! Guess I’ll dig out a box of warbly cassettes.” “Is this Connolly leather? Maybe it’s Konnolly with a K.”)
Now?
I no longer dismiss it.
I no longer see it as a Jaguar Contour.
I see it as a comfortable car with distinctive lines, rare and different enough from the pack to be interesting. I see its trim size as manoeuverable, parkable, and close to ideal.
I no longer see the AWD as a pretentious gimmick; I see it as a safety feature that combines the best qualities of FWD roadholding and RWD performance. And I see the Ford influence as a positive, imparting a modicum of quality and parts commonality that makes it viable, or even desirable, as a used car.
But I still don’t like the lights and grille.
I always liked these. Main beef against them was that it’s just a massaged Ford Mondeo (irrelevant to me since this generation of Mondeo wasn’t sold Stateside). I liked the upscale interior with all the wood and chrome, though would prefer darker burled walnut to the orangish stuff in this car. I recall the 5 speed manual was only available with the 2.5L six and thus not on the wagon, shame. Anyway, the local Jag dealer still had one of these on the lot 1-1/2 years after they stopped making them. These (both body styles) scratch my itch a bit, but less than the early Rover 75 which looked better inside and out, is more unique, and buyable here in three years.
Apparently less than 20% is shared with Ford and none of those pieces are visible inside or out. Of course that means that 80% isn’t Ford.
You could get a 5-speed with the 3.0l but not in the wagon, sedan only. We had the dark wood in the 2002 sedan we had, it was nice. As were the green-faced gauges that went away within the first couple of years, it added something…
Ha, yes, if you bring a Rover 75 over here, it will make this Jaguar look like a Corolla in regards to parts and serviceability. The X sold over 355,000 times around the world with I believe at least 100,000 of those in the U.S. And Jaguar still exists.
The powertrains are shared with the Mondeo possibly the suspension components too, not a bad thing Mondeos of that age can be a ball to drive too fast for the conditions
Rover, then still owned by BMW, wanted to bring the Rover 75 to the States alongside the Land Rover and Range Rover SUVs, Mini, and some sort of MG, I was salivating over the 75 being sent Stateside; it was the 3/4 scale Bentley I always wanted my British car to me. The 75’s 2.5L V6 and the manual or 5 speed auto transmissions were already sold in the States in the Land Rover Freelander. The 75 was designed with federalization in mind, so seemed like a possibility at the time. Two-tone leather in aquamarine-over-beige or aubergine-over-beige colorways, complete with copious amounts of burled walnut, creme-faced oval gauges that look like they were pulled from a Swiss watch, and substantial-feeling metal door openers and controls. Really looked all kinds of gorgeous, from any angle.
try pic again…
My main complaint with the Ford era Jaguars and Aston Martins is the odd family
resemblance, as well as the generally cheapish look.
This seems nice enough as a budget “play” car, if one knows what they are getting into,
but I can’t imagine parts availability is great. Not the basic mechanical bits, but anything
that was Jaguar specific.
I never particularly like the look of the X-Type Sedan. I always thought it was too much look for too small a car, and is perhaps the reason that Jaguar saw the “heritage” school of design as a dead end, and so threw it away with the 2007 XK (and later the 2009 XF and 2011 XJ). *That said*, the wagon fixes all of my styling complaints, and I’d kill to own one.
As far as the touchscreen unit (which was used on the X-Type, S-Type and XJ of the era), there is something called JagDroid, which allows you to retrofit an Android box that piggybacks onto the unit and allows you to run modern applications. It also allows for wired or wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
You can either follow the instructions online for the cost of parts, or ship your unit to a guy in the UK, pay to have it done, and then install it. I did the latter, and so have such a unit fitted to my 2006 XJ Vanden Plas (also Quartz Grey!), pictured below
That screen is very cool; slick-looking and nicely integrated. Definitely one of the better setups I’ve seen.
Wow, that is quite the upgrade from stock, it looks excellent and the functionality seems very good! I checked out that website briefly, super interesting, thanks, I’ve been wondering about things like that. Seems that perhaps there IS life after touchscreens and people/companies can make money upgrading them down the road, contrary to what people think about them dying and being irreplacable for some reason.
I like the X type as a wagon, and I like the newer wagons that replaced it. I love Jags but the new millennial models have been prone to expensive failures. A 15 year old Jag with 168,000 miles is well past it’s glory days, and unless the buyer is a super DIY wrench will be nothing but heart break. The transfer cases are well known problem areas, as are the engine codes. Nothing throws out more codes than a late model used Jag, which makes them difficult to smog in Ca. You would be better off with a ’59 Chevy or the other cars that were featured in an earlier posting.
Did you sell it?
Count me in as a fan of the X Type wagon. My wife and I were behind one a few years back as I was driving her to work in Edmonton one morning.
She has an eye for nice cars and asked what it was. Somewhat surprised, she actually uttered the words, “that’s kinda nice!” A comment that certainly surprised me. I eyeballed it as much as I could in traffic and felt it was not only stylish but the right size for her and me. The wagon could also hold some grandchildren too. But, I never saw it again and in fact finding or another similar model during my travels in the big simply did not happen. If production was as low as was mentioned in the feature, then no wonder they are hard to come by.
In terms of being wrong, and feeling free, I would be freely disagreed with if I said that you were wrong, and would myself agree with you on your disagreement, so I think that’s something we can agree, freely, not to be wrong about. I think there was a simpler way of saying this. I may have an error code.
I think it looks marvellous. That seems unlikely, as I thought the sedan looked each of them like they had been sold after a rear-end crash test (which I thought a strange way to sell a car, even for the English). It is remarkable how the wagon so improves the breed, though it does retain the slightly squinty, crossed eyes from that less-bred side of its DNA.
I have driven the V6 in a sporty version of the Mondeo (ST something?) upon which the Jag is based, with a manual, and it was a cracker, although the gulf between the torque peak and power peak shows up as a need to rev the nuts off it for swift progress. No hardship, with that sound, of course. The tarted-up Mondeo also handled with proper elan, too, so a good undergarment for a posh Jag coat. Btw, I suspect the “20%” claim is largely guff, as the entire inner structure is probably one bit of the 20% and the suspensions (and V6 ‘s) are unquestionably the same: depends on how one categorizes percentages of a car, which isn’t really a thing anyway.
I did watch your video, and it saved you many adjectives in this piece, an efficent idea. Alas for Mr Laramie’s Best Used, nice though the package is, and the price, that old dear had a large amount of strange gear whines to my ears, and I’m afraid those whines, if bottled, would fetch a thoroughly premium price.
Interesting to read your view, as someone who has much experience with many modern cars, to see how it holds up compared to moderns.
Of course I have a biased view, having owned a similar car for nearly 5 years now.
I bought my 2004 example because I wanted a reliable “modern bad weather” car to accompany a couple of classic cars. I do not want an ordinary car, it has to be a little special.
The Jaguar has the bad weather options I wanted and which are missing from the older cars: electrically heated front and rear screens, mirrors and seats, all wheel drive, rain and light sensors. I also like the power, xenon lights and good outward visibility.
I installed a towing hitch which proved to be very useful.
One thing my car also had, and I would guess would have been fitted to your test car as well, is a knob on the remote which opens the tailgate door. Have to admit I only found that out after a year ownership when reading Jaguar forums and realized that was what that knob was for!
Regarding reliability: in the 58k kilometres (37k miles) from the past 5 years I have had a couple of issues, most of them age related and which I more or less expect to happen on a 13-18 year old car. I had to change twice a O2 sensor (that got the engine check light on), both rear wheel bearings, suspension rubbers at the rear suspension and two small control arms in the rear suspension. I also changed the tailgate struts and the battery (was the original one!). Plus of course the usual oil changes and tires. Amazingly no brake replacement parts were needed, pads and discs are still good as is the exhaust system.
If the car is from a rusty / salty environment it will be susceptible for (invisible) rust. I had to rust-treat the sills (behind the plastic covers) and the rear suspension cradle has surface rust all over. It may well be that the rear suspension rust will be the reason to get rid of the car. However if it holds or not get worse then I have no problem holding on to the car a couple more years.
I wasn’t impressed with these when new, at least in saloon form. They always seemed to squint. I’m getting around to liking the wagons though, which are not uncommon in Japan. It’s like a British Mitsuoka, after all!
You’ve never been impressed with a car when new though, right? 🙂 I figure two decades is about the time needed and here we are! But you know I like Mitsuokas so there you go, although them might be fighting words for the chaps at both Ford and Jaguar…It doesn’t surprise me that they aren’t uncommon in Japan though.
Actually, I liked the big Jags of that time at the time – the X300s, a great improvement on the XJ40. Still find those very attractive. And I’m pretty impressed with current XJs too, though like you, I find the current crop of smaller Jags lack character.
Yes, it (X300) was much better both visually as well as from a quality standpoint from Day 1, amazing how they were able to keep that look going and going and going, until they made the Big Change to the current-ish range of cars with really only the F-Type sort of harkening back, although somewhat tenuously for that one too. The Ford era produced some/many of the best Jaguars as far as longer term ownership is concerned, without it I don’t know if/how they’d have survived. With both Jaguar and Land Rover now under the same roof it’s surprising they haven’t simply merged the brands or at least dealer networks, they would seem to be two very complementary lineups, although as Jaguar produces more and more CUVs that’s fading again I suppose.
Not sure why and not that easy to justify, but I can see the appeal of this one.
Best part is the headlights, pinched off the de Havilland Comet engine intakes. Story we hear over here is that Ford US styled the car and Lawson and Jaguar were presented a fait accompli, to which Jag added some adjustments.
I have a pre owned a 2005 X type estate sports waggon since 2007. 206,000 + klm here in Canada on the West Coast. Its fitted with All weather tires winter and summer. Exceptionally shure footed in the snow. Fuel milage 25 mpg freeway 20 around town. Love the “J “ gate shifter despite motor head reviwers. 👎 No sat nav but it would be out of date by now. Great AWD. Well worth the money.
In my youth I had 3 XK’S but I lost touch with the car market as I got older. I did not know a wagon was made until Jan2023 I was browsing in Auto trader looking for a replacement dog car. And there it was. I look at the photos and it was in great condition with 103K miles on it. It was 600 miles away but I kept looking at it remembering my earlier 3 XK’s.
I call the owned and talked to him at great length. I decided to drive my truck up to see it .
I was looking at it in his drive way before he came out and all ready decided it would be mine. The paint looked very good and only had a small sign of bubble around one back window. the interior seats were all most mint and when he opened the hood it was very clean. It started right up and was smooth. I told him I would take it and went and got a car trailer and took it home. I am having the shocks and struts and front springs replaced at present and hope to pick it up today. I have gotten seat covers to put on it as I don’t want to chance tearing the seats that are in great condition. Still not sure it I want my Dalmatians in the car yet
Hi everyone, i own one, Jaquar X-type 3.0 automatic. Damn the car drives nice with its powerful engine. What i like most is the fact that the is a 4 wheel drive. The problem with car is that the older it gets the more expensive it become to maintain, o original parts here in South Africa are very scares. I still love the car. Need parts for the especially the transfer case and discs