A decade ago Ford spent $2.5 billion to buy Jaguar. At the time, Jaguar was in awful shape. Although its cars continued to be desired for their sensuous styling, clubby interiors, and excellent ride comfort, a widespread reputation for poor quality led to declining sales. On top of this, Jaguar’s plant was outdated and extremely inefficient. If the company was ever to be viable again, billions more would have to be spent.

Why was Ford willing to spend so much money on a company in such bad shape? The short answer is the name. Even though people stayed away because of numerous horror stories concerning cars that spent months at the dealer, they continued to perceive Jaguar as a prestigious brand. Unlike, say, Lincoln. The long answer is that this prestige was based on Jaguar’s storied past of racing wins and cars that embodied a distinct British upper-crust character otherwise found only in far more expensive cars. Ford hoped that by investing in Jaguar it could combine the continuing power of this brand with lower manufacturing costs and higher quality.

The first parts of this plan have been successful. The additional billions were spent. Manufacturing costs were drastically reduced, while quality steadily improved, such that it now approximates that of other European brands. Sales improved, but the traditional, expensive Jaguars with their high prices could never sell in sufficient volume to pay off Ford’s huge investment. For this investment to pay off, Ford implemented the second stage of its plan: additional models that could be sold at lower prices because they were based on other Ford products.

This, of course, is a risky strategy. If people saw the new cars as Fords, they might not only refuse to buy them but the Jaguar brand itself could be tarnished, eliminating any chance the investment would ever be recouped. Despite shared underpinnings, the new cars would have to possess the character of “authentic” Jaguars.

The first car that followed from this strategy, the S-Type, seems to have accomplished this objective. Though sharing a basic structure with the Lincoln LS, it was generally perceived as a real Jaguar. Aided by styling that strongly references classic Jaguar sedans, it has sold well against competition that includes the BMW 5-Series and Mercedes E-Class… (Blue hyperlinks lead to my reviews of other vehicles.)

For 2002 Ford attempted an even more difficult maneuver. It has developed a compact Jaguar off the platform of the Ford Mondeo, which was unsuccessfully offered as the Contour in North America. How could a successful Jaguar be based on an unsuccessful Ford? How could this car, the X-Type, hope to compete with the BMW 3-Series and Audi A4? Many in the automotive press were quite skeptical.

In contrast, I personally advised that this feat might be possible, and at any rate judgments should await the car itself. I was not so skeptical because I own and greatly enjoy driving a Ford Contour with the six-cylinder engine upon which the X-Type’s two sixes are based. The Contour performs quite well, with an energetic engine and sharp handling. Downsides, however, include a somewhat cramped rear seat, unluxurious ride quality and noise levels, and unpleasant torque steer. Torque steer, where the wheel pulls to one side during hard acceleration, is not uncommon among front-wheel-drive cars. But it also is not good. This is one reason why BMW and Mercedes have stuck with rear-wheel-drive. Unless these problems could be fixed, the X-Type wouldn’t stand a chance.

To answer these questions, last year I drove an X-Type 3.0 with a manual transmission. (The review can be found here.) I found it to be a good but not exceptional car. However, that car did not have the sport package. To see if this would make a difference, recently I went to a Jaguar dealer hoping to drive the less expensive X-Type 2.5 with a manual transmission (my personal preference, especially in compact sedans) and sport package. They did not have such a car prepped. So I drove the 2.5 with an automatic and sport package and a second 2.5 with a manual and no sport package.

Jaguar X-Type Reliability

Want better reliability information? Want to really know what difference it will make if you buy a Jaguar X-Type rather than something else? It's coming in the form of "times in the shop" and "days in the shop" stats. From these you might learn that your first choice, compared to your second choice, is likely to make 2.7 extra trips to the shop in its first five years. You might decide its advantages compensate for this, or you might not. Either way, you'll be able to make a much better informed decision.

To gain access to this information you have a choice: sign up to help provide the data now or pay $24.95 later. For the details, visit my website, www.truedelta.com.

Styling

I’ll start with my largest problem with the car: the exterior styling. Unlike with the S-Type, there is nothing original or potentially shocking here. In photos I felt the car looked okay but not stellar. In person it just does not look right to me. The X-Type basically takes the styling of the traditional large Jaguar XJ8 sedan and fits it over the package of the Contour, a car much shorter in length and considerably taller in height. I feel like I’m looking at a Contour that has been dressed up to look like a Jag XJ using a kit, much like Pontiac Fieros could once be rebodied to look like Ferraris. The XJ-like front end makes the car appear is if it’s trying to look much more imposing than it is, like a child dressed to look like a business executive. (Didn’t Ally McBeal have a child lawyer at some point?) The proportions are off, making the car appear chunky and even a bit cartoonish. It simply looks forced, perhaps because it was. The considerable front overhang and the amount of metal over the wheel wells hurt, though the 17” wheels of the sport package help the latter a bit. The rear-wheel-drive configurations of the BMW and Mercedes, not to mention their non-shared architectures, permit better proportions. Admittedly, I have a sharp eye for proportions. The typical customer might see the traditional Jaguar style in a tidier package and be perfectly happy with it.

A second concern with the styling is more personal. The regular X-Type is so dolled up with chrome trim and frilly wheels that it looks like a girl’s toy to me, especially in lighter metallic colors. The low-profile tires, body color grille, and blacked out window trim included the sport package help a great deal, making the car at least decent to look at in some shades. (Bright red and gold are simply not good on this car.) So optioned, the X-Type even appeals to me from the rear quarter. (Stylistically the rear end is much more successful than the front.) Still, though I’m hardly a manly man I cannot see myself in this car. It’s partly the curves, and partly the forcibly shrunken XJ styling again, but this car’s looks say it is for those who want a big Jag, but cannot afford it, not someone who wants an authentic, BMW-killing, driver’s car. In short, the chassis and the styling are not in agreement on what type of car this small Jag is trying to be.

Update: At some point in the 2003 model year body-color and black trim in place of chrome (as well as stability control) ceased to be part of the sport package. This package now costs $1,200 instead of $2,000, but the removal of chrome helped the looks of the car. Either Jaguar was looking for a way to get the price of the sport package down, or most propective sport package buyers did not agree with me on this aesthetic issue. (The Jaguar site continues to show the old trim in photos of the X-Type with sport package. Go figure.)

A final exterior issue involved the dealer. The manual transmission car I drove was gold in color. Gold is typically an older person’s favored color. Even if this were not the case, it’s not even remotely a sporty color, while I would expect buyers interested in the manual transmission to be interested in a sporty-looking car. So why did the dealer order a gold car with a manual? At least they’re not alone. The 2002 Toyota Camry I drove with a manual transmission was also gold. (People who like both gold cars and manual transmissions should feel free to comment and/or email me.) The 2.5’s standard wheels also hurt. With their large number of thin spokes, they looked like the sort of wheels that belong on a gold car, but not on a car with a manual transmission. Any other wheel available on the X-Type is more attractive, though none of them is very appealing to my eye.

The interior looks very much like that of a Jaguar, with overtones of wood and leather. It’s more luxurious than sporting, especially in the light colored interiors. It even feels pretty much like a Jaguar, with materials just a notch below those of last year’s S-Type in quality, which were themselves a notch below those in traditional Jags. (For 2003 the S-Type’s interior has been upgraded.) Since this is a less expensive car, I guess this is to be expected. Still, the materials in an Audi or Lexus ES are much nicer.

The main interior element I do not care for is the size and styling of the instrument panel. I have always liked the low dash in my Contour. In the X-Type the seats are a bit lower and the dash is substantially higher, resulting in reduced forward visibility. The dash is positioned higher than the beltline and cowl (base of the windows and windshield, respectively), so this was clearly deliberate. I guess they felt this lent the car more of a luxury feel, and that a Jag is not a Jag without a cozy, somewhat closed-in interior? Probably. Still, though this might make the X-Type more of a Jag, I don’t care for it. Also, the higher position of the dash means that it does not flow smoothly into the doors, but stands distinctly apart from them. Aside from looking less refined, this makes the interior feel even narrower than it is. The oval shape of the slab of wood that runs the entire width of the car intensifies this effect. Again, probably intentional, but not to my liking. I’d prefer a lower dash that flows into the door panels.

Accommodations

The front seats are quite comfortable and supportive. In the British way, they are a bit softer than the seats in the Germans. Without the sport package the side bolsters are not large enough for driving fast along a curvy road. They did not hold me in place well enough. More importantly, I felt like I was sitting on top of the seat rather than nestled within it. To be fair, this problem is common in this class; the regular BMW and Audi seats also lack sufficient lateral support. The sport seats included in the X-Type’s sport package fix this problem quite well.

I’ve already mentioned my issues with the driving position. As in BMW’s sedans, I felt that the dash and steering column were both about an inch too high. To be fair, the X-Type’s cabin might be much less airy than that of my Contour, but it still affords slightly better visibility that those in the Audi A4 and BMW 3-Series.

Since the X-Type’s front seats are lower than those in the Contour, they must be positioned further back to provide the same amount of legroom. Obviously this hurts rear seat legroom. The larger S-Type’s rear seat is already cramped. In the X-Type, the rear seat is marginal. Although I’m only 5'9", my knees brush the front seatback and my hair brushes the headliner. Anyone taller than me will have to slide their rear forward at least a bit. The seat cushion is also lower than I would like. It provides little thigh support. The 3-Series is better here.

The X-Type’s trunk at sixteen cubic feet is very large for the compact luxury class and is about equal to those in standard midsize sedans. It’s quite a bit larger than that in the S-Type. For even more space, rear seats that fold down are available, though the pass-through is a bit small. Strangely, this option is packaged with the sunroof. What do these two things have to do with each other?

On the road

Underway, the X-Type builds on the Contour’s strengths and largely eliminates its weaknesses. To begin with, all-wheel-drive is standard in the United States, clearly in a successful move to eliminate torque steer. (A less expensive front-wheel-drive version is now offered in Europe.) However, all-wheel-drive is not without its downsides. It can make a chassis so balanced that it feels dead. This is not the case here. Jaguar has included a rear-wheel bias in its all-wheel-drive system. This gives it some of the feel of a rear-wheel-drive car, but with the ultimate chassis stability of an all-wheel-drive car. With the 3.0 the X-Type has the initial feel of, say, a BMW, but floor it in a turn and oversteer remains minimal. The tail end does not step out. Instead, all four wheels work to solidly put power down. Sadly, with the less torquey 2.5 the all-wheel-drive system’s rearward bias is less apparent.

The six in my Contour, with 170 horsepower, is just enough to move its 3,000 or so pounds with some alacrity with a manual shift. With an automatic, the Contour feels a bit sluggish, even with the six. With standard all-wheel-drive, a stiffer structure, and various other changes to add a luxurious feel, the X-Type weighs in at a much heavier 3,600 pounds. Consequently, I feared it would feel a bit dead on its feet, not only with the standard 194-horsepower 2.5-liter but even with the 231-horsepower 3.0-liter. I can happily report this is not the case. When the 2.5 is hooked to the five-speed manual, it moves the car well enough to feel sporting. The engine does not feel overworked or sound strange. Instead, it feels and sounds good when pushed. Not as sweet as a BMW six, but at least on par with Audi’s. Unlike with some Japanese engines, I did not feel the need to keep the engine near the 6800 RPM redline—which is incidentally also the power peak. With the engine’s torque peak fairly low, at 3000 RPM, shifts around 4000 were generally sufficient.

The 3.0 I drove last year was of course quite a bit quicker, but I personally would not spend the $6000 Jaguar asks for this gain in performance. Except with the automatic. With an automatic you no longer have the joy of using the shifter to work the engine. So all engine-related jollies must come from brute power. The 2.5 with the automatic does feel a bit overworked. It should still be fine for people with a relaxed driving style, but others should spring for the 3.0. As it happens, the price difference between the two engines is only $4,200 with the automatic, as this transmission, $1,800 extra with the 2.5, is the same price as the manual with the 3.0.

The shifter and clutch were good enough to largely escape my notice. The throws were neither delightfully short nor unbearably long. Feel was decent, though some people might have not enjoy the moderate level of notchiness the way I do. I never missed a shift, even when rushing quite a number of them. The major change I would like to see here is another gear. Audi’s A4 offers a six-speed. My five-speed Contour turns a few more RPM on the highway than I would like, harming fuel economy and adding engine noise, and the X-Type similarly suffers (though no more than the 3-Series).

Returning to the handling, it fell between the Mercedes C-Class and the BMW 3-Series in precision and general athleticism. The steering feel is light and quick yet precise. A bit more feel would be nice, but the all-wheel-drive likely has something to do with this. The sport package does not seem to alter the steering. I hoped for sharper and/or quicker steering with it, but could not detect any significant difference. The wider, lower profile tires the come with the sport package do improve grip, but there is plenty of it for most people even with the base tires. Finally, the sport package reduces the standard car’s already moderate amount of lean to near zero. The resulting car feels somehow too stiff. I personally like the feedback a small amount of lean provides.

Strangely, the styling of the X-Type may have detracted from my joy in driving the car more than anything else did. Driving this car hard just didn’t feel right. With such fancy styling, I felt as if I was having a wild party at a location that ordinarily hosts teas for the Junior League, or whatever its British equivalent is. This strange combination might be fun once or twice, but I can’t see doing it on an ordinary basis. Though larger Jags are styled much the same way inside, the smaller dimensions and different packaging of the X-Type make it somehow more dainty. This car either needs to get more of an edge to its styling or drop the sport tuning.

The base X-Type’s ride is much better than my Contour’s. Even the base touring tires thump across road imperfections in a German fashion, but the structure is so stiff (notably stiffer than that in my Contour) and the suspension tuned so well that these thumps are heard more than felt. To the extent they are felt they lend a sense of connection to the road. Although I covered some fairly well pocked roads, the ride remained comfortable.

Scratch this with the sport suspension. So equipped the X-Type has the firmest ride of any sedan I can recall. Reactions to road imperfections are still not harshly abrupt. But the thump of the tires over every single bump and divot is annoyingly loud. Are the tires filled with concrete? Though tire motions remained fairly well damped, it seems as if a prodigious amount of such damping is going on. I complained about similar behavior in the A4 with sport package, but that car’s thumping was minor compared to this one’s. BMW’s 3-Series rides much better than either. A shame that the sport seats are not available without this sport suspension.

I wonder if something has been lost here. Even more than in the S-Type, this taut ride quality seems more German than Jaguar. Though composed, it does not feel luxurious in the cushy British way. Perhaps Ford focused a bit much on the German competition rather than letting Jaguar be itself?

Noise levels, especially wind noise levels, are far below those in my Contour, and about the same as other compact European luxury sedans. Clearly this is where a few hundred of those extra pounds went.

Pricing

For quick, up-to-date pricing, and especially user-specified price comparisons, check out the website I created: www.truedelta.com. Why yet another vehicle pricing website? Well, I personally lacked the patience to keep using the others. They were too slow and required too much effort, especially when trying to compare prices. So I taught myself some programming and created a site where there is no need to dig through option packages, prerequisites, and the like one by one -- the TrueDelta algorithm figures these out for you in one swift pass.

Although the X-Type starts just below 30 grand, it quickly exceeds that number with options, and jumps higher still with the larger engine. The cars I drove with a moderate level of options stickered for $34,000 and $36,000. Last year’s 3.0 listed for $42,000. Yes, a 330ix will cost about the same, but that’s a nice chunk of change. As with the S-Type, people who buy this car will do so because they desire a Jag, not because of the price.

I prefer any number of less expensive cars, especially the Infiniti G35 or Cadillac CTS, while the equally pricey BMW 3-Series remains the best driver’s car. For those interested in luxury more than sporty handling—and the baby Jag is styled for them—I guess the Lexus ES deserves a look, though I personally find it aesthetically revolting.

Last words

Strangely, the X-Type falls down more in style more than substance, when everyone likely suspected the opposite would be the case. Despite its Contour origins, the X-Type's performance is competitive. Though its style and ambiance are clearly Jaguar, the proportions just aren’t right and the chassis tuning belongs to a less prissy car. Of course, if you have the money the X-Type is a good enough car. The problem for Jaguar is that if you haven’t cared for Jags in the past, this one will not win you over.

You might want to check back for an update in a month or so. The salesman badly wanted me to drive a manual with the sport package. From past experience I know that a harsh ride feels less harsh with a stick, so I might give the car another chance. It might also help if the car has a dark interior, which might cut down on the prissy ambiance.

To learn more about my reliability research and sign up to participate in it, or to perform thorough up-to-date new car price comparisons, visit www.truedelta.com. A link to this website and alphabetized links to my other vehicle reviews can be found on my profile page.
Amount Paid (US$): 34,000
Model and Options: 2.5 manual with sunroof and heated seats