2.0 Diesel S

Best car I've owned to date

I bought my facelift jaguar in August 2019, having owned previously an XJR Sport back in the 90's and promising myself it wouldn't be the last Jaaaaaag I owned when I finally got rid of the said XJR due to unreliable and expensive motoring.

So back to my beloved X-Type. I decided to go for as late a model as I could (but not so late as to get a lemon made by a demotivated workforce when Ford puled the plug on the X-type in 2009) which had only done around 94k miles.

Having to think about the running costs I decided the 2.0D was a sensible choice as the engine is both frugal, not too bad for the environment as is born out by really cheap road tax (nearly £100 less than the 1.6 Petrol Zafira I was moving from!) and yet having test driven a few, it still brought a smile to my face with the amount of torque generated even at low revs, being only about a second slower I believe 0-60 than the 2.5 Petrol V6 version, so certainly no slouch off the line.

The car I picked up had previously been an N category insurance claim. but close inspection found that it had been immaculately looked after inside and out, and just needing some wear and tear sorting on a couple of things like a broken air vent and the fuel filler release cable needed replacing.

The Piano Black wood inside oozes class and the half and half leather interior had been really well looked after with no stains, tears or cracking (unlike some that I test drove), I would highly recommend going fo the darker leathers rather than the beige and cream which tend to show ageing far more readily and don't stand up to staining very well.

The car handles and drives brilliantly, and reading up on the development story behind the X400 (X-type) costing literally billions, once behind the wheel you start to appreciate that the old criticism of being a 'Mondeo in drag' cockney rhyming for Jag is completely unfounded, when only 19% of the parts are carried across from the said Ford vehicle. The suspension set up is incredible and the car benefits from passive rear steering making it just stick to the road even on the front wheel drive versions only.

Throw into the mix the fact that it was ahead of its time when it comes to the cars stability system in addition to regular ABS, you definitely feel very wrapped up and safe in the car, and because it feels ride wise like my old XJR from a comfort perspective, it simply eats up long journeys. I did a 4 hour round trip from Staffordshire to Lincoln and back and had absolutely no symptoms of fatigue whatsoever.

As with most cars I've always believed that regular servicing and maintenance goes a long way, so I've oil changed, filter changed and fuel filter changed mine at regular intervals and currently it drives clean with little smoke except initially at start up and usually the very first time its driven hard for a few seconds, from that point on its sweet and I've read a number of times that they enjoy a good hard drive once in a while to keep things clean, I do also use one of the well known additives every few fills to help keep things clean.

Recently my AC has de-gassed, but this was inexpensively solved with a replacement condenser, and I've found most parts are readily available from the usual online auction sites and there are many dedicated Jag breakers around too, so no need to pay dealer prices, I even managed to get a brand new AC compressor (just because it was cheap!) for £55 the other day complete with receiver dryer, so the car here in the UK at least, is not going to break the bank if you choose your model wisely.

Despite loving automatic cars, I chose to have a manual 5 speed box version predominantly because it's less to go wrong, and shifting up and down the gears is smooth and precise, and I've been told as a passenger the journeys always feel soft and luxurious by family and friends.

I average about 43-50 MPG depending on how I drive the car, but on long runs like the recent one I was just over 50 MPG, something not to be sniffed at for anyone wanting to reduce their running costs.

In closing I can see myself keeping my baby jag for a long time now, I loved the looks of the S-Type, but decided that the X-Type had so much more development put into it that I should benefit from the reliability, without sacrificing the classic Jaguar looks that the newer XF's etc have done, nice cars but not what I think about when I imagine a Jag.

I'm certain in time the X-Type will come to be regarded as a modern classic in all its various models, but I bought mine because I just love the looks of it and should it happen to appreciate in value as time goes on then even better, but certainly this little 'Cat' brought the pleasure back to my daily driving that had long gone from tootling around in a 1.6 Zafira for over a decade.

I'd say if you think these are just a Mondeo, then you've seriously never driven an X-Type and as someone wiser than me has said elsewhere, just because it's based on a Mondeo doesn't make it a Mondeo, A Yorksire pudding and a Pancake are based on the same thing, but you need to take a hard look at yourself if you are putting lemon and sugar on your Yorkshires!

Report as offensive