In Its Own Right
by David Finlay (04 Jul 01)

The relatively diminutive proportions of the X-Type - and its known under-the-skin relationship to the Ford Mondeo - caused quite a lot of adverse comment among observers during my time with the car. One of The Lads, for example, took one look at it and immediately said, "Huh, it's just a Ford," though his tune had changed substantially after he had been a passenger in the thing for a couple of miles.

Another comment was that the X-Type looked like a "real" Jaguar that had been hit by lorries at both ends, which struck me as underselling the design to an extraordinary extent.

There is much, much more to the car than all this. Although I'm not a great fan of the small headlights, I think the overall shape is remarkably elegant. With the three litre engine it has purposeful performance, and in the Sport form tested here it is quite definitely the most nimble Jaguar I have ever driven.

A significant factor in the handling is that the X-Type is the first Jaguar ever to be driven through the front wheels. It's also driven through the rears, of course, and the fact that the power is transmitted through every available tyre contact patch means - as it almost always does - that neither end is likely to break away without a great deal of warning. If you are clumsy with the throttle you'll find yourself straying into understeer territory, but in all other cases the overall balance is excellent.

Concerns About Rubber

So good is the chassis, in fact, that it seems to require better tyres than those fitted as standard. I found two clues to this. The first was that, after a quick but not (I thought) unduly energetic three-mile drive down a favourite back road, there was a distinct smell of hot rubber from the wheel arches. And the second came on a slightly damp downhill left-hander, when the car shimmied just slightly on entry. As far as suspension feedback was concerned I had seemed to be well within acceptable limits, and I wonder if the tyre profile is a shade too low for conditions which anyone in this country is going to encounter on a regular basis.

The Sport's suspension is not too happy when asked to move quickly (such as when the road surface becomes bumpy) but its slow-speed behaviour (on dips and in crests, for example) is excellent. Overall I reckon Jaguar has achieved a balance between ride comfort and handling ability which a lot of other manufacturers could learn from.

They might want to have a look at the seats, too. I would not personally have chosen the red upholstery (though it did give an appropriately classic look to the interior) but for support they can hardly be faulted. I can't at the moment think of any standard road seats which hold the torso in position quite as effectively.

One thing Jaguar has not managed is to equalise the effort required to use the major controls. The steering and throttle are light, but the gearchange is fairly clunky (admittedly it was sometimes difficult to engage third, and third only, in the test car, so this may have been an adjustment problem) and the clutch is both heavy and intolerant of anything other than the smoothest operation. Silky gearchanges are definitely possible but they require some thought, while fast changes can never be anything but jerky. The weight of the pedal also makes town driving tricky, and any X-Type owner who spent most of their time in built-up areas would be well advised to choose an automatic.

If you think most of the criticisms here are little more than niggles, you're probably right. I learned to work around the Sport's foibles while enjoying the overall experience. I don't care how closely related it is to a Mondeo - this is one of the cars I have most enjoyed living with in 2001.

Price: £25,500
Capacity: 2967cc
Power: 226bhp
0-60mph: 6.6 seconds
Maximum speed: 146mph
Economy: 36.8mpg extra urban, 27.5mpg combined
CO2 emissions: 244g/km
Insurance: Group 16
Jaguar figures.

Second opinion: 
An eye-catching sports saloon, very good value to have a three-litre V6 engine and four-wheel drive. The grey-stained bird's-eye maple trim on the Sport looks pretty good, and the whole interior is, fortunately, a lot less Lincoln-like than the S-Type. The standard manual transmission seems to suit the Sport, although the combined clutch and gear-change action is rather laborious, and I missed having a left-foot rest. Four-wheel drive gives the Jaguar much better traction and cornering power than drivers of many FWD or RWD rival cars have at their disposal. It's noticeable that some of them, while trying to follow a briskly driven X-Type deep into a corner, can be seriously taken aback halfway round. For a less twitchy ride on broken surfaces, though, I'd go for the SE. Ross Finlay.

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