The X-Type Jaguar that goes on Irish sale early next month, has the unmistakable looks of the big cat marque but otherwise it’s very different. For a start, it doesn’t replace anything in the Jaguar range: there’s no predecessor and there hasn’t really been a "baby Jag’’ at any stage in the marque’s history. Another notable first is that it comes with four-wheel-drive which has never been on a Jag before. Intriguingly, that has everything to do with the Ford takeover that happened over a decade ago.
Then there’s the fact that both the 2.5 and 3.0 litre V6 engines are mounted transversely across the front axle, making it the first production Jaguar to depart from the traditional longitudinal layout. The biggest benefit here is interior space, particularly in the rear. All in all then, this is a Jaguar with a difference.
The X-Type is a key player in Jaguar’s grand plan of becoming a much bigger premium car manufacturer. It is part of an expansion plan that began with the S-Type, unveiled three years ago. The S-Type was a step down from the traditional XJ saloons, challenging BMW’s 5-series and the Mercedes-Benz E-Class. The X-Type is another challenger, the BMW 3-series and the Mercedes C-Class. Both offer four-cylinder engines but Jaguar’s temptation is six pots.
Both Jaguar engines are derived from the Duratec V6 of the Ford Mondeo. Jaguar is a shining star now in the Ford firmament but it wasn’t always so. It was incurring massive losses in the early 1990s. Ford kept its nerve and nursed it through those dark days to its present position as a maker of quality cars that are highly prized around the world.
X-Type is currently being produced at Halewood on Merseyside, in the factory that until recently made Ford Escorts. As well as an expensive makeover, Jaguar people are keen to emphasise that the old place has a new spirit under their management, which must mean vastly improved quality.
For the economics to make sense, today’s Jaguars have to share components with other parts of the Ford empire. This is not necessarily a bad thing: the S-Type shares its platform and most of its mechanical parts with the American Lincoln LS, to the advantage of both cars. Although Jaguar is not shouting about it, the X-Type has the same basis, mechanical layout and suspension as the new Mondeo. That’s why it has four-wheel-drive.
Jaguars have always driven their rear wheels, a sacred tenet as it is with BMW and Mercedes-Benz. The Mondeo is front-wheel-drive. After much soul-searching, Jaguar concluded that rear wheel drive was one of its ``Core values’’. With the engine mounted transversely, the only way Jaguar’s honour could be satisfied was to fit a four-wheel-drive system, already developed for the Mondeo, and to arrange it so that the greater proportion of the engine output is directed at the rear wheels. The torque split in fact is 60/40.
The X-Type had its international press launch in Burgundy in France in a countryside that was blissfully devoid of people, and more importantly, their cars. It was probably no surprise to find in the driving, that Jaguar’s renowned combination of fine, sporty handling and a comfortable ride, lives on in the new car. There wasn’t the opportunity to test the efficacy of the four-wheel-drive: there were no difficult road or weather conditions.
X-Type handles with agility and on the open road it moves in a quiet, dignified, though lively fashion. It doesn’t quite purr like the much bigger XJ sibling but the sort of younger customers buying it will almost certainly want a more strident note.
Old Jaguar values like real wood and leather are maintained in the cabin. The transverse layout has given much more space to rear seat passengers. In fact Jaguar claims that it has the most rear seat space of any car in its class
Gerald O’Farrell, the managing director of Jaguar Ireland admits that X-Type is going to have a fairly limited presence on the Irish market during the rest of 2001. "We are limited to 121 cars literally. We see 2002 as our expansionary year and by then we will have dealers in place in major provincial centres. Already we have appointed Top Car to handle Jaguar in Cork city.’’
A five model line-up will be marketed in Ireland, three versions of the 2.5 and two of the 3.0 litre. Provisional Irish ex-works prices put the entry-level car at IR£36,100, the 2.5 Sport at IR£39,500 and the 2.5 Executive at IR£40,750. The 3.0 litre with Executive and Sport specifications are respectively IR£42,000 and IR£43,250, again ex-works.
Jaguar executives at the international press launch remained tight-lipped about a smaller-engined 2.1 litre model. The word is that it will be launched early next year. A weak link in the X-Type’s engine line-up is the lack of a diesel. Word here is that Jaguar is waiting for a new turbocharged diesel currently under development in a joint venture between Ford and Peugeot. Arrival date looks like early 2003.
May 2001
by Andrew Hamilton