Jaguar X Type 2002 Problems Series BMW Or

They throw all this money into a new product which doesnt sell and then hardworking employees end up losing their jobs and get sent home in letdown automobiles like the Cadillac Catera, Fiat 500L or the Mitsubishi i-MiEV.

I-MiEV. You know a car is already doomed when youre not even sure how to pronounce it.

About a decade and a half ago, when Jaguar was owned by Ford, it built the X-Type to compete in the hot entry-level luxury sedan segment with BMW and Audi.

The X-Type was manufactured from 2001 to 2009 but never came anywhere close to meeting Jaguars goal of selling 100,000 X-Types per year.

According to the Jaguar Enthusiasts Club, 2003 was the X-Types best year with around 50,000 cars sold, but it was all downhill from there.

Advertisement The X-Type was launched amid much fanfare in 2001 but it was troubled from the very beginning.

Reviews were mixed.

Some critics thought that the new X-Type was a perfectly capable and competitive premium compact sedan, while others hated the fact that it was based on the Ford Mondeo platform.

People seemed to think that the X-Type was really a Ford disguised as a Jag that cheapened the Jaguar brand.

But I didnt care.

I remember being so excited when my dad bought a brand new Jag X-Type in 2003I mean, it was a Jaaaaaaag because it looked so cool.

Jaguar X Type 2002 Problems Series BMW Or

As it sat there in the garage, the shiny Jag exuded nobility and prestige, even though he paid roughly 40,000 for it, same as what he wouldve paid for a 3-series BMW or an A4.

I loved it. GO Media may get a commission iRobot Roomba i6 550 at Amazon But no one else seemed to love it.

In the last year of production, Jaguar sold only a handful of the X-Types,probably at a huge discount to moms, grandpas and cousins of Ford employees.

I think the thing never got the chance it deserved, and is one of the most misunderstood, under-appreciated and unnecessarily reviled cars.

Advertisement Much of the hate stems from the fact that Jaguar would stoop so low as to incorporate lowly Ford parts into a heralded and majestic Jaguar product.

With the X-Type, no longer was a Jaguar an imperial, noble, V8-powered luxury liner floating on the road.

Instead, it was merely a fancy Ford, allowing normal people to be able to buy one.

The X-Type is for peasants, they said, before going back to cheating on their taxes.

Advertisement How dare Jaguar cater to the common man, they shrieked, their monocles falling into their champagne glasses.

How pathetic. The diseased X-Type must be demolished, they cried, so dejected they couldnt even find the willpower to attend their ritualistic masked orgies.

Advertisement But its not like the X-type is simply a Mondeo with a Jaguar shell slapped on it.

There were enough tweaks made to the Mondeo platform to where the X-Type is still significantly different.

As the UKs Telegraph reported at the time, Ford components were definitely used, but most of the car was still freshly built and engineered.

Ive driven many Fords in my life and I used to own a Ford Mustang.

You wont sit in a 2003 Ford followed by a 2003 X-Type and think: Hmm.

In fact, had Jaguar never disclosed the fact that it borrowed the Mondeo platform, as a consumer you might never know that the X-Type had some Ford in it.