Unsung heroes: Jaguar X-type

More than a Mondeo?

It's been more than a year since my last unsung hero, but the series makes its long-overdue return with the most modern choice so far. With Jaguar experiencing a renaissance at the hands of its current Indian owners, the cars built under Ford's ownership are often derided or forgotten, especially the subject of today's piece that is commonly regarded as a low point in the marque's history. Ford-era Jaguars get a bad press, none more so than the X-type thanks to its controversial platform-sharing with the Mondeo that dooms it to be forever classed as not a real Jaguar in the eyes of many. Is that really fair though, or is it so overshadowed by the Mondeo comparisons that it deserves a second chance?

Just a Mondeo pretending to be a Jag, or something more?
(Image: Amazon.com)

For all the negativity, the X-type is a highly significant car in the marque's history: it was the first production Jaguar to be available with front-wheel drive, diesel engines and an estate bodyshell, and marked a return to the compact executive class that hadn't been occupied by Jaguar since the Mark II. At launch, Autocar magazine called it "the most important Jaguar ever", but breaking so much new ground in one car made it just too different from the norm for Jaguar traditionalists to accept, and that's without mentioning its humble Ford origins that caused so much controversy.

All too often the X-type is dismissed as a Mondeo in a posh frock pretending to be a Jaguar, and it is true that the two cars are closely related. Those underpinnings are no bad thing though, the mark 3 Mondeo being an excellent car that won much praise for its driving dynamics, and the X-type is far more than a Jaguar badge slapped on a Mondeo. It's just snobbery really as Ford has long been seen as a manufacturer of bread and butter cars with no prestige, when its products are just as good on merit as the more prestigious German brands. Skodas and Audis for instance also share platforms, yet no one disparages the latter because of this.

A four-cylinder diesel driving the front wheels. Utter heresy!
(Image: Parkers.co.uk)

Mechanically it started out with four-wheel drive and a modified version of the 2.5 Duratec V6, another nail in the "it's just a Ford" coffin even though it wasn't exactly the same as the Mondeo engine. The bigger 3-litre V6 from the S-type was also offered at launch, later joined by an entry-level front-wheel drive 2.1 V6 and then, horror of horrors, the first ever four-cylinder engine put in a Jaguar. As if driving the front wheels with only four cylinders wasn't enough to upset the purists, this was followed by the heresy of the diesel, a coarse and sluggish unit shared with the Transit van of all things and really not becoming of Jaguar, but necessary as diesels were gaining importance in this sector.

Bad engine choices aside, the X-type is certainly a proper Jaguar in appearance and I think is quite a handsome car, more so than its bigger sister the S-type. It looks nothing like a Mondeo, with a chrome grille and hooded headlights that create a strong family resemblance to the XJ, while inside you'll find all the wood, leather and chrome accents you'd expect from a Jaguar, the wood being made at Browns Lane and identical to that used in other models so it wasn't a cheapened product. Only 20% of its components actually came from the Mondeo and it shares more with Ford's other premium brands Aston Martin, Volvo and Lincoln, but that 20% was enough to damn it.

A handsome estate that doesn't look like a Mondeo
(By Mr.choppers [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)])

On top of everything else, where it was built is sadly another reason for the X-type's poor reputation. It broke with Jaguar's long tradition of making cars in Coventry and instead was produced at the Ford factory in Halewood that had previously made the Escort. There's an urban myth that the last Escorts were built to Jaguar standards as a practice run for the X-type, but the thought of a luxurious Jaguar put together by people who used to assemble humdrum Fords was too much for some purists. That said, there have been no significant reports of major quality problems compared with the Coventry-built Jaguars.

Despite all this, the X-type was a success and became the best-selling car in Jaguar's range. A move into the all-important compact executive class to compete with the 3-series, A4 and C-class was vital to the marque's future and the X-type accomplished this well, but was just too different from what was traditionally expected of a Jaguar. The biggest problem is that there has always been too much emphasis on what little it shares with the Mondeo, all good things really, and not enough appreciation of it as a Jaguar on its own terms.

The best-selling Jaguar of its era so why is it so disliked?
(Image: Parkers.co.uk)

The Mondeo's own poor reputation isn't really justified, but it unfortunately carried over to the X-type and clouds too many people's judgement of it. Look beyond that and avoid the four-cylinder models, especially the diesel, and the X-type seems worthy of its Jaguar heritage. For that, I think it deserves to join the ranks of my unsung heroes.