Please forgive this one; I promise it’ll be my last car-based thread for at least a week.

I asked last week about a comparison between a few different cars, but one that a couple of my kids love is the Jaguar X-Type. I have never even considered one before, but the fact that it seems to possess some of the Mondeo’s good characteristics, then adds to them an appealing level of luxury for long drives (I will be driving it to Belgium and between Cardiff and Manchester with some frequency), makes it quite appealing.

Plus, in the budget range I am working in, I can get a 2007-ish X-Type for about the same as a 2008-ish Mondeo/Passat/V50 or a 2006-ish A6/V70/5-series.

Other than the derision I expect to get, is there anything substantial to be said about such a car? Does/has anyone on here own/ed one?

a lot smaller inside than a mondeo from memory when I had one as a hire car.

I think I’d rather have a mondeo.

Mondeos are happy and comfy for long drives, seats are great, space is great, cruise etc.. what’s not to like.

Mate had an Xtype diesel… rattled itself to death… was a rattly smokey beast, not refined like you’d expect.

I’ve had one. It was 2.1 petrol auto. 25mpg on a good day. Handled nicely, but not as sharp as the Mondeo that it’s based on. A pal had a 3.0 Sport one for a while. That was better.

I looked at getting one – corrosion is a massive problem. Get underneath and really inspect the sills. The one I saw was lovely up top (plastic sill covers) and like Swiss cheese underneath.

Shame as it was lovely motor.

Used to make frequent visits to Halewood when they were making X-types. If there’s one car I would not buy ever it’s an X-type

Lots of Mondeo bits inside and out they’re the best parts of the car

My old man has had both the X-type and Mondeo, I’ve driven both from SW Scotland to SE England.

Get the Mondeo.

X-Type is smaller inside, less comfy, less boot space, crap engine (diesel), crap satnav, crap handling and no ISOFIX (if that’s a concern) unless you pay £50odd to the dealers who might be able to source a kit.

Oh and the space thing – that was an X-Type estate vs a Mondeo hatch. Massive difference.

I looked at getting one – corrosion is a massive problem.

I had a 3.0 petrol, bought cheap.

Bloody fast (Jaguar VTEC-type engine) and very surefooted (AWD). I liked it.

But as above, rust on the sills.

I had a notion for one as they’re available pretty cheaply for the kind of car they are

They’re smaller inside than the mondeo that they share a platform with. Also to give a sense of luxury a lot of the upholstery and lining is very chunky and I thought it intruded into the cabin quite a bit – headliner is low and the pillars are thick and seem to loom over you a bit. The rear face of the front seats is very bulky too – intrudes quite a bit into the rear leg room. For me if I put the drivers seat in a comfortable position it was nearly touching the seat behind – just because the seat itself has so much surplus bulk.

If you think you’ll fold the rear seats for things like bike transport you might find theres a clash between the folded seats and the seat-back that stops you from positioning the drivers seat well.

It is fundamentally a Mondeo that someone’s spoiled. Does look nicer though.

(I have a ghia x mondeo of about the same vintage and it’s a little plasticky inside but a perfectly nice place to spend a long time. Even with 135000 miles and no great care or attention given to it, it’s holding together nicely.)

very limited headroom and seat doesn’t go down (at least not on the one I had for a while)

If you’re on a budget, play it safe.

Fancy cars usually cost more to maintain.

I once traded in a mondeo Ghia x for a 3.0 litre sport x type, the most regrettable car decision I’ve ever made, basically all the ford bits on it worked fine and all the jag bits (transfer box and other mega expensive bits) failed.
I recently saw my old mondeo too, still going strong after 7 years with the owner telling me he’s never serviced it, the jag lasted a few months…
Get a mondeo, it’s a better car.

X Type is basically a Mondeo. Sharing a lot of the same parts including engines, brakes and most other major components. Differences are on the body, interior and rear suspension. Bizarrely a lot of the parts from Jaguar are cheaper than they are from Ford.
Only reason to get an X Type over a Mondeo is if you wanted the AWD option.

Only reason to get an X Type over a Mondeo is if you wanted the AWD option.

Spot on.

I’m firmly of the opinion that cars that appear cheap, are cheap for a reason. And cars that are expensive are expensive for a reason.

As noted early in this thread, X-Types are cheap.

They got a good write up here, and mostly positive comments if you click through to the forum post

http://www.pistonheads.com/regulars/ph-features-sheds/shed-of-the-week-jaguar-x-type-v6/34365

I think they look pretty good in the estate guise, albeit these aren’t the original wheels

It’s a cheap way into a Jag

For most people they just see the Jag badge and don’t know anything else

Personally, I’d steer clear (I don’t like the S type either)

It’s a Mondeo wearing a cravat. And the styling is, imho, bleeding awful – taking styling cues that worked on a big car and sort of shoehorning them onto a much smaller car didn’t work at all for me, it reminds me of those tiny Japanese things that have front ends like old VW vans, or, indeed old jags.

That “but you still get the authentic Jaguar owning experience” line seems to equate to lots of rust and expensively failing parts (tbf, that’s quite authentic I suppose).

Buy a Mondeo. Or if you hanker after a Jag, buy a proper Jag.

If you’re at the budget end, get a Mondeo.

If you’re not at the budget end, stretch to an XF.

If you’re at the budget end and want to do it properly, get an XJ.

And one final note… manual gearboxes in Jaguars are wrong.

Only reason to get an X Type over a Mondeo is if you wanted the AWD option.

Wrong, if you want Mondeo quality and space with AWD get a Subaru Outback.

My, a Jag on Rover hairpins. Says it all…

I quite like the looks, there’s a blacked out Spirit (I think) around here that manages to be cultured but scary at the same time, like Michael Howard.

Incidentally, does anyone know wtf the VVT is for? I’ve never driven one but it’s the mondeo V6 underneath that, right? And the performance is essentially identical, it makes about 4bhp more and about 3lb/ft less at peaks, and the curves are much the same- it just revs a little higher.

No knocking the looks – but it looks cheap. Perhaps I’m just biased by the user experience.

And one final note… manual gearboxes in Jaguars are wrong.

Since when?
Once upon a time, every Jaguar had a manual ‘box, there was no other option, just like every other performance car manufacturer.
I’m sure if you suggested to the Eagle guys who build the E-Type replicas that their cars would be so much better with an auto, rather than a 6-speed manual, they’d just give you a really pitying look, then just ignore you.

I think they look pretty good in the estate guise

I think that looks pretty old fashioned.

The large engines might be the ones to go for though. My old neighbour had a 4.2l one. He paid some ridiculous low price for it because no-one wanted a car that did 25mpg at best.

Incidentally, does anyone know wtf the VVT is for? I’ve never driven one but it’s the mondeo V6 underneath that, right? And the performance is essentially identical, it makes about 4bhp more and about 3lb/ft less at peaks, and the curves are much the same- it just revs a little higher.

I thought it was the same engine as the 3ltr Mondeo but apparently it’s their own Jaguar engine but they do use the same diesel unit in 2.0 and 2.2 variations.

Nope, as said further up the 3.0i is a proper Jag engine – also was in the XJ and S-Type.

For all those Mondeo knockers, do you also point out to Bentley owners that they’re really driving a VW?

I had a look, the AJ-V6 is a modified Duratec so it’s not really either a mondeo engine or a standalone jaguar one.

b r – Member

For all those Mondeo knockers, do you also point out to Bentley owners that they’re really driving a VW?

If said Bentley was built on a Passat platform and did the exact same job as Passat but less well, probably.

For all those Mondeo knockers, do you also point out to Bentley owners that they’re really driving a VW?

There’s nothing wrong in principle with taking a good car and making it more luxurious. A Mondeo in a posh frock would not be a derogatory term in my book. However, it may well be that Jaguar didn’t do a good job in this particular instance, I don’t know 🙂

Nobody is knocking Mondeos, they’re excellent cars. X-Types are worse in every conceivable way, everything is compromised just to get a fancy badge and an illusion of luxury.

My dad has one so I’ve done most of the servicing and repair work on it for the last 6 years, general maintenance is cheap (as said it’s mainly Ford parts), I haven’t seen any rot issues on his (56 plate 2.0l diesel) but he keeps it in the garage when not used and only does around 10-15 miles per day around town, the diesel engine is strong they took the Ford lump and made it better (also removed the timing belt and put a chain on so pretty much trouble free if you keep the servicing up), the major problem with the diesel is that around town it soots the turbo up on a monthly basis and you get actuator issues, there’s a modification you can do to ‘fix’ it (I have and it’s now a monthly task) but really if you’re not gonna do teh miles get a petrol and if you do the miles there won’t be a problem anyway.

Outside of servicing and wear and tear, the only things I’ve had to replace are a rear antiroll bar (£20) and a turbo (£450) – before I knew about the modification.

The basic (classic) spec is pretty poor for what you’d expect in a car with a Jag badge but all of the other variants seem better.

At the time he bought it I had a Merc C180K (2006 model) and the Jag engine had much more poke and cost a lot less to run (also the Jag didn’t eat it’s own timing chain at 110,000 miles)

Hope this helps

Deker

If you’re at the budget end, get a Mondeo.

If you’re not at the budget end, stretch to an XF.

If you’re at the budget end and want to do it properly, get an XJ.

And one final note… manual gearboxes in Jaguars are wrong.

The XF with the right engine is awesome, I have the 3.0L S Diesel with twin turbo and 280hp 😀

That’s extremely helpful, deker. Thanks.

If you do get one, block off the EGR valve and your turbo will thank you, the plate is about £3 off eBay and it takes 10 mins to fit (same goes for the Mondeo too), the 2006 or newer model will need the one with the 8mm hole in so the engine light stays off 🙂

deker – Member

(also removed the timing belt and put a chain on so pretty much trouble free if you keep the servicing up)

It uses the 2.2 duratorq out of the mondeo st-155 doesn’t it? Which is chain driven.

It uses the 2.2 duratorq out of the mondeo st-155 doesn’t it? Which is chain driven.

not sure about the 2.2, my dad has the 2.0l which I was lead to believe was belt

2.0 and 2.2 are both chain driven.

2.0 and 2.2 are both chain driven.

You’re correct, I’ve just double checked on Eurocarparts, very odd as it was the local Ford dealer who initially said to check the belt and he took some convincing that the x type had a chain lol (I was there buying a crank sensor for it as they were closer than the local Jag dealer).

Deker

deker – Member

The XF with the right engine is awesome, I have the 3.0L S Diesel with twin turbo and 280hp

I had a 2009 3.0d for a couple of years. It was lovely. One of them, or an early 4.2 V8 S petrol can be had for under 10k now.

Taking delivery of a new XF S 3.0 petrol in December. 380bhp and 5.1 to 60. Can’t wait 🙂

@Deker, maybe he got the years mixed up, IIRC the mondeo switched over to belt in… 2007 or 2008, maybe? So if it’s a later X-Type it gets out of step, Ford chap might be used to going “2008 2.2? it’ll be the belt one”

currently have a 2.5 sat outside – failed MOT on rusty sills. had a clean MOT when we bought it last year.

otherwise – other than a service (oil & spark plugs) its not needed anything.
seats are leather bolsters with cloth, half electric seats (electric seat back, but manual reach)
the surprise was that cruise was and option (and not fitted to our 04plate)

would do about 28mpg… but tiny tank, would get about 270-290 out of a tank.

ok cruiser – seats and driving position nowhere near as good as our saab 9-5s. auto box little lazy to kickdown, but once the revs go over 4k, it picks up quickly. (i’d use the J gate to force it to kick down a gear or two rather than having to floor the accelerator sometimes when i didnt need all the power – like say speeding up after a 50mph zone)