X-Type tests.. (archive)

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Evo tested X-type 3.0 Sport against the new Audi A4 3.0 Quattro, M-B C320 and BMW 330i. Audi had better 4-wheel drive but overall X-Type scored well, 4.5 stars equally to BMW while Audi and M-B scored "only" 4 stars. 3-series BMW has been claimed an excellent driver's car and it did beat X-Type on this area, however X-Type was considered better than M-B and A4.

Car ran the tests against M-B C320 Elegance and BMW 330i Sport. Very similar results but they announce BMW the winner whereas X-Type beats the M-B. BMW's margin is not that big but they've had time to polish the 3-series and their 3-litre straight six-cylinder engine is excellent.

Both magazines make a strong remark that X-Type may not be a typical Jaguar, build quality gets positive feedback and they seem to conclude that X-Type goes seriously towards the German quality but has some Jaguarism left. Many old-time Jaguar owners may not like the new car, but I guess that has been true with the other recent models as well since early 90's..

With some background with VW Passat 2.8l V6 Syncro and Audi A4 Quattro's, I was looking the X-type seriously recently. The local distributor had two cars available already a few months ago so I was able to see the looks and feels (no driving, though). The looks were very Jaguar XJ'ish (from my background) and acceptable and I didn't find it too plastic or Mondeo-like. I was (positively) suprised by the results of Car's and Evo's tests as I wasn't expecting the car to perform that well against the germans. Hopefully we will see some 4-wheel drive tests soon to see how it performs against Audi's Quattro.

Why I didn't go for X-Type? Well, I bought a few years old S-Type V6 Executive for a reasonable price. Over here, thanks to the heavy taxes, X-Type 3.0 Sport will cost around $56000 and 3.0 Executive around $60000. With some mandatory accessories, like replacing the manual air-co with automatic, one would end up around $65k. Now if you compare that to S-Type 3.0 Executive with a list of $64k and only the CD changer missing, I didn't find the X-type pricing appealing enough.

With the "cheap" S-Type I can be driving around for a year or two and look at the market again, perhaps the X-Type R will be around and the tax situation has changed a bit..

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