I won't review the car, since it's been reviewed enough elsewhere. The 2.5 is not the 3.0, but even so, the Edmunds review car had rattles, particularly in seats and front panel, and ours doesn't. We've driven it over rough roads, with no rattles.

So here's some personal observations:

Our car arrived after 9 weeks (late by about 2 weeks). They even told us how long it takes on the "boat", how long it takes on the dock, and how long it takes in transit (from memory, it's 8 days on the boat from England, 5-7 days on the unloading dock, and the same in transit. Any "build" date you were given is not exactly a "build" date. Meaning it's a beginning date in a build process, but the factory doesn't necessarily build your car on the "build" date. Make sure to tell your salesperson to tag your car as "sold" in the system, then the dock will unload it sooner than the unsold cars on the boat, saving you a couple days.)

Although I haven't seen this yet in the paperwork, the sales rep. said ours was described as a 2002.25, or a 2002 and a quarter year model. I don't know what this means, but we haven't had problems yet with windshield washers. Trunk latch is the only thing that bothers me, although it always closes ok for my wife. The dealer said to press the trunk latch button again if it doesn't close properly. At worst, this seems like a minor issue.

As far as fit and finish, better than the demos, although there are some minor "wrinkles" in the center of the leather back seat upholstery and on the rear passenger side that might bother some purists. But nothing that would cause us to bring it in. Other than that, I keep staring at everything, and I can't find any problems.

The white onyx color is gorgeous! Much nicer than the silver X-types I've seen, especially on non-sunny days. Apparently, dealers can't keep the white onyx in stock. Our dealer hinted that they were tempted to sell ours to another buyer. Nuff said, don't trust your dealer till you take posession. They aren't very happy to match the Internet dealer discount.

After getting a $500 discount quote almost 3 months ago via the Internet buying services, I was able to get matching prices at several dealers in the Chicago area. You might be able push that just a little, but that seemed to be about the discount limit after pushing fairly hard by phone, in person and via email. If you do better, more power to you.

Remember to take advantage of the fact that there is now a single CD player available for an extra $200. So now you don't have to buy the option packages to get a CD.

Some general observations:

Wind noise through windows - fair - not bad
Road noise from tar strips - pretty high, not as bad as my '98 Toyota Avalon, but you can't hide from it
Road noise from tires - fair - not bad at all

Fan/air - pretty noisy in "automatic" model, fine in all manual modes. Heats up reasonably quickly on cold Chicago winter days.

Our sales person, upon picking up the car, said there is 0, Zero, miles break-in period. The X-Type needs no break-in period. He also said that the way the car is designed, that it needs no warmup period before driving. Just start the car and drive away. He also claimed that the design allowed for quicker warming because of the way that heat is diverted from the engine. He also said to leave the AC button on year-round. He said the British treat AC differently. Whatever. That's what he said, and that's why I'm sharing it with you.

I'm not a car expert, and I don't care to or claim to be one. I'm also not a Jaguar loyalist, so if I encounter problems, you will hear about it. Good luck with yours.