Jaguar X-Type 2.5 > Reviews (11)

My wife spotted the Jag on a day trip to Manchester. It was for sale outside some flash offices and we had a look at it as the price - £7995 in May 2008 - was very tempting and well within our budget.
She fell in love with it right away. It is a 2.5 SE 4wd in metallic light blue and has the very light tan leather trim - absolutely gorgeous hardly does it justice !!!
The owner saw us looking at it and came out to talk to us. He was getting a Lexus the folowing Sunday so wanted shut asap.
He was a real gent - one of the old school - and so we arranged a test drive the following day as we both had no time to spare there and then.
It was superb to drive - I had borrowed a similar one some 6yrs ago and this one seemed even better.
2 owners from new, FSH and utterly, utterly immaculate. The only faults being a steering wheel wobble at about 65mph and a tendency to pull sharply to the nearside. Obviously tracking and balancing needed but otherwise the Jag was A1.
We agreed on £7100 which I feel was a bargain as it had only done 40000 miles and drove like new.
Balancing solved the wobbling problem but tracking was not enough to stop the pulling to the nearside. The tracking was way out on the offside front wheel and this had caused uneven wear on that tyre. I had the two front tyres swapped over and that solved the problem. Needs balancing again though !
What can I say about the Jaguar 2.5 SE 4WD X-Type that doesn't involve choking on my own superlatives ? It is magnificent - that is the only word for it. I was a sales rep for 30 yrs and have driven all sorts of vehicles but the Jag beats them all. It's hard to believe it's essentially a Mondeo in a party frock but as I had a Mondeo and found it to be a quality, well made, reliable car - 105000miles in 2 yrs, not ONE problem - maybe it's no bad thing that Ford picked the Mondeo as a base for this mid-sized superlative limo.
It's a shame the oil crisis has killed the demand for cars like this. My wife and I don't drive a lot nowadays - we are both term time workers and don't travel much - so we can stand the 25mpg average fuel consumption. Town driving sees as little as 17mpg but motorway work sees as much as 39mpg.
The X-Type is only available as a diesel now which is a shame. The 2.5 V6 is quiet, smooth, powerful and purrs when you go slow, growls when you floor it. Like a big cat should !!!
If you want some old time luxury, some class and style and can stand the MPG, then treat yourself to an X-Type SE 2.5 V6 - I swear you will never regret it.