Why I Hate The Jaguar Era That Produced The X-Type
It was only a matter of time before it happened. Only a matter of time before I parked up our Jaguar XE S longtermer next to its predecessor, the X-Type. So, when this first occurred a couple of weeks ago, I made sure I stuck around for a minute or two to survey the scene in front of me. “Jaguar’s idea of a 3-series rival, then and now” is how I put it when posting the comparison pic on Instagram. And oh my, does seeing the two next to each other do wonders for the newer car.
The modern, fresh XE made the classically styled X-Type look faintly ridiculous (not to mention small, thanks to the growth of cars over the years), and reminded me of just how much I hate that era of Jaguars. The X-Type, the S-Type and - even though I’m a fan of the car - the old XJ all share a ridiculous faux-retro look. And I don’t just dislike that because it resulted in some not terribly attractive cars (I find the S-Type in particular deeply ugly), but because having interior and exterior styling that looked to the past just wasn’t right. Particularly for a company like Jaguar.
If you look through the firm’s admittedly chequered history, it’s chock full of forward thinking and innovative technology. The XK120 was the first mass-produced engine to have hemispherical combustion chambers and dual overhead camshafts. The company was renowned for its work with disc brakes: the C-Type racer (above) had discs all round, and the car’s 1953 24 Hours of Le Mans win is widely credited as being the driving force for the disc brake revolution in the car industry.
The C-Type’s successor - the D-Type - was known for bringing aircraft-style engineering to the world of four-wheel in the form of a then-radical monocoque construction and advanced aerodynamics. The XJ220 may not have been the car it was supposed to be (despite four-wheel drive and a V12 engine being promised, it ended up being rear-wheel drive and powered by a turbo V6), but it was still a massive achievement to be crowned the fastest car in the world, even if it only briefly held the title.
Even in the daft retro pastiche, Ford-owned years, we had the X350 XJ with its aluminium construction - making it 40 per cent lighter and 60 per cent stiffer than its X308 predecessor. But that just made it all the more frustrating that Jaguar decided to wrap up all that high-tech stuff with a design that looked like it had been penned by someone who’d been locked in a windowless room without any contact with the outside world for the previous few decades.
These days, there’s plenty of innovation going on at Jaguar. There’s cool future tech like invisible pillars and clever systems to save us from the hell of pot holes, aluminium construction in all of its current cars and much more besides. Sure, the current infotainment system is pretty naff, but a replacement is on the way that’s said to be one of - if not the - best car touchscreens out there. Most importantly though, all that retro styling nonsense is nowhere to be seen. And that’s the way it should be.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
The X-Types weren’t bad cars… far from it, actually. They drove well, had good engines, and were fairly reliable. The problem was the styling…. they look like a car from the late 90’s that’s trying to hark back to cars of the 50-60’s. The same type of look that cars such as the Buick Riviera and Mercury Grand Marquis went for. They look like the type of car that would be driven by old people… gumming on a Werther’s Original and thinking about how excited they are for afternoon Bingo.
The X-type had the floor pan (and most engines) from the Ford Mondeo.
The XKR and the XJ220 are two of the few Jags i actually like of this era. The rest look like the design department had stagnated in the 70’s.
new jags are sports and cool they can compete with astons again, the wierd phase jaguar went through where they made 4 door boats like the x type and s type were just tragic, whoever thought that would be a good move needs to find a rope, they really damaged jaguars brand, luckily recent years jaguar is cool and the F type is just amazing
Also ad placement win
The universe wants you to buy a Jag.
Cheap as f*ck too, I had to pay $1000 Canadian for an STI
I still like the X-Type. I want one…
cough Ford cough
This is what annoys me about car throttle. They are ment to support every car and community but they slag of vehicles they have never driven and know nothing about…
Totally agree. As am X-Type owner and car enthusiast this sort of crap is just tedious and sad.
I personally don’t mind the x type, and what’s wrong with the xk’s from the early 2000s I think there beautiful
It isn’t like the Ford era cars weren’t jags… jaguar actually was synonymous for crp