Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Consumer Reports: Jaguar X-Type is lame

Consumer Reports has launched a new quarterly magazine to cover cars; traditionally they'd do one car article per issue and an annual roundup. The only Mondeo-class vehicle reviewed in the premier issue is the Jaguar X-Type.

They reviewed it as one of a set of five bogus luxury-sport sedans which are just familiar family cars tarted up with extra features. The five cars are the Lexus ES300, the Audi A4 Quattro, the Acura 3.2TL Type-S, the Infiniti I35, and the Jaguar X-Type. All had automatic transmission and a V6 engine of 3 liters or more. These cars are fancied-up versions of, respectively, a Camry, a Passat, an Accord, a Maxima, and a Mondeo.

Their conclusions were, first, that none of these fake sport-luxury sedans is good enough to cause any worries for the real thing. A BMW 330i or a Mercedes C320 has no trouble matching the best of this group. Second, they say that in many cases you're better off buying the base model without the prestige nameplate -- you'll get just as good a car for thousands less. The Infiniti is particularly bad in this area, offering almost no real difference from the base Nissan model. Finally, they rank the Lexus as the best of these five and the Jaguar as the worst.

The Jaguar's one area of superiority is, naturally, handling. But it ranks behind most of the others in braking (though all were good in this area), noise, interior room in general, the rear seat in particular, trunk space, fit and finish, mileage, and price. And as far as reliability goes, early signs are not promising. Overall, "It lacks the refinement of a $40,000 car."

In the quarter mile, it was in the middle of the group with 16.1 seconds. Presumably the AWD exacts a penalty here.