| Long Term Test | Jaguar X-Type Estate |
Our X-Type's extended stay with us has come to an end and we find ourselves missing it lots. Right up to the last day it was pressed into service piling on motorway miles and filling a number of roles ranging from transportation of a bath to navigating a course through traffic struggling in the heavy snows that gripped the country. Having had time to reflect on the months spent with the X-Type it's rather difficult to pick a major hole in its talents or think of a rival that would have shamed it in any key area.
Anything stand out...?
The car itself stands out as probably the best looking estate on the market today. A personal preference it may be, but the X-Type, in particular this latest Sport version, has always looked best as an estate car and this, as well as the added practical benefits, surely make it the default choice for any X-Type buyer.
Overall, looking back on over six months and 12,000-miles of ownership, the Jaguar was the epitome of a painless, enjoyable car to drive on a daily basis. Sure, others offer a more exciting and engaging steer but the Jaguar's unflappable poise, relaxed pace and excellent comfort lifts it above many rivals. Needless to say reliability was beyond reproach and it never missed a beat. It also left us - following a good scrub - looking as fresh as it did when it arrived, inside and out. No mean feat given the relatively tough life of hard miles and variety of usage it endured.
...and for the wrong reasons?
If this had been my own car, bought new from the dealer, I'd be staring down the barrel of a loss of nearly £2,000 a month in depreciation. In fairness, this figure is a result of the economy as much as the Jaguar's relative worth, as nearly all cars have taken a pummelling in terms of value. However, putting the downturn to one side, one would still have had to take a significant chunk of that loss and looking at rivals from BMW, Audi and Mercedes, they don't appear to have suffered so badly.
Aside from this, the economy and servicing costs of the X-Type are very much premium end of the market. This would be understandable in isolation but the X-Type's relation to an equivalent Mondeo and the Ford's reduced costs are rather harder to stomach. If we were spending our own money then we'd give a good deal of thought as to whether the additional muscle of the 2.2-litre engine - relative to the 2.0-litre - was absolutely essential. The lesser-engined car offers useful gains in economy and emissions as a trade-off for the loss in outright performance. Equally, personally speaking, the automatic box, as good as it is, is probably a luxury too far for a car destined to spend much of its life plying its trade racking up miles on the nation's motorways.
Where next?
Alas, the Jaguar's next phase of ownership rests in someone else's hands as it has returned to its makers. Several weeks since it left us I find a Jaguar-sized space of the driveway and the lack of a handsome, versatile car reminding me on a daily basis that the X-Type was really rather good as a daily drive. Somebody is going to get a real second-hand bargain.
