Hi,
Following on from my previous thread of needing a daily commute car for 100plus miles per day.
Requirements were
Reliability
Good Performance for Motorway
Car must be under 5 years old
All this for around £5k
I now realise this was a pretty tall order for a car less than 5 years old at around £5k
However we have stretched our budget £7.5k
I notice there are lots of X type jags at this price...lots of 2 litre diesels and 3.0 v6 petrols.
has anyone any experience on this car?
How reliable are they?
Comfortable?
Why are the cars so cheap...considering jag is a premium brand? Any opinions?
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Don't know the car, but it's a ponced-up Mondeo isn't it?
A well-kept v6 petrol one ought to be very pleasant if a bit thirsty. For the diesels, see numerous threads on modern Ford and CR diesels.
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The Mondeo's the best car you can get, isn't it? Especially the TDCi.
Anyway, regular X-type seats aren't very good, which will matter if you're spending hours a day in the car; sports seats are better, but they come with the laughable 'Sport' package - black grille etc. - that makes the car look like your dad wearing trainers and a baseball cap with his tweeds.
But your new budget should run to a 03 Volvo S60 D5, which is an altogether better long-distance proposition. I've driven 180 miles in mine today - with some work in between - and there's not much I'd rather be in. Don't know if the 1.6D S40 is old enough yet to be within reach. You'd lose the oomph of the D5 engine but the seats are almost as good and you should get 50+ mpg.
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I find the X-type a bit cramped and reliability isn't great. To be honest you'd be better off buying the Mondeo from which the X-type is derived. A 2.0i Mondeo would be a good buy, bit cheaper to fix than the Jag and you'd probably get one for your original budget.
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iassumed the jag being a premium brand would be reliable.
if its based on the mondeo....is that the mechanicals or chassis?
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iassumed the jag being a premium brand would be reliable.
That's not always the way it works, unfortunately!
if its based on the mondeo....is that the mechanicals or chassis?
Both.
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I notice there are lots of X type jags at this price...lots of 2 litre diesels and 3.0 v6 petrols. has anyone any experience on this car? How reliable are they? Comfortable? Why are the cars so cheap...considering jag is a premium brand? Any opinions?
Cos everyone knows they are Mondeos with a Jaguar badge on. Mondeo would obviously be more affordable still, i.e. you're paying an awful lot for a sticker on the front. And servicing costs will be much higher.
I presume you're not paying for your petrol, as you are considering a 3.0 v6, which will drink petrol.
You could do worse than a high mileage luxury saloon, such as this 03 plate Volvo S80 D5 for £5k: tinyurl.com/2jkr4z Quite a few around with 100k+ mileages and £5k
Petrol obviously cheaper and better if you don't pay for fuel???
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many manufacturers use inter changeable parts and Ford do this with the Jaguar brand (Mondeo with X Type, Lincoln with S Type).
Wife's car is 2.0 diesel SE estate. We like it a lot. Have owned it virtually from new (v.low mileage demonstrator) and it now has 28,000 miles on it.
Couple of minor warranty type things.......v. minor split to gaiter around gear lever and a partially defective rear window lock on tailgate.... all sorted PDQ by helpful dealer. Dealer's seem to get good feedback, i can only speak for one in Plymouth and one in NW London, both excellent.
Other than that, there's been nothing wrong with it. Even the beige leather seats haven't needed proper cleaning yet, which i thought they would have done.
Personally i think it's an elegant, classy alternative to a lot of the competition, with the benefit of Ford back up.
You do seem a to get a lot of inverse snobbery from 'know it alls' who state it's really only a Mondeo in disguise. There are many, many other examples of cars sharing platforms and parts, so don't know why this happens.......maybe they'd like one but can't afford it?.....or the usual British disease of knocking something for the hell of it. Mondeo is pretty good anyway, other than being a bit plasticky.
If i did it again i think i'd try for 16" wheels rather than 17", (albeit that's what it came with) as although it handles extremely well for what it is, i prefer the comfort of my 16" wheeled S Type. Having said that the 17" wheels look good, so it's the old looks versus practicality balance.
front wheel drive for diesel, 4 wheel drive for petrol 2.5 and 3.0
Hope this helps.
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Yup a lot of the ignorant comments about X-Type being a Mondeo around. Less than 20% of the X-Type is Mondeo & most of that is switch gear & electronic modules. Although the suspension is similar to Mondeo it's redesigned, e.g. the dampers are twin tube not single etc.
Reliability of some of the early ones seemed to be a bit flakey but the later ones appear to be much better. I had a Premium Sport Estate 2.2d on loan & was quite impressed, handling & go were certainly very good.
One of the problems with the X-Type is that their are many around which are base models from the Co. sector, this seems to have depressed pricing.
PS. New S-Type post 2002 has very little Lincoln in it all of it has been Jaguarified to a greater extent.
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If you're swayed by the Volvo make sure an 03 D5 has had the injectors replaced (they should have been on a high miler) as they are prone to leaking resulting in difficult starting in winter. MY05 (May 2004 on) fixed this. If not, budget £1500 for a new set of injectors.
If you go for petrol make sure the ETM is sorted. The electronic throttle is a well document problem with Volvo's of this age (you may have seen on BBC Watchdog). If this has not been fixed, budget £700 for a new ETM every few years as it's a design fault which WILL reoccur.
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2002 Volvo D5 injectors have been known to fail but the 2003-on examples seem to be OK in that respect. I've seen many examples on 150k+ with no injector work having been required. The MY04 examples (can be identified by silver trim around the instruments) seemed to have had most regular niggles sorted so are probably the ones to go for, they seem to drive better too - I reckon Ford had a silent fiddle with the chassis settings.
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