in my humble opinion... the jag x-type and lexus is300 would compete with C-Class sedans, BMW 3 series, Audi A4 & Acura TL/CLs. bmw and audi have all wheel drive as options. i hear a rumor that the c-class will that too sometime in the future.

short short review for both: i'd rather have a bmw.

the longer reviews:
imo, jaguar was very classy. interior was well done w/ good leather (not as good as MB), real wood trim, etc. i also looked at the sport package option which had dark grey stained wood; looked terrible in my opinion. if you like wood, don't you want it to look like wood? i've read several reviews about it being cheap inside, but i thought it was good enough. the interior design was sort of old fashioned but that works well w/ jag image. tight rear seat space but again, thats typical for a car in this class. i have to mention that the stick was quite beautiful - like a momo job but jag oem. heh, i'm superficial comes w/ full size steel spare. outside, you get that great jaguar hood ornament chrome everywhere. if you get the sport package, you get body colors instead of the chrome and a dark grill instead of chrome. i like the chrome better. the headlights look a bit small (beady eyed) to me. we had only a quick drive but it felt fine. pick-up was fine but i didn't think it was significantly more than my C230... it was more, just not impressively more. of course, you get the all-wheel drive standard. no cdplayer standard. i'd get the 2.5L w/ auto (yes, i'm lazy :p ), premiere package, winter package, HIDs, and in-dash CD player. i don't care that ford owns jag; overall its a fine car although i am still a little skeptical about reliability. it comes w/ free 48000km maintenance (oil changes every 16000km). our sales guy, Max, is English - oh yeah! no haggling allowed but we'll see how long that lasts when sales don't pick up. - quick side note: this dealership is right next to a BMW dealership (both owned by Bud), and we got snubbed at BMW when we tried to look at the X5 (my brother in law is trying to decide whether to get the lexus RX300, Acura MDX or BMW X5). the Jag dealership was much friendlier.

we then went to the lexus dealership to look at the RX300 (see note above). i went straight to the IS300 of course, i've read others reviews about this car so i wanted to see it for myself. inside, i thought it looked great except for the small part on top of the dash for coins? notepad? whatever. it sort of broke up the overall feel of quality inside. again, leather was fine (but not as good as MB). i like the chronograph style instruments - i think a bold style statement like that challenges our own ideas of what a car's interior is and should be. i am rewarding that by giving it a thumbs up. i like a more progressive interior (so jag's interior, while i respect it, is not something i would like to own). overall, i still felt that it was a step below other luxury manufacturers' interiors. the next thing i checked was rear leg space - a common complaint here. i thought it was ok. it was not as tight as the new A4 where i was very uncomfortable. i've ridden in the back seat of my C230 and bmw325 and i felt fine there also. i'm 5'10.5". exterior, nothing fantastic - i'm comfortable w/ the form althought it could be just a bit on the bland side. the taillights, i still cannot stand - boy racer type. i had a difficult time trying to get to the spare so i don't know what it was. if you forced me to pick either this car or the jag, i'd get the lexus and replace the taillights mainly b/c the jag makes me feel so old. i didn't get a chance to test drive it but the magazine reviews have compared it favorably to the BMW so thats a good thing. another side note: they had the SC430 which i saw at a car show a while ago and a couple of times on the road. i have to say that i think it is quite a beautiful car. inside was impeccable and it didn't even look like it was made by the same company as the IS300. i sat in it and just was, overall, very impressed (had to clean some drool off :p) i know that the design is controversial (especially the rear end - sound familiar c230coupe owners?) but again, i have to give it a thumbs up for the avant-garde design. of course, i think this car is supposed to compete w/ the SL; the new design which i am also salivating for. can someone please give me a million US dollars? pretty please? the ES300 looked like the new camry - that's a bad thing.

in conclusion, although both cars are fine luxury cars, i think they both fall short of the mbs and BMWs.

 

I would worry more about MB reliability than of Jaguar. In a recent JD Power study on long term dependability measured in number of problems per hundred cars, Jaguar came in third and MB came in 10th. As someone that had a MB in 12 times in one year for a defect and had the car taken back under the lemon law I can't image a less dependable car than a Benz. The new replacement car had a horn, transmission and radio replaced during the first month. That car turned out to be the better car. I purchased the C-Coupe because of the service I got (and I got a lot of service), the free car washes, free maintenance, the safety features of the car and performance in the 25k price range. I just hope I have better luck with this and and 4 months and no complaints.

JD Power Studies

http://www.jdpower.com/auto/search/f...eID=46&CatID=1

 

Hopefully, DC will react fast to this slump... As did Volvo after a dreadful 98-00 period, when their reliability rating went straight down the hole... Even their corporate folks had to publicly admit that. Now their new P2 platform-based models seem hell of a lot better...

 

Jaguar suffers from three major afflictions....

Found Fixed Fired
On Or Old
Road Repaired Rahal
Dead Daily Driver

 

Jaguar suffers from three major afflictions....

Found Fixed Fired
On Or Old
Road Repaired Rahal
Dead Daily Driver

ok....this looked much better when all these lined up in columns....
but for aesthetics, here's to the typeface challenged!

Found On Road Dead

Fixed Or Repaired Daily

Fired Old Rahal Driver

Point is....if I wanted a Mondeo or Lincoln....I would have bought a blue oval, not a neutered cat.[B]

 

Having also driven a new 325i, IS300, and X-Type 2.5 liter, I'd have to agree with most of your observations. I was most impressed with the Lincoln LS V6 5-speed. It feels like a very tight, solid car. Lincoln has come a long way since the Continentals of the early 90's.

 

I saw a review of the IS300 SprotCross on MotorWeek TV last week. (Same Ricey tailights, now on a station wagon... How's that for schizophrenic design?) Nuf said.

Anyway, one interesting item they mentioned was that the 2002 IS300 sedan would get a price decrease by about $2K-$2.5K, for two reasons:

1) To make room for the wagon at the sedan's former price (once again the family guy gets screwed), and,
2) Because the IS300 was NOT selling to Lexus expectations at the original MSRP.

Now that's interesting. Must not be that many boy-racer types with $35K burning a hole in their pockets. I like the chrono dashboard, but those tailights make me laugh.

 

I wonder which one looks funnier if two cars parked side to side.
1) IS300 Wagon tail light
2) C-Hatchback CRX / Saab rear


IS300 is going for 30k, which is actually cheaper than the C-Coupe with similar options. (Leather, Power seat, moon roof, premium sound, nice wheels)

 

Actually for a similar equipped IS300 is about $1,600 more (MSRP). Don't forget to add the rear differential and wing to the IS300 to make the comparison similar.

Of Course, on the C Coupe, you can drop those useless power seats and optional rims and be around $5K lower than the IS300.

Rick