Carter

"wow" this car is amazing, though it is made by ford, i am really happy with it. The ride quality is better than my mercedes! and for 1/2 the price! i love this car! she got the 2.5 sport with navigation! the navigation puts my COMAND to shame! touch screen! just like my wife's MDX... The Jaguar was right on the lot, no waiting what so ever! has anyone else driven this car?

pixmation

Hi you are back. So what happened to her new slk that was in the show room?

Carter

i actually sold it to a co-worker, he bought it for 35 thousand with about 23k miles. since my daughter is going off the colege, she needed a bigger car, plus since Jaguar is AWD we felt it was safer than her SLK. She seems much happier with the X

Buellwinkle

It is a great car and it must be eating into C240/C320 sales big time. I've driven it a few times, as high as 110mph in the CA/NV desert and it's solid and stable. My only complaint is that it's a little on the noisy side for a near luxury car. I would seriously consider one as Jag has much higher dependability ratings than MB. My C230K has been in 6 times for warranttee repairs (3 for stereo problems and 3 for coolant sensor/thermostat problems). I might be one repair away from a lemon law claim and another car.

Xeon

X-Type was on my shopping list too, because British Cars showroom is just opposite Mercedes Benz of San Francisco (on Van Ness).

But for my age, i still with my coupe.....and by the way, i have not, and hope not, to encounter any problems with my car. Perfect!

greg230

as nice as the x-type is, its still an upmarket ford mondeo/contour. I hear very mixed reviews though from regular auto rags.

dasMafia

damn she's got life rough... you want to adopt the "son you never had" ???

Buellwinkle

Is that better or worse than driving a downmarket MB? I have driven the Countour many times as airport rental cars and I have driven my friends Jag-X several times. I can't see the resemblence anywhere, in handling, fit and finish, appearance, performance, quality of materials or comfort. On the other hand I can see the resemblence between VW and the upmarket Audi, I can see the resemblence between Toyota/Lexus and NissanInfiniti and Honda/Acura and so on. I've heard this about the Jag-X and the Jag-S but they are totally different cars than the Ford equivalents. So they share a few parts, so what. Who do you think makes you C-Class. The car is designed and assembled by Karmann. The parts on the MB come from very exotic places like China. Jag owns Volvo and Mazda but you don't hear that sort of think about them even though some Mazdas' and Fords' are made on the same assembly line.

SoCal240/6

I'm not sure how much it is eating into C class sales, but clearly it is not as much as Ford wanted. I read an article the other day talking about how hard the X type has been for Ford to sell. One of the reasons, they think, is that a lot of people aren't really fooled by rebadging a Ford (or what is 40-50% a Ford and looks like a gussied up Ford) as a Jaguar.

The article said that Ford is in a quandry as to what to do, because it looks bad to advertise big rebates/sales on the car. One of the things the article said that Ford is doing is giving the cars away with $399 lease deals.

Whether the car is good or bad, it has not been a sales or marketing success for Ford.

SoCal240/6

Its a lot more than "a few" parts. You can debate whether it is good or bad that it has a high percentage of Ford parts, but you can't debate that it has more than a "few" Ford parts.

Including the chassis, which is a front wheel drive chassis that they could not modify to work as a rear wheel drive car (so they were forced into 4wd).

History and the market will judge the car, though.

speedfrk

Well, the S-type is built on the same platform as the Lincoln LS, and it is Jags best selling car in history. I was in West Palm Beach, and they are everywhere. I live in Douglasville, GA now, and there are even a few out here in "Truckville". So it may just take a while for them to catch on like the S-type. People (Media mostly) are saying the same thing about our C-coupes-that they are just econo hatchbacks with a star on the hood. After driving one, I was convinced otherwise, and I think the X-type is really a better car than what a lot of the magazines give it credit for.

Buellwinkle

They aren't doing rebates but they are giving the dealers incentives like MB gives to it's duds like the C320 Wagon. My buddy got a very loaded Jag X-3.0 for $357/mo on a 4 year lease, 12k mile/year, tax included with a $3,500 out the door down payment including tax, license, and other fees. A good deal for any 41K car. I can't say that Jag/Ford made a mistake on their estimates on how many they would sell but the car is very nice. It is made in the UK, not Brazil like some C240s or Dearborn like Fords. Personally it would be a toss up between it and the MB. I would lean towards the C320 if all things were equal. Give me a lease that's $150/mo cheaper and I'm sold on the baby Jagwire.

greg230

the only thing jag owns is jack and *****, and jack left town

but seriously you made a good arguement for me:

strip some of the fancy gadgetry, and cutting edge hardware from an S class, shrink it, and downsize the engine, and you have a C class (or an E) but in its heart its still an MB whether the parts came from china or outer space.

Take the mondeo, strap on every techno gadget you got, and luxo feature you can think of, and you have a chop job ford mondeo with a cat on the roof. Deep down you bought a ford contour.

In my area (greater phila pa) a jag x-type can be had BELOW INVOICE at both local dealerships.... doesnt scream run away success to me. C class 230/240/320/32 are still selling at MSRP or just under msrp at the benz dealership, and 3's are msrp FIRM.

the x-type isnt a run away success cause it has a tough market to break into. The 3 is the performance entry luxo car, the C the luxo leader, and the A4 the value champ. Where does the X-type fall??? whos its target market??? what portion fo the demo is it gonna grab?

lets be honest, if ford didnt save jag, they would have become a tiny company selling 100k cars in double digit volumes. There quality has always been VERY poor for reliability, and their designs and rate of adaption to new tech very slow.

in many luxury car comparisons they arent even included... three words : behind the times.

tommy

See? Even you can't keep it straight! :p

Actually, people did say the exact same thing about the 2nd gen Probe/MX-6 twins, and about the Escort and 323/Protege.

Volvo has been able to keep its distance because it had its own stuff in the pipeline. I can't wait to see what a S80 looks like on a Taurus chassis! Since these companies do it to make money, you can bet your a$$ that there will be more sharing in the future. That's why I'm scared for the new 9-3.

As far as the X-Type, it's nice, but I hear that the options kill the price, and it's a tight squeeze in the back. BTW: does it use Contour window switches like the S-Type does? IMHO, that's beyond cheezy.

speedfrk

"As far as the X-Type, it's nice, but I hear that the options kill the price"

But Mercedes options are a bargain, right? My dealer quoted me 975.00 for the cd changer. My gosh, even a Focus has a cd player standard. The only option that is worth the money (in my opinion) is the C7 package.

"Take the mondeo, strap on every techno gadget you got, and luxo feature you can think of, and you have a chop job ford mondeo with a cat on the roof. Deep down you bought a ford contour."

Actually, engineers are quite good at improving existing platforms far beyond their originally intended use. The aerospace industry does it on almost everything they make. The F-15 is still the worlds best air superiority fighter, despite being designed in the 60's. It is very possible for Jaguar to take a Mondeo platform (and it is an excellent car in it's own right) and re-engineer it to much higher specs. Road and Track tested the new Cobra, and commented on how it couldn't believe it was built on the original Fox platform from the 70's. They said the car was incredible. Of course, 400hp goes a long way toward making any car incredible

tommy

And my Momma told me that there's a tooth fairy. You don't pay full price for add-ons, do you? Unofficially, there have been a jillion threads about getting a cd changer for around $5-600ish. That's still higher than it should be, but I guess I'm in the minority in that I wanted a tape player anyway. (I hear that Lynn wanted an aux jack for his 8-tracks, but the dealer said no)

I agree about the C7, but I'd add in the C2 package as well. Hell, most sunroof-only packages start at $1k - 1.2k. And if you do the C5 pkg instead, you're not getting raped too badly.

I don't think that I'd want Ford engineers working on the F-15s. As far as the Fox platform is concerned, ask any Mustang owner who's had their car a couple of years if they'd like a post-disco platform for their next car. Remember when the Probe was going to be the next 'stang? That would have been a mistake, but Ford should be ashamed of itself for not doing a full redo at some point. Looks like finance had its dirty hands in that decison.

MB-BOB

I don't see how the new Jaguars are going to cut into the C320's market share. The demographic for the C320 says mid-late 40's. Anyone that age who knows anything about cars remembers the bad rep Jaguar has been hung with for the last 4 decades. So, IMO, someone my age wouldn't give the Jaguar a second look (or a first for that matter) no matter whether it's a Ford or not today. I know I didn't...

And the F15 was designed from 1970-75... entered production in 1975. One of the F15 chief designers at McDonnell Douglas was a neighbor of ours. I lived 7 miles from the factory. No Lucas electronics in an F15...

Rick

you guys allowed Carter to do it again...

Don't you realize he's full of it? Doesn't anyone remember that he claimed to be 33 with a 19 year old daughter (whos about to enter college in mid term?) that drives a brand new SLK320 23k miles in only 4 months and then sells it for a little over half it's value? PUH-LEEEEEEASE!

I guess some people have to find a way to seek validation in life....but that clown's just an attention seeking troll.

Rick

and by the way....the '03 Jag X doesn't hit the showroom floor til June. (Autoweek)

greg230

who cares about carters cars its more fun to argue with buellwinkle!!!!

awiner

LOL !

speedfrk

"So, IMO, someone my age wouldn't give the Jaguar a second look (or a first for that matter) no matter whether it's a Ford or not today. I know I didn't... "

I'm mid 40's, and I looked at everything. I've had several Jags, tons of Triumphs, etc, but this is my first Mercedes. I like it a lot, but it definately doesn't have the character of my XJ12. Old Jags were very maintenance intensive, but the new ones have a better reliability record than Mercedes now. (And they don't use Lucas anymore either). OK so the F-15 was designed in the early 70's. It is still 30 years old. My point was that engineers are very good at improving existing designs. I know because I was a Flight test engineer at Sikorsky (helicopter co.) and we spent most of out time on updating existing models. When you have an existing model, you have tons of data that is not available on new designs, so it is easy to make some very significant improvements.

"I don't think that I'd want Ford engineers working on the F-15s"

Our best Structural Test engineer came from Ford. He was sharp.

Buellwinkle

I appreciate that.

So what you all are saying is that the Jag-X sucks because it's a Ford. I don't know about you guys but I've owned more Fords than any other single brand of cars and I like them. I've had 5 Mustangs, a Ranger and F150 and they have been pretty close to trouble free. I've had 4 MBs and they have been pretty close to total trouble including my '02 C230. Sure Ford doesn't give me loaners or free maintenace or cookies and drinks while they wash my car for free but that doesn't make them bad cars. So to me if I can get Ford dependability in a flashy Jag package then It's a contender. Add to that some sweet lease deals and it's more than a contender. Personally I only know one person with a Jag-X and he wanted a C240 originally so there's one loss for MB. Also I don't know how MB sales are in your neck of the woods but you can get C240s and C320s pretty much at cost around here. If you want a wagon you can probably get one for a few thousand below cost. My dealer gave up and made most of the wagons into loaners.

WyattEarp

I've also noticed Carter mostly or only talks about his children. He also has never fought back in threads that I've been involved in.

DtS

Check out Edmunds.com road test of the X-type. It looks to me that more work is still to be done on this car...

X-type road test

I have to agree with Buellwinkle that Fords can be reliable (not saying that ALL fords are, but not ALL Benzes are either). I have had an Escort since -91 (mom bought it new). No mechanical problems whatsoever in 210000 km, besides the normal "wear-and-tear" stuff, like a new clutch. Only real problem with it is that it rusts like crazy.