Jaguar X-Type Estate Review
Published: 3rd March 2005
Jaguar X-Type Estate
How It Drove - Performance
The Jaguar X-TYPE Estate is available with a choice of four engines a 2.0 litre direct injection diesel and 2.0 litre, 2.5 litre and 3.0 litre petrol engines. The 2.5 and 3.0 litre cars feature permanent four wheel drive or as Jaguar prefer All Wheel Drive (AWD) and the 2.0 litre petrol and diesel cars are front wheel drive. We understand that a 2.2 litre diesel will join the line up later in 2005. All petrol X-TYPE's offer a choice of five-speed manual or five-speed electronically-controlled automatic transmissions.
We drove the Jaguar X-TYPE Estate 3.0 litre V6 - the most powerful engine in the range, with a maximum output of 231bhp (172kW) at 6,800 rpm, and a torque peak of 284Nm (209lb ft) at 3,000 rpm. It is also the quickest car in the range reaching 0 - 62 mph in 6.9 seconds - continuing to a terminal speed of 144mph.
Undoubtedly the Jaguar X-TYPE Estate 3.0 litre V6 is a quick car but the power delivery never felt raw or rapid rather it was a refined and smooth cruising car as you would expect of Jaguar. When accelerating hard the characteristic feline roar is evident and the X-TYPE Estate leaps.
Our test car featured the 5-speed manual transmission which we found exceptionally smooth and very easy to use. Normally we would like to see an automatic gearbox coupled to a car of this genre, but the manual gearbox worked very well with the All Wheel Drive system.
Even with relatively spirited driving we achieved a combined fuel consumption figure of 26.9 mpg which considering the type of driving and weather conditions we exposed the car to, we were happy with.
How It Drove - Ride/Handling
We found the X-TYPE Estate perfectly in tune with British roads, which is refreshing as too many cars are designed with smooth German roads in mind. The ride is supple and cosseting and the X-TYPE was equally at home on Welsh 'B' and unclassified roads as it was on the Motorway. It did not suffer from the usual cumbersome estate car characteristics and with its dynamic driving qualities it was easy to forget that you were driving an estate car.
We must have liked the X-TYPE as we ventured out into freezing conditions. When we took delivery of the car the temperature was -1 and the ice warning light on the dashboard had come on, and it stayed on for most of our time with the car. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on your perspective we were able to test the handling of the Jaguar All Wheel Drive E state in some of the worst winter weather conditions we had seen for a while. This included driving on snow, ice, in the rain and on slushy Welsh roads and impressively the X-TYPE Estate remained composed and surefooted throughout.
