Hi there, I would like to find out a bit more from people with a little bit more experience with the X-Type than me. I am not new to Jaguar, I am restoring a Mk1, however I haven't had all that much contact mechanically with anything newer than a Series III XJ. I am currently driving a 1997 Australian made Toyota Corolla, which is a very good car, however it is merely transportation. I would love to have an X-Type next to my Mk1 as an everyday car.

I have driven an early 3.0 Litre AWD X-Type, and was very impressed. I would only want to go for the 2.5 or the 3.0 AWD despite my preference of a manual transmission. What experience have people had with X-Types, are they reliable long-term, can you do all of your own maintenance (within reason), do they stand up well to high mileages?

Any information would be appreciated!

 

I have a 2002 3.0 x-type with a 109,000 miles. When I purchased the vehicle it was one very abused Cat. I sorted all out of the vacuum leaks, oil leaks, and electrical gremlins. I have driven daily. It had 97,000 miles when I bought it last spring.
It is and excellent car as a daily driver and with all of the great info on this forum I think anything needed can be a do it yourself job. When you first buy one, If it doesn't have a written history I would go for a fluid cange so that you have a baseline for starting maintenance.
Your best tool for the X-type will be an OBD II scanner. Good luck in your search and happy motoring.

 

Thanks for your quick reply. It's reassuring Knowing that I would be able to take care of things myself. How have things such as suspension held up? Being in Australia, suspension components are usually one of the first things to go.

 

@Avern1 - Good to know that the X type is a daily driver. Jaguar had such an awesome rep like 15 years ago and then it started falling apart. I think X type has really changed Jaguar's image for the good and now it's on the up and up. My first experience with a jaguar was when my dad brought back a XJS from his car showroom. It was a classic red beauty and all the kids thought I was really cool. Ha!

 

Those concerned about the X- Type (or any modern Jaguar) as a daily driver can relax: they are perfectly suited to this and every bit as reliable as any other luxury make. We have 2 X-Types (3.0 automatic Estate and 2.5 manual sedan) both used as daily drivers. My wife's 2.5 manual sits outside 24/7/365; in 13 years of use it has has ONE (yes, 1) repair: replacement of an oxygen sensor. My Estate in 6 years of use? ZERO repairs - nothing at all, and I am fastidious about performance and appearance in my cars. The X-Type is one of the most underrated cars of all time.
As you have been advised: change all the fluids including transfer case if AWD and transmission. And buy the best you can afford, with a service history. These are fantastic long distance touring cars!

 

I can't imagine how you got this impression; the Jaguars of the 70's and very early 80's had issues, granted. By the early 90's the quality soared; by 2000 they were as good as (and much more beautiful than) any of their competitors. Among the Jags I have owned, all of them excellent, the more recent are: 1992 XJ6, 1992 V12 Vanden Plas, 2004 XJ8 (what a car!), 3 different X-Types, 2 of them still with us, and the gorgeous and very fast 2007 XK. I'll match the service histories of these cars with the histories of any luxury brand you care to name.

 

A few years back we picked up a 2.5 X-Type at auction. There were no records with it and Carfax reported the car had come from Michigan, which I knew was going to mean rust trouble, but I needed a car right away and I was able to pick this one up cheap.

As suggested above, I replaced all fluids, everywhere. The transmission was giving problems but replacing the tranny fluid (all that will normally drain) a few times resolved that.

The other problem was the all too common vacuum leak. This caused oil to foul plugs and the upstream O2 sensor. It probably wasn't great for the catalytic either, but I didn't worry about that. Fixing the vacuum leak solved the source of the problem then new plugs and an O2 sensor resolved the rest of the issues.

The car ran great for the 2 years we had it. We even drove it up to Canada from Florida to visit family one Christmas. With decent snow tires on it was amazing in conditions that had other cars spinning out, bogging down or just pulling over to wait for snow plows. The weather was so bad the highway was eventually closed and we had to resort to secondary roads driving through a winter wonderland of fresh fallen snow!

Another time we drove through floods from a severe rainstorm on I75 (Detroit, as I recall) with every underpass a few feed deep in water. Our feet got wet and the carpet was soaked, but the car kept on going.

Eventually the rust we knew was there when we bought it ate too much of the body. When the rocker panels were shot I knew it was time to let our Jag go. But until that happened it was my daily driver and completely reliable once the initial issues were sorted. We even used it for multiple (4, as I recall) 3,200+ mile round trips from Florida to Canada.

I miss that car. And, now that I think about it, I still have the Jag wheels and some good tires mounted sitting in my garage. It got sold with the snow tires and steel wheels on it!

Not sure what to do with those old wheels.

 

I have had my 2009 X-Type from new. I have used it as a daily drive as I use if for my work driving all over the UK, and in the 100,000 miles I have done in it, the only money it has cost me apart from normal servicing costs has been a front wheel bearing and a set of brake pads and new dront discs.

I have considered replacing my car with the new XE, but to be honest, mine still looks fresh and modern, it still drives like a dream, I still get a buzz every time I drive it, so I have come to the conclusion of why put myself in debt for a new car when there is nothing wrong with the one I have.

I average 15 - 20,000, miles a year, and so I am sure it will serve me well for a good few more years yet.

 

Mark, I put 188,000 miles on mine before I sold it. Had the usual issues (vacuum leak, rear suspension arms needing replaced). All of these I did myself. Not that difficult to do. Keep in mind that the rear end is a Volvo S40 and the front is a Ford Mondeo. There are a few quirks in there, but that hold fairly true. There is lots of information in this site about doing the repairs. So, anything that you would want to do, someone here has a write up on it with step by step instructions.

If you are going to have issues, I found on mine that the rear arms (upper one and the lower-forward) were the ones that needed replaced. They run about $100 USD each. If you do some looking, you can probably find them cheaper. If you look at the rear wheels, you will be able to tell when they are starting to go as the rear tires will either start pointing towards the center of the front bumper or the tops will be leaning in.

THe other issue that I seemed to be bothered with was the e-brake levers would stick, resulting in the rear calipers not letting go when releasing the e-brake. If you do some looking, I did a write up on this and what your options are.

The X-Type will be a good daily driver. I would tell you that if you like the sound of a wound up motor, then the 2.5L is going to be your better choice. If you like to ease into the gas and have the car accelerate, the 3.0L motor is going to be more to your liking.

 

193000 miles and going strong.
i cant fault the x type.. the only car i wish to own. get off the fence and buy one.
i prefer the 3.0 sport. make sure you know what differences the sport has as i often see non sport models incorrectly advertised as sport models.
as for mechanical problems.... let me know when they invent a car which never breaks!.
as previously stated, there isnt a problem out there that hasnt been covered on this site

 

Hi there, I can vouch for Jaguar x-type as a daily car. We bought ours 2016, it had 122 000kms on the clock. It now has 160 000kms. We drive this car, not hard but a lot. Actually, I choose it over our new 2016 Mercedes Benz C180 estate. The wife drives it more than I do, which makes me very jealous. She does 120kms return trip daily from work. I admit, I have spoilt this car quite a lot since purchasing it. I immediately changed front shocks at the dealership, replaced ball joints - they were making noise. But the overall car was awesome. All these following I have done myself: change coolant container, brake bulb, air filter (easiest to do), brake booster cable and hose, replaced fuel filter and some parking light bulbs. The Jag specialist from my hood changed my thermostat, starter motor (because of misdiagnosing petrol pump failure), replaced petrol pump and that is just about it. Obviously, these were not replaced all at once. In between I travel in it quite a lot. This coming weekend we are doing a 1000kms trip in it. I am excited. The Merc is nice, but the Jag is just too special for me. Fuel wise, it is not bad (10.8l/100 kms), but that is a small price to pay for such luxury. Consequently, I am looking to another one of this kind. I see these XF, XE, and all, they are not talking to me yet. I hope you find an awesome one.

 

I have a 2003 Jaguar X and I like to yam.

Listen this car will accept jerky jerky and you will accept feeling bad for what you did to her. Recently my clutch died, when I bought my car 3rd gear always made this crunch when I shifted into 3rd without pushing the clutch to the carpet. I took my car to my local soccer field, went to the backedy back, there's a gravel square and I did roughly 10-15 laps of pure rally, ***** out yaming.

I herd a chain grinding sound and a wine began(like a supercharger sound). I attended a car show with my best friend and his BMW 5 days later. near close of the show we convoyed out with a grope of rice hit the highway and malled for exactly 1 hour at 90-130 all 5th gear no jerky jerky just speed. My Jag was in symphony and enjoys 110-130 much more than 90-110. My clutch died between the two events, and had seen countless other night-carshow's that led to highway adventures.

Bad: I bought the car with no prior knowledge of owners or maintenance history in roughly November, and I am catching up with a new book that lives in the glove box. Alternator replacement was straightforward and took 6-8 hours.(Remove Intake, push radiator hose out of the way and fish the alternator. There is like 9 pulleys counting the idler's and the retention pulley requires a special special tool) By now all the OEM clamps are not removable unless replaced, the design of them is simply not durable, most of the rubber has dry rotted and leeks are whats up. Lug nuts have aluminum caps on them that brake easy. ALL of the steering wheels get sunburn and curl like potato chips on the air bag, the stick shift knob has lost its badge and the bottom of it that pulls up to enter reverse has peeled all the chrome off. Seats were couches so I replaced them with Z4 ones, back seats hold spray paint very nicely if done properly. Headlights are fogged out and the typical restoration chemicals had minimal but helpful effect, one of my fog lights was gone on purchase and since the other has just died out, inner running lights have also both went out. Trunk logo/ trunk button has fell of as have most of the other X's I observed.

Good: The Jaguar X-Type will compete performance wise with a 2005 BMW 525i, Handling is lovely with AWD as is acceleration. The engine bay is very open and accessible. When you rake bumps up, instead of feeling every bump they all just mesh together: like several waves hitting a sailboat at the same time, the car 'floats'. Turn radius is very good, but backing up feels strange. The buttons on the steering wheel are a + and I enjoy the concept of the dash, although in 2017 the radio and ac controls feel a bit out of date the audio is ++ but dose not get ear blasting loud... its more about quality.

Im to young to pay a mechanic so I have no choice, but I prefer the process and the education via experience. I will replace my clutch this month and find out for real if this is a driveway project car. Either way I Love my Jaguar and just want an old XJ6.

 

I have had several x types a 3l awd sport a 2.5 awd sport a 2.0d se and currently have an 2.2 d dpf auto the petrol engines were amazing and the 2.2 d is a great touring car out of the 4 only the 2.0d caused me problems if you want a diesel spend the extra and buy the 2.2 much better engine with far more power and much more reliable