X150 vs E-Type production numbers
 

I was watching a DVD of "Victory by Design" about Jaguar, and the host had mentioned that E-Types sold like hotcakes. According to my Wikipedia research (take with a grain of salt), 72515 E-Types were produced (Series I thru III). Meanwhile, 56798 X150s were ever produced (production ended in July 2014 X150 production ends), yet the X150 is considered by many--including myself--to have been a slow seller that hardly ever got any attention, especially when compared to its iconic forebear, the E-Type, even though on average the X150 sold many more annually over its comparatively shorter production run.

Anyhow, just thought that was interesting! I wonder how the F-Type will fit into the picture.

My guess is that when talking about unit sales for the XK one has to look at the unit sales for its competitors in order to judge sales performance in the market place. It could well be that the E types were selling into a smaller market than the XK has been. If that indeed is the case then the E type's market share would be larger than that of the XK and Vice Versa.

Also, maybe the sales of the E-Type were limited by production capacity, whereas sales for the X150 may have been limited by demand.

I've had the week off so I've been driving my XKR all over town. Great car and it really turns a lot of heads unlike any other car I've owned.

Its so rare that before the Jaguar blitz of commercials after the XKR-S came out I had never heard of nor seen a XK... Ever... Now im more keen to see one I guess and ive seen a few - we are talking like 4-5 over the last 2-3 years on the road. As often as I drive that's VERY LIMITED. Were the E-types very common back in the day?

Also. They sold 72k e-types in a time when the human population was MUCH MUCH LOWER. SO comparatively they offered fewer XK's to a much larger population granted the production run was shorter.

What I would like to know is.. How many of those XK's of the 56k made were sold in the US 4.2L vs 5.0L. How man XK, XKR, XKR-S as well broken down.

Loth

The XKE and XKs are really two different cars. One a sports car and one a grand tourer. Yes, the XK is actually an imitator of the original XKE which was such a success. Here is the rule of thumb (I go by) for popularity and future values in general for all cars. If any car is a hot seller and continually in demand when it is new, it will generally bring big dollars when it becomes a classic. The opposite goes for those cars that sit on showroom floors for months when new are not all that valuable when decades role by. (Regardless of the production numbers)

The XKE was very rare while they were in production. I bought a '70 vert in 1975 and there were very few used ones for sale even though they had just finished their entire 13 year production run. I was a member of the Ontario Jaguar Owners Association for years and it was extremely rare to see one anywhere but at club events.

The 3 series of XKE that you've combined production numbers together for were really quite different, and a more valid production comparison would include many X100 years along with the X150 models. An '05 XKR X100 is probably as similar to an '07 X150 as a Series II 1970 XKE is to a Series III 1972.