2004 Jaguar X-Type 3.0 review from North America

This is my wife's car, but I have dealt exclusively with the repeated service issues in the month and a half we have owned the car.

I noticed that the car was loud on the highway immediately after we bought it, but thought that the tires were just poorly balanced. It turns out they were worn so badly in only 17k miles that they needed to be replaced. All four! Plus, after I replaced them, the noises were still there. We live 2 hours from the nearest Jaguar dealer (should have known better) so that fact alone makes this all worse. The noise has now been tracked down to faulty wheel bearings. The dealer had to have the replacement parts flown in, and I'm stuck making two 4-hour round trips.

Additionally, the car's driver-side xenon headlight unit went out two days ago. This would have been dreadfully expensive if it wasn't covered under the maintenance plan and warranty! I hope the other one goes before the warranty expires and not afterward!

Some trim pieces in the interior rattle or squeak and fit poorly also.

Overall, I cannot fault the car so seriously that I would not buy another one, but I would give a lot more thought to other makes knowing what I now know about the service trips and their frequency. As I said previously in the things-gone-wrong section, this car is my wife's. It fits her personality perfectly. I greatly prefer my BMW 3-series coupe. I just finished reading a review that was "bashing" the 3-series cars in comparison to the X-type. This person said that they were very incomparable and inequivalent cars. That is completely NOT true! There couldn't be two cars designed to go head-to-head more closely. The interior room and size overall is nearly IDENTICAL.

That being said that I greatly prefer my 3-series over her X-type, we do use her car for any trips we make, as it is slightly more quiet and is an automatic.

I am pleased with the power, but it seems that the acceleration comes at a thirsty price to fuel economy. Plus, the X-type 3.0 requires premium fuel, which is now $2 per gallon versus the $1.79 regular my 3-series runs perfectly on. My 3 gets 28-31 MPG on the highway, but the X only manages 24 MPG at best- in town only 16 to 18 MPG!

The leather quality and wood dash are beautiful, but so are my 3's- and my 3 has a better richness of smell even after 70k miles.