My 2007 Jaguar X-Type 2.2d Estate, has been sold. Known the world over as “The Jagon”, the most famous station wagon on social media is no longer part of the fleet. It’s been 3 years and roughly 75,000km, but it was time to move on. So at the end of our journey together, how do I feel about the Jag?
Well, let’s start off with the subjective part – the looks. I happen to think that the X-Type looks better as a Station Wagon than as a saloon. One of Ian Callum’s first jobs at Jaguar was in fact turning the X-Type Saloon into an Estate, or Station Wagon. A job, I think, he did superbly. The classic Jaguar front end, actually blended really well with the station wagon rear, in an elegant and stylish way. The Gold colour is definitely my LEAST favourite option of all available shades on the X-Type. Unfortunately, the wagon, and specifically the diesel wagon, is so rare, that when a good one came up, I had to buy it regardless of the colour.
ivory leather and lots of real wood
The Interior was much more to my liking. Lovely ivory leather and lots of real wood all over the dash and door cards. Very Jaaaaaaaag. The seats lacked a little bit of lumbar support, and the driving position was a little bit awkward, but once you got used it it – it’s actually a very comfortable place to spend a lot of time. And I did spend a lot of time in that seat! (thank you CPT Traffic). By far the 2 biggest surprises on the interior was the sound system and the air conditioning.
Firstly, the sound system, although fairly basic in operation, offered surprisingly good sound quality for a mid 2000’s stock system. Nice clear highs, deep lows and a very balanced stereo field made for the perfect way to listen to the Induction Noise Podcast.
set permanently to Cyberian Tundra
Secondly the Air Conditioning. Maybe it’s a fat guy thing, but I like my car interior to be set permanently to Cyberian Tundra. And the Jag delivered. So cold in fact that at times my passengers would shiver and beg for relief.
Living the wagon life was fantastic too! The boot on this car is MASSIVE. Far bigger in fact than my wife’s “super-practical” family SUV. Not only that, but with the seats down, I could load furniture, materials for DIY projects, dogs and car parts with no sweat. When I built a nice display cabinet for my office, I had no problems loading the bottom half in the back of the car, with the top half strapped to the roof racks. When he 4 of us wanted to load up and head to Knysna for the Hillclimb, the Jag swallowed all our luggage, the 4 of us and an impressive array of snacks. Not only that, but it managed to do the trip to Knysna and back using just over a tank of diesel! And it would have done it on a single tank, had we not decided to go back the long way around.
But, the Jag hasn’t exactly been a flawless example of automotive perfection. There have been some annoyances.
an 8 inch hole in the boost pipe
When I got the car, both engine and intercooler thermostats were stuck in the open position, so the engine never ran up to temperature. It was also painfully slow and underpowered, because there was an 8 inch hole in the boost pipe that the previous owner just never knew about. Once repaired, it pulled like a train, comparatively.
Next came the rattles – the switch for adjusting the electric mirrors, buzzes endlessly. Those beautiful wood panels on the dash also needed a few small paper wedges to stop them from rattling. The boot divider and pet net roller unit also rattles constantly, with no workable solutions for sorting it out…
Here’s a video of my wife giving the Jagon a service.
replacing them is fairly cheap
The split tailgate is a great feature on the wagon, and makes getting small items out of the boot quickly so much easier. Well, unless of course the gas struts for the glass section of the tailgate have failed. Because even though replacing them is fairly cheap, getting to them is nearly impossible. The Jag’s entire, MASSIVE roof lining has to be removed in order to change those gas struts.
To this day the car has an undiagnosed wheel wobble. The wheels and driveshafts have all been checked and balanced…. Twice…. But get up to 110kph and the wheel starts wiggling in your hands. Still no idea why.
I also had issues with the driver’s door locks, the remote central locking, the headlights, EGR valve, turbo actuator, window washers, driver’s door card, random misfires, check engine lights, smoking at start up, loss of power and increased fuel consumption. And that’s not to mention the shocks and engine mount that also had problems. Most of these issues were addressed. Some came back, some didn’t, but the most surprising part of it was just how few parts, the X-Type shared with its supposed cousin, the Ford Mondeo. Even more surprising, how many parts were bespoke to the station wagon!!!
The turbo actuator fix actually turned into one of our best performing videos on the channel for a while.
The Jag was a good car
On the whole though. The Jag was a good car. It never left me stranded, and proved itself a fantastic, low cost, commute mobile. I’m a little sad to see it go – perhaps more so because it is headed to WBC – but soon, it will be replaced with something else… So watch this space.