It’s been a long-time rumour that Jaguar is planning to revive its star-crossed X-Type with a new contender to take on the likes of the BMW 3-Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class. If the company’s new brand director has his way, the next X is perhaps not too far off.
Recent comments by Adrian Hallmark, Jaguar’s top brand man, alluded to the fact that the company may be looking into the possibility of a new compact model that would slot in below the XF. It’s tried this once before with the X-Type which was to be Jaguar’s saviour: It was meant to attract younger buyers to the brand and be a high-volume seller for the then Ford-owned company. It didn’t work and sales in especially North America remained disappointing. Ford learnt the hard way that Jaguar wasn’t a volume brand.
The X-Type was especially criticised in Europe for being based on a Ford Mondeo (sharing most of their parts) and for not being a “true Jaguar”: The Mondeo underpinnings meant that the X-Type was perceived to be too low-budget to be executive, but also too expensive to be an entry-compact (Ford perhaps trying to protect sales of its own Mondeo). Many also didn’t care too much for its old-XJ styling.
With that being said, feedback from local Jaguar dealers point to a resurgent used market for the X-Type with many not being able to keep up with demand. According to Jaguar’s local marketing and sales manager, Tania Cleary, the company’s new direction (heralded by the XF and XJ) has gone a long way to revive interest in Jaguar and – given the current range’s entry cost – the X-Type has become an attractive way to buy into the brand. Clearly, under new owners Tata, the logic of a compact car positioned below the XF actually makes some sense. But, according to Hallmark, the company will not be repeating past mistakes.
The XF – of which slightly facelifted models have been spotted testing in Europe – has gone a long way in proving that Jaguar can do “mainstream” without encroaching too much on its values. While we doubt that the company would be as aggressive with any of its new models as it was with the X-Type (in terms of sales expectations), the XF was the first step for Jaguar in becoming a volume-contender in the premium segment.
The new compact is still in its planning stages and the project is yet to get approval at board level, but Hallmark added that the newcomer will most likely be developed as both a sports coupé and executive saloon thereby cutting development costs and allowing the company to assure the desired quality levels. The idea is to offer the same craftsmanship and levels of luxury as the current line-up, but at a lower price point. If the project gets the green light, it is only likely to be production-ready in 2016.
