Magus Cars India

Looking at buying an X-Type, and considering which engine to go for? Then let’s go through what’s available and decide which is right for you…

2.5 and 3.0 V6 Petrol Engines

The Jaguar X Type was originally released back in 2001 with just 2 engines, both petrol - a 2.5 litre and a 3.0 litre, both V6 Petrols. they were both variations on the same engine originally a ford unit, just with slightly different bores, giving them similar characteristics. The engine has already seen use in several different applications, from the Jaguar S-Type to the top of the range Mondeo, and even in the Noble supercar in a turbocharged form, so it was already proven, and has a good reputation for reliability.

The 2.5 and 3.0 units are smooth revving and sweet sounding motors that do match the X-Type, both fairly powerful, 192 vs 231 horsepower, but a little lacking in torque, so they do need revving to get the best out of them, which can be fun with a manual gearbox, but a bit of a chore in the automatic versions. Neither are particularly fuel efficient, with the 2.5 giving
and average of about 26-28 mpg in real life conditions, the 3.0 more like 24-26mpg.

The other main consideration when looking at the 2.5 and 3.0 are that they come with 4 wheel drive as standard, and are the only X-Types in the range with this, the rest being front wheel drive only, so if 4WD is what you’re looking for, this is the limit of your choice.

2.1 V6 Petrol Engine

Shortly after launch, Jaguar was pestered by its dealers for a smaller capacity, cheaper X-Type that it could sell around the £20,000 mark by its European dealers, and due to the negative publicity received from the press in publicly admitting the Mondeo source of its chassis, decided that rather than put a current Ford 2.0 litre petrol engine into the X-Type, it would create a bespoke engine, and scaled down the 2.5 unit to a 2.1 litre, advertised and sold as the 2 litre model.

This made Jaguar Cars the only luxury manufacturer with a ‘2 litre’ V6 engine in its small executive cars, with front wheel drive only, and whilst the engine was a peach - creamy smooth, much nicer than any 4 cylinder 2 litre rival, it did present problems:

Firstly there was again the problem of lack of torque, meaning it did really need revving to get away cleanly. If you get one and it’s 2 litre auto, please don’t try and pull out quickly at roundabouts - I had several near misses doing this, put foot down, big delay, eventually move forwards and nearly hit something - very scary!

But secondly and more importantly for Jaguar at the time, it hadn’t really done its homework on who bought 2 litre junior executive cars - mainly company car drivers, and with the change in company car taxation laws to be based on CO2 emissions, the Jaguar was left looking very expensive in tax terms next to its rivals, and was avoided by drivers. This doesn’t mean necessarily it’s a bad car, far from it, but it didn’t fit in well at the time.

2.0 Diesel Engine

The Jaguar dealers now started pushing harder for what the European market really needed - a Diesel. This was duly brought out in 2003, with a 128bhp 2.0 litre 4 cylinder Ford sourced diesel, as found in the Mondeo, but tweaked subtly for the Jaguar application, and again front wheel drive only. Finally Jaguar dealers had the weapon they needed for the company fleets, and the diesel was snapped up.

It’s a great engine that really suits the car - be prepared for a clutch action that’s a little on the sharp side especially on new cars, but the late 40’s / early 50’s mpg should more than make up for it, and with Jaguar being so worried about introducing its first diesel, they spent a huge amount of time and resources making sure it was as soundproofed as possible, meaning it’s pretty much the quietest diesel engine on sale in this type of car.

The diesel was a great success, so much so that Jaguar quickly removed the 2 litre petrol V6 from the line up. The only disadvantage was it was only available in a manual transmission, which put off some of the more traditional Jaguar owners, and forced them into a large petrol engine.

2.2 Diesel Engine

Jaguar saw its competitors upping the performance of their 2.0 diesels, and decided to jump on the bandwagon by adding a larger capacity 2.2 engine. Originally rumoured at the time to be replacing the 2.0, the 2 engines ran side by side in the line up, with a clear £1000 price difference to move up to the more powerful 158bhp model, which also brought with it a 6 speed gearbox, rather than the 5 speeder of the 2.0. Again a good motor, the 6 speed gearbox gives better performance at higher speeds, meaning at the 70 - 90 mph mark the engine doesn’t have to work as hard, and the 2.2 is the more comfortable on a motorway because of this, the converse being that the 5 speeder on the 2.0 feels better around town with more well judged ratios, but still no automatic version.

Thankfully Jaguar has finally remedied the lack of availability with the diesel auto, and a 6 speed 2.2 diesel automatic has been released March 2008, to coincide with the first major facelift on the ‘2009 model year’ cars.

Summary

3.0 V6 Petrol - 4 wheel drive, manual or auto, powerful, smooth revving, 24-26 mpg, lacking a little low down torque.

2.5 V6 Petrol - 4 wheel drive, manual or auto, smooth revving, 26-28 mpg, lacking a little low down torque.

2.1 V6 Petrol - Front wheel drive, manual or auto, very smooth, 27-29 mpg, lacking in torque, needs revving, quite rare.

2.0 Diesel - Front wheel drive, 5 speed manual only, plenty of grunt, 46-50 mpg, desirable.

2.2 Diesel - Front wheel drive, 6 speed manual, 6 speed auto available from march 2008, plenty of power, 44-46 mpg, pick of the bunch.