Mark is out for a while and Thomas is out sick, so I have hijacked this post to ask a very local, very terrible question about an awful decision that’s now awfully tempting do to Mr. Gossin’s post about restoring that Jaguar X-Type that seems to be everywhere. Oh no…
Yesterday, arguably, had no losers. Both cars were wonderful and sketchy in equal proportion and both were really worthy of saving. If I had to choose one I’d probably be tempted to take the Opel, merely for the novelty, but the well-loved MG just edged out a victory. Someone should buy one of these cars.
No one, especially not me (right?) should buy one of the next two cars.
Here are life’s great ontological questions, in this order:
- Is there a God?
- Do I exist?
- Better to have a car with a manual that isn’t a wagon or a car that’s a wagon but isn’t a manual?
Let’s test at least two of those today:
2003 Jaguar X-Type Manual AWD – $2,500
Engine/drivetrain: 3.0-liter Duratec V6, probably, AWD, five-speed manual
Location: Port Jervis, New York
Odometer reading: 185,000 miles
Runs/drives? Both, apparently
I am equally attracted to, and repulsed by, this car in roughly equal measure. Black, sedan, with bad custom aftermarket wheels is really doing all you can to make this car unappealing. But then it has an AWD setup and five-speed manual transmission. That’s great! It’s the inside that counts, right folks?
Here’s what the seller says:
2003 Jaguar X-Type AWD, black, four-door sedan. Manual transmission. Everything works, AC/Heat, no check-engine lights. Current inspection. Well maintained, many new parts. Tires are good. Leather interior. This car drives nice! Ready to go. Price is firm. CASH ONLY
Can one expect rust? Oh yeah. It isn’t particularly noted here, but just look at this thing. It lives in Port Jervis. This thing has seen road salt at those miles and the pics of the door sills don’t leave much to the imagination.
But then…look at this:
That’s nice.
2007 Jaguar X-Type Wagon- $2,000
Engine/drivetrain: 3.0-liter Duratec V6, probably, Five-Speed Automatic
Location: Bensonhurst, New York
Odometer reading: 185,000 miles
Runs/drives? Both, apparently*
This also isn’t the ideal color, but I’m a sucker for a wagon. Is it AWD? I have no idea. The seller doesn’t say much:
Motor is perfect runs and drives cars been sitting needs transmission fluid. It is a close case transmission. It would have to be put on a lift but car runs and drives. Everything works for brand new tires fully loaded leather sunroof navigation clean title in hand 190,000 miles please serious buyers only not 1000 questions call sold as is trying to sell by today. Have nowhere to keep it it… $2000 today takes it
That was 27 days ago. So either today came and went and the owner is keeping the ad up, or it didn’t actually sell.
The motor is “perfect” but the transmission “needs transmission fluid.” Hmm… let’s just look inside.
Automatic aside. That looks pretty clean.
I’m torn. What should a sane person do?
I’m leaning towards the manual sedan due to the lack of trans issues.
Excellent Showdown candidate choices, Matt!
Stephen, when are you going to take a turn covering for Mark and do a showdown of your own? Could be fun…
I’d read it.
Yikes. I’d donate that money than throw it away on either of these toilets, but that’s not the question. Manual probably doesn’t make these much more fun, plus there’s the ugly wheels, questionable owner that goes with them, and rust on the sill, so I’d go wagon and maybe talk them down as a plan for a transmission replacement.
Wagon > all other configurations
Can I choose neither? I choose neither.
Too bad there isn’t a manual X-Type wagon for sale anywhere 🙁
I don’t know how many were made tho
In regards to these two, the manual sedan has the better color interior, but more rust 🙁
so I chose the wagon due to less rust
Easy solution: Buy them both and swap the manual into the wagon.
And by easy, I mean soul destroying.
A sane person would buy the LTD wagon from last week abd leave these two to rot.
Wagon.
I will not be elaborating, because I don’t need to.
When the question is between pedal count and a longroof, longroof always wins.
Excuse my ignorance, but this bugged me yesterday when I read Gossin’s wonderful piece and now it’s back again and I gotta know.
What is the red circle/slash “no” decal on the side of the dash at the driver’s side for?
Tell me it doesn’t actually tell you to not put your hand there when you slam the door shut?
I believe it was something to do with fuse access. Don’t quote me on that, as I was underneath mine (and under the hood) for the majority of the time I had it.
Thanks again for the kind sentiment, my man!
Also, those wheels on the sedan look so, so bad.
I think it might be a child seat/airbag warning, went looking for pics and it looks like the same appears on the passenger side of the car. Probably don’t have to worry about infants in rear-facing seats driving the car, but makes sense from a RHD/LHD standpoint to just leave it on both, or as a reminder for a driver getting in to not have a child seat strapped in on the other side.
Buy both and make the wagon an all wheel drive manual. Winning!
Seeing the leaping hood ornament on a Wagon is just so ridiculous to me that I had to vote for it
God this one is so profoundly cursed. Me personally? I’d spend that money on a guitar. $2500 will get me something really nice that will provide me with more joy than one of the worst examples of one of the worst Jaaaaaaags ever. Y’all really save the worst for Friday, and I appreciate it!
But that’s not what this game is about. I have yet to really dive into the wrenching article on this car but from what I know the Ford era of Jaguars is best left avoided. Some might argue that all Jaguars are best left avoided in general but I’m a glutton for punishment and the combination of timeless elegance and V8s will always tempt me. Every now and then I see decent enough XK8s pop up for under 10 grand and I’m tempted.
These are the furthest thing from a V8 drop top cruiser. They’re clunky entry level garbagio…I’m not going to lie, when I see people in new base, entry level luxury cars I can’t help but assume they’re trying too hard. “I have a BMW!”…dude you’re leasing a car that’s a Mini underneath. You got played. Anyway, give me the black one with the stick. The best way to make an awful car tolerable is to equip it with a manual. I’d use it as a winter beater and would probably ditch it at the first sign of trouble.
“The best way to make an awful car tolerable is to equip it with a manual.”
I used to believe this. Then I spent three years driving a stripped down base model 2011 ford fiesta 3000mi a month. That car was exhausting to drive and destroyed any ideas of ever owning a manual as a daily for the rest of my life.
Wait! Ford made a Jaguar station wagon but never sold the Fusion wagon in the USA? Damnit, Ford!!!
I’m also surprised that I never knew Ford sold a manual transmission Jaguar sedan.
That said, neither of these cars has engine or underbody pics. The door seams of the silver wagon might be as bad as the black sedan, but somehow it feels cleaner.
The heart says the sedan, but the brain says the wagon.
The wagon feels cleaner because of the wheels and the steering wheel cover on the sedan, IMHO.
Agreed. I love me a manual, but the wagon just looks better cared for. Whenever I see crappy aftermarket wheels and/or blacked out trim done with a rattle can I tend to stay away.
Well, at that time there was something of a small luxury wagon boom. The U.S. had just gotten the 3-Series and C-Class wagons for the first time, GM had the Saab 9-3 SportCombi in the works, and a bit later the CTS wagon. Or really a smallish wagon boom in general, as it was the time of the global 1st-gen Focus, VW brought the Mk 4 Golf wagon just as a Jetta, and other hatch-wagonoid combos were out (ex. Matrix/Vibe).
No Mondeo at all at the time here, just ye olde Taurus for something bigger than the Focus. Ford probably wouldn’t have bothered with making the X wagon at all if you didn’t need a wagon to compete in Europe then, before crossovers boomed too.
The XF had wagon variants too but think those came by the Tata ownership, and we didn’t get that until 2018.
Plus, the S-Type could briefly be had with a manual at the same time too for 03-04, just with the base 3.0.
Buy them both and swap the manual into the wagon. It’s the right thing to do.
Then wrap or repaint it b r o w n
Ooh, I like it! There’s still difficult choice to make though: Coffee brown, mud brown, or feces brown?
I’m thinking a metallic bronze
Rootbeer metallic, just like the tranny fluid! 🙂
Assuming all X-Types were AWD, that wagon is hard to pass up. If a buyer can get it for $1,700, that’s f-it money.
The wagon is good a people mover but something about that Manual calls to me. Sure it is a wallet draining exercise but I like it.
I’ve actually driven a manual X-type (when it was nearly new) and it was really, really not exciting. I’m sure 185k miles haven’t made it better.
Wagon is nice, so is manual. I’ll go with the better wheels and black interior. Just looks better to me
Yeah, now that you’ve mentioned the wheels on the sedan, I’m out (and I’m resolutely *not* a wagon guy).
There’s something weird about Fast N Furious style “performance” wheels on a Jaguar or a Jaguford (or even a Ford for that matter).
Right? I get it, I fully get it. Probably shares the same bolt pattern as a couple hundred other years, makes, and models of cars so it makes sense to just buy some cheap wheels on CL or FB-M and just slap ’em on.
But… still. Doesn’t look right.
And as you point out below, that’s a steering wheel cover!?
I thought it was just the classy luxury car steering wheel of that year….double no for me now. I can only imagine what it’s covering up/why the owner felt it was necessary.
> Probably shares the same bolt pattern as a couple hundred other years, makes, and models of cars so it makes sense to just buy some cheap wheels on CL or FB-M and just slap ’em on.
5×108 (5×4.25″), so these wheels could’ve been on a Windstar, a Volvo V70, an ’89-’97 Cougar, or a Freelander 2. They’d look equally ridiculous regardless.
Though they’d be a bit of curiosity on the Windstar at least…
Wanted to vote wagon as I Really like those X-type wagons, but I have neither the time nor money to deal with transmission issues right out of the gate on one. With the other choice I get a ready-made hoon-machine for the upcoming winter months.
“What should a sane person do?”
Sane people don’t shop sub-$2000 Jaguars.
Or sub-$2500, if I could read properly.
I bought my ’82 XJ6 for $2300 and it’s been a great car. That may have been cheating though as it has a Chevy 350 in it.
I certainly wouldn’t shop the upper end of the sub-$2000 Jaguar market.
The wagon seems like the better choice
BUT
I do like the idea of taking the manual sedan on a gambler or a few local rallyx events.
decisions decisions.
I’m a sucker for an odd number of doors. Well actually, I’m really just a sucker…
So the wagon presumably has a CE light for low fluid in the transmission. I was willing to vote for a wagon with a slushbox, but the inability of the owner or their mechanic to figure out how to add fluid doesn’t bode well for this car.
Not everyone has a mechanic, my friend. Not every mechanic is willing to take on a Jag, either; especially one that has low transmission fluid. Good way for a shop to end up with a Karen of a customer.
I understand all too well. It took me a bit of work to figure out how to drain & refill my old boss’ Cube’s cvt some 8 years back. Nissan corporate was all, “That transmission has ‘lifetime fluid’”. Finally a local mechanic pointed me to a plug on it along with a forum post. I probably spent close to 8 hours across a couple weeks between a couple visits to different dealers and searching the more popular forums.
I imagine a non-wrencher could think a ‘sealed’ transmission is welded shut or such after being filled at the factory, but my point still stands: I don’t really want to buy a car from someone with so little understanding of what keeps it alive for fear of what else they accepted or ignored
Volkswagen automatic transmissions don’t have a fill plug or a dipstick.
They do have a drain plug. And you fill them through the drain plug.
Who thought that was a good idea?
VAG
It certainly isn’t easy, but definitely doable with Jackstands and a hand pump!
It really calls for dropping the pan, and cleaning the magnets while you’re there, but well worth the time and effort.
I voted for the Ford Contour with the manual. These Jaguar/Ford’s should have parts readily available, if the thing died.
Both, wagon is the driver and sedan the parts car. When – not if – the A/T dies that’s when the transmission swap happens.
I like the idea of a manual X-Type wagon, but not for $4500 + some hard work.
I was going to say the same thing, gives bonus articles from David about doing to transmission swap for Matt :).
Aside from this a wagon X Type is way more desirable than the sedan IMO, plus they were endorsed by Her Majesty the Queen (RIP) herself.
This is the correct answer. An X-Type Wagon with AWD and a 5 speed.