The Jaguar X-Type is a front-engine, all-wheel/front-wheel drive

compact executive car A compact executive car, also known as a compact luxury car, is a premium car larger than a premium compact and smaller than an executive car. Compact executive car is a UK term and a part of the D-segment in the European car classification. ...

manufactured and marketed by Jaguar Cars from 2001 to 2009 under the internal designation ''X400'', for a single generation, in sedan/saloon and wagon/estate body styles. In addition to offering Jaguar's first station wagon/estate in

series production Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and bat ...

, the X-Type would ultimately introduce its first diesel engine, four-cylinder engine and front-wheel drive configuration. The X-Type was developed during the period when Jaguar was owned by Ford as a division of its Premier Automotive Group (PAG) (1999-2009) — and marked Jaguar's entry into the critical compact executive segment. The programme aimed to double the marque's worldwide sales — requiring expansion of engineering resources, factory capacity, marketing capability, sales support and service. At launch, Autocar called the X-Type "the most important Jaguar ever." With annual projections of 100,000 sales, the X-Type recorded a production of 350,000 over its eight year manufacturing run.

Overview

The X-Type, codenamed ''X400'', launched in 2001 to compete in the compact executive class dominated by the rear-wheel drive

BMW 3 Series The BMW 3 Series is a line of compact executive cars manufactured by the German automaker BMW since May 1975. It is the successor to the 02 Series and has been produced in seven generations. The first generation of the 3 Series was only avail ...

and

Mercedes-Benz C-Class The Mercedes-Benz C-Class is a series of compact executive cars produced by Mercedes-Benz Group AG. Introduced in 1993 as a replacement for the 190 (W201) range, the C-Class was the smallest model in the marque's line-up until the W168 A-Class ...

despite Ford/Jaguar having no directly competitive platform. Instead, the X-type used a modified version of the front-drive Ford CD132 platform shared wi