Sales and Reception
Interviewed in November 2000, managing director Jonathan Browning said Jaguar's objective was to achieve annual sales of 100,000 with the car, partly by taking market share from established German rivals and partly by expanding the market segment in Jaguar's key markets. The X-Type was Jaguar's best-selling model during almost all its production run, but sales did not meet projections, peaking at 50,000 in 2003. In the United States, the car's primary market, sales dropped from 21,542 in 2004 to 10,941 in 2005. In the same year, Audi sold 48,922 A4s, BMW sold 106,950 3-series and Mercedes-Benz sold 60,658 C-classes.
Ford's decision to use a modified version of the Ford Mondeo platform (shared with the Land Rover Freelander Compact SUV which is also produced at Halewood) for the Jaguar X-Type wasn't received well by some enthusiasts of the marque. Time described the X-Type as the "British Cadillac Cimarron" in its "50 Worst Cars of All Time" list, suggesting its platform sharing made it unpopular.
Numerous car magazine and website reviews were largely positive for the X-Type, especially during the early years of its introduction. In reality, the X-Type used only 20% of Ford Mondeo's components, while a variety of Ford platforms, engines and components were being used by all models of the Ford Motor Company's luxury brands in that period, namely Aston Martin, Jaguar and Lincoln. In 2008, Jaguar director of design Ian Callum said that, despite management denials at the time, the slow-selling X-Type “was essentially designed in Detroit and presented as close to a fait accompli to reluctant designers and engineers at Jaguar's Whitley design centre."
Read more about this topic: Jaguar X-Type
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