In the fall of 2002 it became painfully obvious that we required a second family car. My wife drives the per functionary minivan, in this case a Honda Odyssey which serves its purpose well. Open all the doors, throw in three kiddies, dog and assorted gear and drive from point A to point B. I rarely drive the beast, putting perhaps ten percent of the mileage on it, mostly on weekend hockey pilgrimages. But with three kids, we have major scheduling problems. One kid has to be at hockey practice at the same time as the other has to be at horseback riding at the same time as the other has to be at a birthday party. I'm sure those of you with kids are familiar with the juggling act. So during one of our late night strategy meetings, my wife and I agreed that we required a second family car. Now, what to buy?

Let me clarify something here. Although I mention "second" car, there are actually five cars in the family already. The minivan, two Jaguars and two Healeys. Of the five, it is the '68 E-type that I drive the most, usually racking up several thousand miles every summer in what is now a 96,000 mile car. Of course, the car is put to bed during the winter "salt" months and it is quite an impractical vehicle for shuttling around screaming kids or even business associates. I hate sitting in traffic jams, so I actually take the bus to the office ever day.

So back to the choice of second car; a list of "gotta haves" took shape: it must have four seats, it should have four doors, it should be a decent winter car (no wide tired monsters with peaky power bands), it should not be too expensive, it should be classy enough to mildly impress business associates and clients, it should be reliable, and you should be able to leave it in a dark parking lot and return to find it still there. My personal preference is for a manual transmission and I'm not a big fan of front wheel drive, so it would have to be rear drive or all-wheel drive. With those criteria the list shortens dramatically; you are basically left with Audis, BMW's, Volvos, and a couple of Infiniti-Lexus models. One more thing to note: I'm not a believer in sport utility vehicles. Some interesting options were considered but ultimately discarded: the new Acura RSX-S, the Subaru WRX, the new small Mercedes coupe and the upcoming Mini Cooper. All were rejected on the basis of being too small, too cheap or too "boy racer".

One of the cars on the short list was the new Jaguar X-type. It had virtually all the qualities I was seeking: four seats and four doors, a decent winter car with the bonus of all-wheel drive, a reasonable price, sufficiently handsome to impress clients, a reputation for reliability and hopefully not too enticing for car thieves. I spent some time reading Jaguar's publicity material and engineering reports, then read as many reviews and road tests as I could get my hands on. The reviews were unanimous: Jaguar has a winner on its hands.

So down we go to the local Jaguar dealer for a look-see. While I'm not writing this article as a way gain free publicity for a dealer, I will mention that Decarie Motors in Montreal took very good care of me. They were open and honest throughout the sales process and at the conclusion of it all I ended up getting exactly what I wanted. The sales manager of Decarie, Cheryl Blas, told me that they had been selling quite a few X-types and demand continued to be strong. The only minor problem they had was deciding what models and options to order. For the first time in a long time, a Jaguar dealer actually has to try to predict what buyers will want in advance and order accordingly. With the X-type, unlike previous fully optioned Jaguars, you have quite an array of options to choose from and the ultimate price can be very different indeed. My dealer was of the opinion that most buyers would follow Jaguar tradition and order the (larger engine) 3.0 liter version laden with most, if not all, options. I represented the minority of buyers; I wanted a "stripper": a base 2.5 liter model with manual transmission and no options. Here in economically challenged Canada, the manual shift 3.0 liter model costs a whopping $10,000 more than a manual shift 2.5 liter model (about $6500 U.S. dollars). With a horsepower difference of 37, that works out to $270 for every horsepower ($175 U.S. dollars). As one of my car crazy friends put it "does it really cost them $10,000 to bore out a couple more c.c.'s in the engine block at the factory?" So my trusty sales manager checked on her super efficient computer and listed all the cars that were due to be shipped to them by the factory in the next few months. My only other stipulation was that the car be any color other than white. We were able to agree upon a 2.5 liter, manual transmission model in Platinum (silver) with only a few options included: the "weather" package (heated seats and windshield, power headlight washers) and the CD player (but not the trunk mounted changer). The deal was concluded over a handshake and all I had to do was wait for the car to arrive. I was told the car had left the Jaguar factory on November 27th and was expected to arrive in Halifax harbor on December 9th. With any luck, I would have it before the holidays. I kind of like this image, I picture William Lyons in his blue suit waving the truck off at the factory gates as row upon row of shiny new X-types wait in line for their turn to get on the boat.

On December 11th I get an email saying the car has been "de-boated" and on December 14th I get an email confirming that the car has arrived at the dealership and will be ready for pickup in a couple of days. Hooray! I almost to forgot to mention the "extras" I had ordered: a set of winter floor mats, a rubber trunk liner, a tool kit and (horror of horrors) a block heater. For those of you who do not live in a climate where sub-zero winter temperatures are normal, a block heater is a small heating element which is affixed to the side of your oil pan or block and then plugged in to an exterior household electrical outlet. It provides a few hundred watts of heat to warm the oil during those cold winter nights. When you come out in the morning, you unplug the block heater and start the car. The pre-warmed oil helps the engine get lubricated faster and then helps the car warm up quicker. Now, I have to give some credit to my dealer here. They have been selling and servicing Jaguars for many, many years; well back into the 1970's when it was British Leyland and they sold Spitfires and TR6's alongside Jaguars. Just imagine trying to start a Stromberg carb'd TR6 in the middle of winter after a long night of 20 below zero temperatures. These guys know what a block heater is! Well, it turned out that I was the first person to order an X-type with a block heater and this caused some confusion. The dealer was used to buying their block heaters from a local Canadian company and installing them themselves. However, in the new "quality conscious" world of Jaguar (Ford), this practice had to be signed off by the engineering team in England. To make a long story short, until the day I went to pick up the car I wasn't sure if I would have a block heater or not. In the end the dealer installed mine (not sure if the engineers in England are still dissecting this strange Canadian contraption) and all is well. I should caution some buyers as to the cost of "extras": being a tool kit collector, I ordered one but you may decide not to when you see the price tag!

So down I go to the showrooms of Decarie Motors on December 19th to pick up my new car. It was a bright and sunny day with temperatures just below freezing. We had received 4 or 5 inches of snow in the two days preceding my trip to the dealer and so the roads were already covered in their first dose of the dreaded salt. I had brought a special CD with me: "A Night at the Opera" by Queen. Of course, I was ready to play the track "I'm in Love With My Car" as a test of the new stereo system. Delivery went very smoothly with Cheryl giving me the standard demonstration of all buttons and knobs.

My dealer was kind enough to supply me with a few early Christmas presents: a baseball cap, a very nice pen, an X-type t-shirt and an X-type lapel pin. A quick break for a photo-op and I'm on my way for the first time in my new X-type. I notice something immediately: there is a "bolster" or some other piece of padding (air bag?) on the underside of the dash right where my left shin wants to be. It gets in the way immediately and makes it hard for me to operate the clutch. I remember reading reviews where road testers complained of this on other models (Mercedes comes to mind), it would seem as though it does have to do with making room for airbags and safety bolsters and there is no getting around it. I moved the seat further back and all the way down to the bottom of its travel to alleviate the problem. I should mention that I'm 6'3" tall and 200 pounds, with long legs and a wide torso, so fitting in cars is not always easy. Other than "shin room", the car is very roomy and VERY comfortable. The interior is positively beautiful, Jaguar having succeeded again in combining leather and wood, modern and traditional in a cabin that reeks of class. I have a special note to those road testers who complained that the X-type does not have a central locking feature: it does! All you have to do is give a little push on the "lock" tab just above the interior door handle and all four doors will unlock. Easy if you know it's there! When you engage gear and drive off, the doors lock automatically, making a loud "thunk" in the process. In my case, it scared the cr*@*&p out of me. Two things you notice about the car straight away: it is eerily quiet and the clutch is VERY light. The sound deadening and door sealing are first class, you really can't hear anything above a whisper from outside and the engine is completely inaudible. The clutch is very, very light and it is almost impossible to get a feel for when it engages. Here I must offer a direct comparison with the other car I drive on a regular basis: a six-cylinder E-type. On that car, the clutch pedal is very heavy and the engagement is very positive. There is no doubt as to whether the clutch is "in" or "out". On the X-type, the pedal is very light and you cannot feel the engagement. This fact, combined with the inability to hear the where the engine is in the rev range (either with your ears or by the seat of your pants) means it is quite difficult to make this car move smoothly from rest. I stalled it three times in my first day of driving, how embarrassing! The alternatives are to either slip the clutch (accompanied by a burning smell) or rev it up and let it out (accompanied by a chirp of the tires and rapid progress). Hopefully, I'll get used to it but for now it takes concentration when moving off from rest. Throttle response is excellent, power is abundant and instant. The all-wheel drive does a wonderful job, never feeling like a front driver or a rear driver but rather quite neutral. The chassis is rock solid, there is never any feeling of flex or twist. The brakes are excellent as is the steering. Again, when comparing to a 34 year old E-type, I find the brakes and steering to be almost too good, almost too perfect. Personally, I like to feel the road through the steering and the brake pedal, but on the X-type everything is so fluid, so smooth as to be a bit numb. I realize that I am in a minority, but if I had the choice I would put a little "harshness" and feel back into the controls. The suspension is a marvel, it soaks up small and medium size bumps extremely well, only when hitting the really big ones do you hear a sharp "bang" from the suspension, almost as if it is scolding you for driving over such an obstacle in the first place.

My first drive was to take the car from the dealer and into downtown where my office is located and this baptism was not without drama. Within 45 seconds of leaving the dealer's parking lot I was stuck in traffic. Here I can remind those who are not lovers of manual gear shifting like me to opt for the automatic. It really is a pain in the butt to dip the clutch a hundred times as you crawl along in traffic. The British car gods must be watching over me because the car immediately in front of me in traffic rear-ended the car two in front as we were crawling along. One of those 10 mph accidents that dents bumpers and cracks reflectors etc. As they got out to yell at each other I thanked the God of Lucas that it wasn't me on the receiving end. When the highway finally opened up, I took the opportunity to squeeze the throttle and row the gears all the way up to 100 mph. Absolute silence in the car and no engine noise at all, even at these speeds. All too easy, I'm afraid!

My office building has an underground parking garage that always seems to have the "full" sign posted, so I decided to try my luck in the largest indoor parking garage in the downtown area, surely they would have room! Wrong! As soon as I got in there I knew I had made a serious mistake. It took me 15 minutes of waiting in line just to hand my ticket back and get the heck out of there. The parked cars were squeezed in like sardines and I was forced to drive my brand new car though spaces that offered only inches to spare in order to get around to the exit. Of course, the moronic parking attendants are oblivious to complaints, their standard response being "give me 20 bucks and your keys and we'll take care of it for you". NEVER! One interesting thing did happen while I was stuck in this underground garage from hell: two 40-something ladies walked past my car while I was in line to get out. I could hear them going "Oooooh, Ahhhhh, Oooooh" as they approached; then they took a good look at the car when they were alongside it and one said "Jaaaguuuuaaar....." and the other said "to die for....." That made me feel pretty good, especially as the car right in front of me was a brand new 3-series BMW in the same color as mine. My new lady friends didn't even notice his car.

I finally made it out and headed for my own building's underground parking garage. As I was pulling in, the electric door started to come down, stopping about a foot away from my windshield. This is getting out of hand! The attendant at my garage turned out to be a really nice guy who liked my car, so he found me a nice safe spot to park it and the tension filled first trip was finally over.

You may have noticed that I did not order the "Sport" package with my car. Four good reasons for this: first, it costs money! Second, road tests I had read said the car was a fine handler even without the Sport option. Third, I think the car actually looks better with the chrome highlight strips and grille instead of the body color stuff they give you when you choose the sport option. Fourth, I will be driving this car in snow a lot and the idea of wider, lower profile tires is just not worth the extra money.

I got the car home safely that night and introduced it to its new home. As I mentioned previously, the garage is currently full of vintage machinery, so I'm afraid the driveway will be home for X-type. This is not as bad as it sounds, as one of the worst things you can do to a car that is regularly covered with salt is park it in a nice warm garage. The warmer temperature actually speeds up the rusting process. Besides, with synthetic oil and a block heater the car should be fine outdoors. I also invested in one of these super-duper car covers and the jury is still out on this decision. We don't have to worry too much up here in the Great White North about blazing sunlight and ultraviolet rays, but I figure the car cover can protect the car from the regular snow and ice we get up here.

I must admit that it was nice to get up in the morning, fold up the cover and find a car that is perfectly clean and free of ice and snow. However, what the heck are you supposed to do with a car cover that is full of ice and snow? I must admit I'm still searching for a solution to this one. For now I've taken to hanging the cover on the backyard fence and brushing it off with a large broom. Not perfect but it works. The other problem is that it is not recommended to put a car cover on a dirty car, so essentially I will have to wash this thing every time I use it if I want to cover it again. If I do get the car cover dirty, then I will be putting dirt ON a clean car after washing it. For now I've decided to move my wife's minivan outside, bring the X-type in, wash it, give it an hour to dry, bring the cover in and cover up the car (in the garage), give the cover an hour to melt the snow and dry, then uncover it halfway and drive the car back outside to its parking spot and cover it, returning my wife's minivan to the warm garage. We all know Jaguar owners are a bit crazy! I have also designed and built my own "salt buster" washing system. Basically I took a six-foot long piece of 2'x4' and nailed a garden sprinkler to one end of it. I then attached a length of hose to the sprinkler and secured the hose to the 2'x4' by means of several nails bent over. I get on my hands and knees and slide this contraption around the garage floor underneath the car, thereby thoroughly dousing the underside with clean water and hopefully washing away most of the salt and crud under there. The car gets this treatment at least once a week and possibly twice. After the underbody rinse, I wash the whole car with lots of rinsing.

The next day I got the first of many chances to drive the car on snow covered roads. The traction is excellent, even with the stock all-season tires. I do not plan on buying snow tires for this car, something that is usually mandatory in this neck of the woods. In a straight line on snow it will leave almost anything for dead, it is only when you get into turns that you realize you have limited grip with these tires. It does make for some great 4 wheel drifts though! The heated seats work very well, and with the help of the block heater the whole car is warm and up to normal operating temperature within a minute or two even with the outside temperature hovering around -10C (12 degrees Fahrenheit). The heated windshield is not engineered to de-ice in the morning, but rather to keep the screen fog-free during cold weather driving. I have not tried the power headlight washers yet and frankly cannot even figure out how to get them to work.

Problems? On the first cold morning start up, the "airbag" light on the dash stayed lit for about the first ten minutes of my trip. However, it went out and has behaved normally since. I've heard stories about the operation of the automatic trunk opener and my car is no different. If the car is locked, you can open the trunk by pushing the button on the remote twice. On my car, the locking device goes "clunk-clunk-clunk-clunk" as if it is having trouble getting the trunk to open. I put it out of its misery by opening the trunk by hand. If the car is unlocked, you have to push the little Jaguar head button on the trunk lid to get it open. This works fine on mine, but after that the trunk will not close no matter how many times to push on it or slam it. My solution is to electrically lock the doors and then press the trunk opening button on the remote twice. This seems to satisfy the "gremlin" and the trunk will then close easily. I've heard from others who have returned their car to the dealer to have this fixed that Jaguar is unable to correct the situation. It makes a difference on automatic transmission cars because apparently the computer won't let you put the car in gear if it thinks the trunk lid is open. I don't really care so I'll just leave it as is until the first service. If they can't fix it, fine with me.

Of course, the other risk in leaving a car outside all night is theft. My nice little middle-class suburb is known for cars being stolen from driveways at night. I will admit that it has me a little paranoid and so I heeded my insurer's request and installed a "Boomerang" tracking system on the car. I don't think this brand name is known nationally but basically it is a satellite tracking system for cars. A small transmitter is hidden somewhere in the car and allows the car to be tracked and located if it is ever stolen. When this technology was first introduced, it was up to the customer to phone the Boomerang people and inform them that the car was stolen before tracking commenced. Two problems with this system: first, what happens if you are away for the weekend and the car is stolen from your driveway? By the time you call to inform them of the theft, your car could be in Kuwait! Second, the thieves had figured out how to get around the Boomerang "problem". They would steal the car anyway and immediately park it in a large public parking area. Then they just let it sit for a few days. If nobody comes to get it, it means there is no Boomerang installed and they can proceed with the theft. So now we have the "Boomerang 2", in this case the ignition key is equipped with a small transmitter which "talks" to the unit hidden in your car. If anybody tries to move your car without the key, then the transmitter is instantly activated. The Boomerang dispatcher then tries calling the owner to see if they are actually using the car. If not, they call the police and start tracking the car's location. This leads to the potentially amusing scenario of receiving a phone call in the middle of the night to tell you that you car is headed up the street without you! "Hello, Mr. Thompson?" "Yes" "Are you currently using your car...?"

I admit to being nervous about leaving the car sitting in the driveway all night. Last week, my wife and I were turning out the lights and heading upstairs about midnight when I heard the sound of a car with a sick muffler coming up the street. As I peeked out the living room window, a rusty black late 1980's Pontiac slowed in front of your house, and then stopped completely in front on our driveway. In the near darkness, I could see two young men with baseball caps staring at my car. They lingered for about ten seconds, seemingly satisfied that they had identified what kind of car it was and then accelerated up the street. Now, call me paranoid, but this was either two local teenagers checking out the new car on the block or two guys "casing" their next car theft. Time will tell if I get that phone call at 3 a.m. to tell me my car is on the move without me in it!

Does this car invite unwanted attention? No, not really, at least not as much as an E-type would. It is a handsome car and I try to keep it as clean and shiny as possible. However, to the uninformed it does not look much different than a BMW or a Ford Taurus for that matter. I do attract the attention of two groups: the teenage young men in "hot hatches" and the 40-something men in their Audis, Beemers, Lexus, Acuras and Volvos. This latter group are the ones that discreetly want to race with you, you'll notice them creep up beside you at 70 mph, using their peripheral vision to read the name on your trunk lid. Then they put their foot in it a little, say up to 80 mph, just to see what you're going to do. So far, I've played the little game with them, downshifting into 4th and pulling away. The X-type is a very quiet and smooth car with good power, even in 2.5 liter form. I can verify that it is very stable and comfortable cruising at 100 or even 120 mph. I'm already starting to tire of this game, however and am now happy to let them drive on by as I load another CD into the player and enjoy the comfort of the cabin.

Final word? Jaguar have produced a winner here, the car is handsome, comfortable, easy to drive, powerful and reliable. And the price is right. I plan on keeping mine for a long time!

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About the author - Daniel Thompson is the past president of Jaguar Owner's Association - Montreal and currently president of the Ottawa Jaguar Club. He is also running for election as Regional Director for JCNA in the Northeast. He currently owns three Jaguars: a 1958 MkIX under restoration, a 1968 E-type and, of course, a 2002 X-type. Daniel's "day job" is president of a portfolio management firm based in Montreal and specializing in small-medium cap North American growth equities. He can be reached at dthompson@gbc.ca if you want to talk about X-types, E-types or Jaguars in general.

Posted: 1/2002