The seller of today’s Nice Price or No Dice Jaguar wagon claims it is the same model once driven by the former matriarch of the United Kingdom and all-around fun-queen, Elizabeth II, may she rest in peace. Let’s see if its price tag has us crowning this car as a good deal.
In Stephen King’s “Christine,” the title 1958 Plymouth Fury is sold to a high schooler who has become bewitched (literally) by the car’s haunting charms. The sale involves back-and-forth negotiations, despite King implying that the seller is aware of the car’s malevolent behavior and should therefore be happy to part ways with it. It’s the ultimate “I know what I’ve got” sales tactic.
Sometimes it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie, a central point of the storyline in King’s best seller. That was also the case with the 1984 BMW 633 CSI project car we looked at last Friday. At $1,600, it was arguably cheap, but as many of you made mention in the comments, that was just the start of the wallet-lightening journey the Bimmer would lead a new owner on. In the end, that simply didn’t add up, resulting in a 64% “No Dice” loss in the vote.
Jaaaag
Have you been down to your friendly neighborhood Jaguar dealer of late? If not, don’t bother, as the company has ceased sales of new whips entirely here in the U.S. as part of an inscrutable plan to reinvent the brand as a purveyor of what is expected to be a series of ultra-expensive electric luxury vehicles. So far in that process, Jag’s given us one boutique concept coupe with styling straight out of the 1960s British sci-fi puppet show ‘Thunderbirds,’ and an advertising campaign intending to reposition the marque that instead repositioned the company’s CEO, Adrian Mardell, right out of a job.
Things were much simpler for Jaguar back when today’s 2006 X-Type Estate first hit the road. At that time, the company, along with its Brit Boy Band partner Land Rover, was owned and financed by the Ford Motor Company. The closeness of the relationship between Jaguar and parent Ford was most obvious in the X-Type, as it was little more than a reskinned Ford Mondeo, and boy, does it look like that.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing unless your expectations have been set by the painfully beautiful XK-E and the observatory mirror-smoothness of the XJ12. As pointed out by our Jag’s seller, even the Queen herself (R.I.P., your majesty) felt the X-Type Estate to be her cup of tea for Corgi-carrying at times when her ‘Landy’ was in the shop. What’s good enough for the Crown should be good enough for us.
A 40/60 split
That said, the basics of this clean-title, low-mileage (88,008) estate car are all Ford underneath. And, while these don’t typically have the reliability or materials quality of, say, a Toyota Camry, they tend to more than make up for that in panache and weirdness. There’s also the party conversation starter of this being Jaguar’s first production station wagon bodystyle ever.
Under that bodywork lies a 3.0-liter V6, designated AJ30 by Jaguar and based heavily on Ford’s Duratec engine but with cylinder heads engineered by Cosworth. As fitted, that delivers 227 horsepower and 206 pound-feet of torque from the transversely mounted quad-cam engine. All that power is routed through a five-speed automatic to all four wheels via a center always-on diff that nominally splits the output 40 front/60 rear, but can shift it to wherever it’s needed when called upon.
According to the seller, the car has recently undergone A/C service and has new brakes and rotors. It’s currently claimed to run well, with no issues.
But wait, there’s more
When it comes to the car’s mechanicals, that’s not all. The seller lets us in on the car’s secret: a performance-tuned ECU chip that they claim bumps the ponies by “about 40 or 50 horses” and returns a stellar 33 to 34 mpg on the open road.
Aesthetically, the car appears to be in excellent condition, although the seller notes a few minor blemishes and contends that, at 20 years old, the car has earned them. That seems to also be the case in the cabin. The leather upholstery, burlwood (yes, real wood) trim, and plastics all appear to be still in the hunt. This is a 20-year-old car, so the dashboard screens are relatively small, but there are plenty of buttons to make up for it. There’s also Jag’s oddball ‘J-Gate’ shifter for driver amusement. This being a luxury ride despite its diminutive dimensions, it’s fitted with power seats, windows and mirrors, automatic climate control, and a pretty decent CD stereo.
No Text Messages
The ad opens with the seller bemoaning the need to be rid of the Jag, claiming, “I don’t want to sell my Jaguar x-type sports wagon but I really need the money.” Hey, buddy, don’t we all? While impressing the need for liquidity in their assets, the seller doesn’t avail themselves of all avenues of contact from interested parties, stating emphatically and repeatedly at the close of the ad, “NO TEXT MESSAGES.”
I’m pretty sure we can abide by that request, as all we want to do is judge the Jag and the seller’s $9,000 asking price. We can do that, right? What do you think about this small, fairly rare estate and that price tag? Does that feel like a deal to drive like a queen? Or is that too much to ask for this cat?
You decide!
Nice Price or No Dice:
Albuquerque, New Mexico, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Lars Eldnor for the hookup!
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