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Jaguar X-Type
The Jaguar X-TYPE is
a model of motorcar that first began production
in 2001 (as a 2002 model) and remains in production
at Jaguar's Halewood facility in England.
The
X-TYPE is the smallest of the current Jaguar
saloon cars, and was designed to build on
the success of the S-Type, although it takes
many styling cues from the XJ series. It is
built on a modified version of the Ford CD132
platform, evolved from the Ford CDW27 platform,
which also underpins the Ford Mondeo. Jaguar
states that there are only 20% Ford parts,
and the other 80% are genuine Jaguar parts.
This vehicle was designed
as a direct competitor to the BMW 3 Series
and the Mercedes-Benz C-Class. It has good
handling - the all wheel drive system which
is tuned to send 60% of engine power to the
rear wheels and 40% to the front for a sportier
feel. It has a V6 engine that produces 192
hp (143 kW), and 178 ft·lbf (241 N·m)
of torque. Still, sales have been poor, blamed
on its resemblance to the larger XJ which
was traditionally bought by older customers,
not the younger ones that Jaguar craved. Initially
projected to surpass 100,000 annual sales,
the X-TYPE peaked at 50,000 in 2003. The model
is scheduled to remain in production through
2009 [1], an extremely long production cycle
for a modern automobile, especially one with
poor sales. It is unlikely that the model
will be replaced when production ends, as
Jaguar has scaled back expansion plans.
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