Jag X-type and Lincoln LS...pros and cons, please.

I have more dreams than money, but having said that, I was just at my favorite local used car website and found 2 cars that I thought begged comparison...a Jaguar X-type and a Lincoln LS with a the V6.

The "stats"...

X-type is a 2002, has the 2.5 liter with a MANUAL tranny, 87K miles and they are asking 9 grand.

The LS is an 2000, as said: has the 3 liter V6 with auto, has 93K miles and they are asking 7grand.

The Jag is painted a bright/almost lipstick red, which both repels and intrigues me, but the thought of a British-built car in my garage.........?

The LS? Does it carry the curse of the Ford early auto tranny failure? How about the intake gasket failures that plague many of Fords V engines...6s and 8s?

The LS is a great car (and shares a platform with some random Jag and the "retro" TBird as well) but that is a horrifically high price for a V6/Auto one. V6/5-Speed yes and V8/Auto maybe, but V6/Auto is a good $3K less then that around here.

Anyways... LS, battery is in the trunk, dunno about the V6 but the V8 is a sweet engine (small too, like 4L?), no problems that I know about. I almost bought one of these instead of the P71 but couldn't find any V8's around here and the V6/Auto combo is sooooooooo slow.

I don't know anything about the Jag, sounds cool though.

Didn't someone on this board just bought a Jag X-type for his wife? I am also intrigued by the Jag X-type for the wife since it's very cheap now.

You can either buy the Jag that is really a Ford or the Ford/Lincoln that is really the Jag...

In this area, the LS with a V8 is easier to come by, compared to the V6, and the V6/manual combo is truely rare.

I looked up the specs for both these cars after I originally posted this. While the Lincoln is nearly a foot longer, the wheelbase is only about 7 inches longer than the Jag's and since the trunks are quite close in size, it must mean a roomier back seat. The Jag has less headroom, and is narrower, but because of the AWD, it weighs nearly as much as the LS. The 2000 LS has about 210 horsepower to the 194 of the X-type, and so I would imagine it's only slightly quicker than the LS with auto. Gas mileage is "nearly" the same, the Jag bests the LS by only 1 mpg BOTH city and highway.

So, basically, it boils down to a slow(ish?) LS, compared to a (marginally?) faster X-type? With build quality being the tie-breaker?

My buddy had an LS. He liked it a great deal, he may still have it. I think he got it for silly chap money.

I have nothing other than that to ad..

Well, I went over to Edmunds to do an appraisal, and to find out what owners of these cars were saying.

Contrary to what has been said here, the asking price for the LS wasn't too far off...it was actually LOW for this area. The asking price for the Jag? Several hundred dollars (nearly $1,000) low.

Then I read owner's reviews. (I really almost hate to, because just reading the reviews by owners on Edmunds tells me that 90%+ of car/truck owners are clueless.) Anyway, BOTH suffer from problems with their automatic transmissions after they are a few years old. Is this lack of maintenance or poor design? The LS had problems with electric windows and coolant leaks, the Jag with MAJOR electrical problems and various mechanical problems. Apparently, these are both the first years of each of these models (the LS arrived in 2000? and the X-type in 2002), and both MAY have been a little less trouble-prone the longer they were in production. Less than 20% of comments were happy ones.

I actually have a friend who is selling a 2000 LS with a v6 and a 5 spd. Known problems for the LS are the sway bar links go bad... sometimes crazy electrical gremlins.. everything.. I mean everything runs thru the on-board systems, so they can be a pain to fix sometimes... BUT.. they drive extremely well..handle great... I have driven my friends on many occasion and it was almost too quiet and smooth for me.. Oh.. also known for door handle malfunctions after a few years of use...

Just my .02 worth.. good luck on the purchase.

If you're looking for that sort of car, the X would be fun. Most reviewers (and normal humans) hated it, but I had one as a rental a few years ago and was impressed. It's basically a Contour in Jag-drag. It may be a little poseur, but I wouldn't mind driving one.

Is the intent to debate the merits of these two vehicles, or is there an agenda of possible purchase?

The X-type is based on the same platform as the Contour, which I'd say is good for handling but bad for back seat room.

ea_sport wrote: Didn't someone on this board just bought a Jag X-type for his wife? I am also intrigued by the Jag X-type for the wife since it's very cheap now.

That was me! 2.5l, 5sp, paid 8k for it and every time she dirves it she says "I love this car" Handles pretty good too. Hasn't given us a lick of trouble, although finding a rep. battery can be a bit of a challenge. She's put 20k on it since we picked it up. 9k for an 87k one is a good deal.

Jay_W

One of the "respondents" on Edmunds.com said his '02 X-type had a rusting problem that was caused by inproper body engineering. In other words, some design fault causes the water to be retained in the rocker panels...as told to him by the dealer. Supposedly corrected in later models.

You have not asked but I will give anyway. In your price range and style range I would recommend a 2000-2002 Nissan Maxima or Infiniti i30 / i35.

I've recently thought a LS with a T56 and LS1 would be killer.

I like those X-type estate wagons or whatever they're called...

I've noticed many Maximas and I30/I35s for sale in this area, with similar mileages and prices to the 2 cars being discussed. The thing is, where is the character, especially in the case of the I30?

The X-type in question, as already stated, is painted a "bright" red (looks like the kind of car an "eccentric" hooker might drive), while the LS is a very sinister looking dark grey (like something a mafia "tough" might drive....except for being a V6). The I30s, aside from being Maxima clones (great for reliability, not so great for character) are painted in light metallic shades of green, beige, or silver. They look like what a yakusa wannabe might drive.

Not that I buy any car based on what it looks like to other people....

me either, but the VQ is sweet.

I bought my wife an '03 Maxima three years ago. GREAT decision. Needed nothing in that time but gas and oil changes. Pushing 135k now, still dry as a bone underneith.

furthermore manual transmissions are not as hard to find as the jag or ls, and even with an automatic it would run away from either.

I've definitely thought about the X type, and looked into them before getting the E38 BMW. I loved my SVT Contour, and the X type with the manual is basically an SVT Contour with AWD and Jag style. Bad deals when new due to the cost, but great deals after the depreciation hit has been taken by the original owners..

Gimme one just like this:

Chris_V wrote: I've definitely thought about the X type, and looked into them before getting the E38 BMW. I loved my SVT Contour, and the X type with the manual is basically an SVT Contour with AWD and Jag style. Bad deals when new due to the cost, but great deals after the depreciation hit has been taken by the original owners..

Funny, I wrote the exact same thing and didn't wind up posting it. I miss my CSVT still, and would certainly consider a manual 2.5 X Type for a "fun" car if I hadn't gotten into BMWs myself (E46 first, now a monster E66). Even better would be to find one with a bad motor cheap and swap a 3 Liter motor in.