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Jaguar design boss admits X-Type was a mistake

History has a way of repeating itself, especially in the auto industry. When Jaguar was owned by Ford, the British brand attempted to field a competitor for the BMW 3 Series, called the X-Type. Based on the bones of a Ford Mondeo, it aped the styling of Jaguar's flagship model, the XJ, while borrowing liberally from the Ford parts bin. That was 2001.
Now, in 2013, Jaguar is planning a new 3 Series challenger based on the platform previewed by the C-X17 Concept, while Ford is attempting to take the latest Mondeo upmarket. The moves have both brands recognizing where, why, and how the X-Type failed. "It didn't look mature or powerful or anything. It was just a car," Jaguar's current head of advanced design, Julian Thomson, told PistonHeads. Basing the X-Type on a front-drive car while giving it styling that was meant for a rear-driver lead to proportions that "were plainly wrong," Thomson told PH. Ford's European head of quality, Gunnar Herrmann, added that the X-Type was "a fake Jaguar, because every piece I touch is Ford."
For what it's worth, the X-Type's successor in the segment will sport rear-drive, with plenty of input from Ian Callum. Thomson described the new model, which would challenge the 3 Series as having, "Big wheels right to the ends of the car, low bonnet, short overhangs, very low cabins." Sounds good to us.

Jaguar bringing all-wheel-drive F-Type to LA Auto Show [w/video]

Jaguar's big splash at last year's Los Angeles Auto Show was showing off the slinky F-Type Coupe; perhaps one of the loveliest car shapes on the road today. This year the company won't have a show-stopping new design to offer, but the news that all-wheel drive is coming to the F-Type range is, nevertheless, pretty spectacular.
Mixed in with news about a technical partnership between Jaguar and the Bloodhound SSC World Land Speed Record program, the British brand announced this morning that it will show the first AWD F-Type Coupe at the 2014 LA show later this month.
Jaguar tells us that the sure-footed cat, in AWD F-Type R Coupe form, will run from 0-60 miles per hour in just 3.9 seconds, with a limited top speed of 186 mph.

2016 Jaguar XE pounces on the Parisian port

It's been about five years since Jaguar discontinued the misguided X-Type and exited the compact luxury sedan market, but today marks the British automaker's re-entry into the segment with the public debut of the all-new XE.
Pitted against the likes of the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, the new Jaguar XE is based on an all-new aluminum architecture that will underpin many new felines to follow, and packs a new family of four-cylinder engines. That is, aside from the range-topping XE S pictured above, with the super-six borrowed from the F-Type.
Conservatively styled but elegant and uniquely Jaguar, the XE isn't set to arrive Stateside until 2016. So unless you're planning a trip overseas (with a stop at a Jaguar showroom on the itinerary), our gallery of live shots from the floor of the Paris Motor Show here at the Porte de Versailles may be the best look you'll be getting at Coventry's latest for the next couple of years.