Palm Springs, California- With the VDP nameplate, Jaguar hopes to use the heritage of its custom-equipped XJ Vanden Plas sedans of the past to bring a little heritage to the X-type. It's a marketing move that raises just as many questions as it answers about the future of Jaguar.
When the X-type first arrived here in 2002, Jaguar touted it as a triumph of design and performance, evidence that Ford had successfully reinvigorated Jaguar to meet the demands of the new century. Unfortunately the X-type proved to be smaller, pricier, and less dependable than people had been led to expect, and it would never drive like a BMW, no matter how many well-meaning journalists pretended that it did. X-type sales have drifted downward ever since the car's launch, and just 26,772 examples were sold in the United States in 2004, a decline of 20 percent from 2003. In comparison, Audi sold 51,043 A4s in 2004, and even Saab sold 34,075 9-3s.
With the 2005 X-type, Jaguar is basically relaunching this model, emphasizing more than 1000 component changes to improve quality.... Read full article