Filed under: Coupe, Jaguar
To put it mildly, sales of the Jaguar X-Type have never quite lived up to worldwide expectations, and that’s especially true in the American market where the car did way more damage to the automaker’s reputation that its middling sales numbers were ever worth. Jaguar is hoping that its upcoming XJ restores some of the leaping cat’s lost luster, and if that happens, exciting prospects may very well open up for the classic British automaker.
Not surprisingly, there are no plans to replace the X-Type in Jaguar’s line, but there are a number of options that the automaker could explore for future automobiles – not the least of which is the rumored XE compact sportscar. Engineering chief Mick Mohan tells Autocar that another possibility would be an entry-level coupe that could sport a sticker price several thousand dollars under that of the XF:
Personally, I’d love to make a compact coupe – an Audi A5 or BMW 3 Series coupe rival. There’s plenty of profit to be made on those cars, and our aluminum platform technology gives us the opportunity to make one. I think we’d make a really good one too.
One more interesting tidbit from Mohan is that Jaguar has absolutely no intention of following Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz into the crossover market. “Utility will never be what we’re about”, he says, and somehow, we’re thankful for that.
[Source: Autocar]
X-Type Redux? Jaguar reportedly considering entry-level coupe originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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