Jaguar droping the X-Type, focusing on new XF?

Jaguar intends to cut its best-selling X-Type and in the future will be based on lower volume and higher profit. In the past years, Jaguar has been a loss-maker and there are rumors that it will follow Aston Martin on leaving the Ford empire.

When Jaguar launched the X-Type in 2001, they wanted to ake on the BMW 3-Series and double Jaguar’s sales to more than 170,000 a year, but they only sold around 100,000 units since its debut year.

The result is that Jaguar may reduce the X-Type presence as long as the XF will do fine: “We think XF will be the volume seller going forward rather than the X-Type."

The XF, previewed at January’s Detroit motor show as the CX-F concept car, has been labelled by the automotive industry as a do-or-die car for Jaguar. "It has to be a success. This is Jaguar’s money-shot for the next five years.

The C-XF concept is a lot closer to the production XF than other teaser concepts. The front and rear ends will be similar to the final car that debuts at September’s Frankfurt show. The headlights will be wider than the concept’s, though, and the roofline, especially towards the rear, will increase in height by another couple of inches to create better access to the rear seat as well as better headroom.

The smallest engine to power the XF will be a four-cylinder model. Also the hybrids and the V8 turbo diesel (TDV8) recently launched could be in the pipeline for XF.