Although the concept has had time to settle in the public consciousness, the mind continues to reel slightly at the idea of a front-wheel drive Jaguar with a diesel engine. As recently as a single-figure number of years ago, the very suggestion of such a thing would have inspired choking fits and letters to the committee, but - as suggested in our launch report - there's no reason why it should create any major upset nowadays, as long as the project has been properly thought out.And to a large extent it has. While expanding its range downmarket, Jaguar has been careful to maintain its very high standard of interior design. The themes are in no way radical, and if anything Jaguar could be criticised for over-emphasising the traditional aspect, but the fact (or at least my opinion of the fact) remains that every model in the range from the cheapest upwards has an attractiveness of cabin which remains unmatched by any rival.It's all too often pointed out that the X-Type is closely related to the Mondeo, a cost-saving feature made possible by Jaguar's presence within the Ford Premier Automotive Group.This has generated a good deal of sniffing in some quarters, but I don't see it as a problem - there are many examples of two cars sharing the same platform but feeling quite different from each other, and I've never been reminded of a Mondeo while driving any X-Type.The sharing system does, however, mean that the obvious engine to use for the diesel version was Ford's two-litre, four-cylinder job. This does cause some difficulties. Although the resulting X-Type is the most economical and least CO2-producing car in Jaguar history, the amount of noise it produces seems out of character with the rest of the car.A lot of work has gone into reducing the decibels, including the application of a Combustion Noise Sensor system. The gist and sum of this is that the engine "listens" to itself and adjusts the fuel injectors every 0.0003 seconds in an effort to reduce the noise levels.Very clever . . . but Jaguar reckons that "combustion noise is optimised after approximately 500 miles of typical road driving". Well, the version that CARkeys drove had a lot more than 500 miles on the clock, and it still sounded more like a diesel repmobile than a small luxury saloon.The test car was an SE, which was reasonably good news in terms of ride and handling. From all the evidence presented so far, I don't believe that Jaguar knows how to set up a front-wheel drive chassis - the petrol X-Type in this form is greatly inferior to the 4x4s. There is no 4x4 diesel, but for some reason (against the general trend of these things) the diesel X-Type handles considerably better than the FWD petrol ones, as long as you avoid the Sport specification whose low-profile tyres and stiffer damping ruin the ride quality.So if you must have a front-wheel drive X-Type, the diesel SE is the pick of the bunch in terms of the driving experience. But this is all relative. Even in the form tested here, the car has a curious rocking motion which make it seem as if the wheels are set about six inches closer to the centre line than they actually are.One plus point is that the X-Type becomes a great deal more comfortable the more smoothly you operate it, but that's little consolation for the fact that, among cars of similar size, both the rightly celebrated Mazda6 and the new-generation Daewoo Nubira provide superior driving experiences.Of course, neither of these is aimed at the same customer base as the Jaguar. Prospective X-Type owners are more likely to be interested in ambience than agility, and the test car had one detail - trivial, really - which demonstrated the sort of thing Jaguar does best.I found it when I was playing with the touch-sensitive screen on the centre console which lets you control the radio, the air-conditioning, the television (yes!) and what-not. It's a fine system, very easy to use, but the colours are sometimes a little too strong.There is, however, a Logo Screen icon, and when you prod that the screen displays Jaguar's leaping cat logo in silver on a Racing Green background. A simple enough trick, but one which immediately added about £1000 to the perceived value of the car.This is just the kind of thing which can persuade you that only a Jaguar will really do, even though better diesel saloons are available at lower prices.Second opinion: Yes, you just can't beat Jaguar for turning out the kind of interior which is so classy that it eases the pain of slow-moving traffic queues simply by being so pleasant to occupy. Nobody in this price range manages wood and leather the way Jaguar does. I don’t think many X-Type buyers will be bothered much about what's referred to above as the "driving experience", because this is a car intended more for that less dynamic experience called motoring. As a business car and/or long-distance cruiser, the 2.0d is a fine machine, and just look at those highly un-Jaguar-like fuel consumption figures. There's quite high gearing and a pile of low-range torque (243lb/ft at 1800rpm), with the result that you have to be down a gear or two from top in town traffic to avoid a strong element of straining at the leash. The test car was an example of how Jaguar customers can pile on the extra-cost options, not just the television screen but also things like a European Navigation Pack and a Cold Climate Xenon Pack, with xenon headlamps plus powerwash, heated front seats, heated windscreen and so on. And this car had the most pernickety all-round sensors we're ever experienced, even taking umbrage at the side-on presence of a foot-high clump of heather. Better that than being sloppy, of course. Ross Finlay. Engine 1998cc, 4 cylinders Power 128bhp Fuel/CO2 50.3mpg / 149g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 9.9 seconds Top speed 125mph Price £22,995 Details correct at publication date
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