The Jaguar X-type is often panned by true Jag aficionados as a half-assed car. It’s not a full Jaguar. It’s instead a Ford Mondeo (read: Contour) wearing Dad’s clothing, and the detractors aren’t completely wrong…it does share parts of the CD132 platform, though only about 20% in reality, but when your brand trades heavily on straight-up snobbery, having any relationship with a common American is pretty much a disaster. The X-type has been compared to the Cadillac Cimarron, the ultimate sin for platform sharing if there ever was one, and even Ian Callum, Jaguar’s director of design, went out of his way to distance the company from the car. They sold well enough, and the media more or less were warm to the car, but no amount of praise could cover up for the nose-high attitudes of the public.

CarThrottle’s Alex Kersten recently got his hands on a £490 Jaguar X-type with all-wheel-drive. And overall, it looks like a pretty decent used car, especially for Britain. But if you’ve been to the UK, you’ll notice that older cars aren’t exactly a common sight. Being an island in the North Atlantic, Britain gets more than it’s fair share of metal-eating materials. Think of it like the Rust Belt, except EVERYWHERE. But the X-type looks pretty good and isn’t rotting apart. And that means that since it’s an unloved, derided car that is otherwise good…

Ok, we aren’t 100% sure why Alex is bent on lifting and kitting up the Jag into a rip-off of the Subaru Outback SUS. But we dig that he’s actually doing it. Maybe this will give the Jaguar loyalists something to think about over their tea….