2004 Jaguar X-type Awd 1 Owner Clean Carfax Well Kept on 2040-cars

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This or That: Mercedes S-Class 350SD vs. 2003 Jaguar XJR [w/poll]

Budget. It's a wretched word, whether you're going out to eat, shipping for a new outfit or, more relevant to today's discussion, buying a car. Massive marketing machines have convinced us, as a population, to buy the best you can afford, repercussions be damned – If you've saved up some money, spend it! All of it, on whatever it is that currently sits atop your personal Amazon wishlist, be it a Timex that takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin', a $17,000 Gold Apple Watch or a $60,000 Rolex Cosmograph Daytona. But what if the best you can afford is... say, $12,815? For that price, you can buy a brand-new 2015 Nissan Versa (including destination), assuming you're happy with zero options and a manual transmission. For that price, you'll get standard air conditioning, a CD player and... well, a warranty. Pretty sensible choice, Captain Frugal. But also ridiculously uninspired. And so that brings us to today's edition of This or That, in which two Autoblog editors pick differing sides of an argument and duke it out to see which one of us can convince you, dear reader, is better. Or at least less wrong. You be the judge. As a refresher, I'm two-and-two on these challenges, having lost the first and second editions before storming back in rounds three and four. Today, as alluded to above, we decided to throw our collective brainpower (oh lord, what have we done?) at what may be the single most difficult question currently confounding the best minds our planet has to offer: What is the best used used luxury car you can buy for the price of a 2015 Nissan Versa? Shall we meet our contenders? Allow me to introduce you to the most perfect luxury car money can buy (assuming the amount of money you're holding is equal to the amount of the cheapest new car currently sold in America, the Nissan Versa). My pick is the 1991 Mercedes-Benz S-Class. Not just any S-Class, but the legendary W126, which was produced between 1979 and 1992. And not just any W126, either, but one powered by a 3.5-liter turbodiesel engine. And with that, I send the argument to my esteemed colleague, Associate Editor Chris Bruce. Bruce: Jeremy, we had over $12,000 to budget for this challenge, and the best you can manage is a 24-year-old diesel Mercedes? I love oil-burners as much as any other auto writer with their mountains of torque and huge cruising range, but you're making this too easy on me. Also, you're really choosing a brown, diesel, German luxury sedan?

The diesel premium in our Jaguar XE quickly pays for itself

Our long-term 2017 Jaguar XE 20d AWD recently returned from a 2,000-mile road trip. My wife and I took a few days to visit her family in Auburn, Alabama, and it was the first real chance anyone has had to stretch the Jaguar's legs outside of Michigan. It was also a good opportunity to see what sort of fuel economy I could wring out of the XE's 2.0-liter turbocharged diesel. The diesel engine was the main reason I chose it over our equally lovely long-term 2017 Audi A4. For me, chasing fuel economy is a great way to stay focused on the road. The XE 20d AWD is rated at 30 city/40 highway and 34 combined. The drive to and from Auburn is almost entirely highway, so I knew matching the highway rating would be easy enough. The XE has a 14.8 gallon tank, so I was looking at a minimum of 600 miles per tank and four fills for the trip, counting the initial pre-departure fill. I had two main concerns: first, this was a new route, so I didn't know how available diesel would be along I-75; second, crossing the Appalachian Mountains was going to severely cut into my overall average. The first worry turned out to be a nonissue, especially as we went further south. Not once was I forced to go from station to station looking for a lone green-handled pump. People in the South love their Cummins, Powerstroke, and Duramax-powered trucks, meaning diesel pumps were plentiful. Rolling up in a Jaguar does garner attention, though. An older gentleman even asked if I knew that I was putting diesel in the car. It seems he didn't have much faith in my reading comprehension skills. The mountains were more of a problem. There was literally no getting around them, but were west of the highest parts, so it could have been worse. The indicated fuel economy dropped by 4 mpg on the way up, from 47 mpg to 43. Still, I managed more than 650 miles from a tank, though I was starting to push my luck. We filled up for the short final leg. By the time we rolled into Auburn, the display indicated 44 mpg – pretty damn good, I'd say. It held there for the entire trip. Calculating the actual mileage revealed the computer was generous by 2 mpg, but that's par for the course. Few automakers display precise numbers. The relative ease of getting this sort of fuel economy was complemented by the price of diesel. At each one of my four stops, diesel cost less than premium, the required fuel in all of the XE's gasoline engines. According to AAA, the same is true nationwide.

2016 Jaguar F-Type ups warranty, adds standard equipment

The 2016 Jaguar F-Type is getting all-wheel-drive and an optional six-speed manual gearbox. That, of course, has been the big news surrounding the British brand's stylish two-seat coupe and cabrio since it was announced back in November. For 2016, though, Jag has done a lot more than just update the F-Type's powertrain – it's made life easier for the car's future owners. Jaguar has generously upped the complimentary service period for the 2016 F-Type, going from covering the first service only, to handing out five years or 60,000 miles of free maintenance to owners of the 2016 F-Type. That is, frankly, stupendous. That new plan is paired with an extended warranty, which has been expanded from five years or 50,000 miles to match the new complimentary service period. Coventry has also significantly added to the list of standard equipment for 2016, offering a 770-watt Meridian stereo, SiriusXM satellite radio, a SmartKey, 14-way power seats and on the hardtop models, a glass roof. Again, that's all standard equipment now. S models now get the standard dynamic mode, flat-bottomed wheel and active exhaust system. R models, as we said back in November, get all-wheel drive as standard. Most remarkable about all of this, though, is how little the new standard equipment has impacted the F-Type's price. The manual-trans Coupe matches last year's $65,000 starting price, while adding an eight-speed automatic kicks the price up $1,300. The S Coupe is slightly pricier than last year's $77,000 mid-grade model, starting at $77,300 for the manual and $78,800 for the automatic. The all-wheel-drive S Coupe starts at $84,800. The R, which as we said, enjoys standard all-wheel-drive, is getting the biggest price bump, with the Coupe model going from $99,000 to $103,600. The all-new Jaguar F-Type R Convertible starts at $106,450. Beyond that, if you want an F-Type with a canvas roof, add $3,100 to the prices shown above. So there we have it – a longer warranty, five years of free maintenance more standard equipment and a negligible increase in price. Um, why can't all model year updates be so nice? Check out the press release for more on the updated F-Types from Jag. Related Video: JAGUAR HITS THE GAS PEDAL ON U.S. 2016 F-TYPE LINEUP TO RAISE PRESSURE ON THE COMPETITION ? Jaguar ramps up F-TYPE value advantage by increasing standard equipment and features by $3,550 for F-TYPE to $11,850 for F-TYPE R models.