RICHARD BARNETT 10k? NO SWEAT!

Having racked up the equivalent of Bangladesh and back, Richy’s Jag continues to impress its owner

2005 JAGUAR X-TYPE 3.0

On and on it goes. And while there have been a few hiccups along the way since its last appearance on these pages all is pretty good in X-type world. All was back on track once my local garage had sorted out the rear ABS sensor woes and it has been making trips up the M4 without missing a beat since last spring.

A service was clearly due come autumn so it was back on the dog ‘n’ bone to Swansea’s Mistermatic, which did some sterling work on my X300 Jag XJ6 Sport a good few years ago. I opted for a full fluid change, a thorough check-over and put it in for the MOT test. Of course, things never go according to plan and the test-failing stumbling block was, perhaps unsurprisingly, corrosion in the floorpan. Mistermatic is clearly well-versed in tackling the job and it was back a couple of days later with a freshly-issued test certificate and running like a train.

If you saw my last appearance in these pages it was with the Daihatsu Fourtrak and yes, it’s pretty good on the motorway but the X-type is faster and more economical. Talking of which, the switch to a ‘greener’ E10 petrol has seen my fuel economy drop from 36-38mpg to 33-34mpg, which begs the obvious question – how is that ‘green’? My current modus operandi is that once the tank is half-full I’ll fill up with super unleaded, despite the appreciably greater cost.

It was back to Mistermatic not long before Christmas for an oil change and new spark plugs as performance was fluffing under load. All was good in normal traffic but mashing the loud pedal on inclines revealed a slight reluctance to serve up turbine-smooth