Jaguar is a company with a proud history, unbroken until recent times, of producing large, beautiful saloons and sports cars, using multi-cylinder petrol engines to drive their rear wheels. From the company’s creation in 1945 to the end of the century, those were the defining features. Then the X-type arrived in 2000 and tore up the Jaguar song sheet.

The first conceptual hurdle to overcome was that it was small, the next that it was ugly. But what was perceived by many to be the greatest heresy of all was that it employed four-wheel drive, courtesy of the Ford Mondeo platform around which it was constructed.

But it still offered four doors and a range of six-cylinder engines, and it still drove its rear wheels, albeit only in conjunction with those at the front. The next bastion of Jaguar-ness to be cast aside arrived with the need to sell an X-type for under £20,000, an imperative that in 2002 saw the first ever front-wheel-drive Jaguar produced.

Still the market outpaced Jaguar as huge strides in diesel technology, and new company car tax legislation, turned petrol engines — once the only form of power for such cars — into a relative minority interest. So the X-type diesel was born, bringing with it a power source never to have visited Jaguar before. What’s more, the engine had only four cylinders.

And that left just the four-door body as the last man standing, the final token gesture to so many decades of Jaguar tradition. But even this has proved no longer to be sacrosanct, as this X-type, Jaguar’s first ever estate, shows.

To me the words Jaguar and estate do not sit comfortably in the same sentence, any more than do Porsche and off-roader. But in both cases I guess we have no choice but to just get used to them.

In the Jaguar’s instance the process is made somewhat easier by the fact that it’s a considerably better looking car than the saloon upon which it is based. Where an X-type saloon gives the impression that the front and rear ends are strangers to each other, the estate’s shape is far better integrated. And anything that distracts from the awkward nose of the X-type has to be a step in the right direction.

In fact, this seems to be part of a growing trend, as the Audi A4, BMW 3-series, MG ZT and Alfa 156 estates all prove easier on the eye than their four-door sisters.

Better news still is the thoroughness of the execution of the X-type’s rear. There’s no rocket science involved here, but nor is it just a box glued to the rear of a saloon. All exterior panels from the B-pillar rearward are new, while the tailgate, with its wide opening and independently opened rear screen are signs of a thorough job. The load area is competitive for both capacity and layout, until you drop the rear seats. If you do that, Jaguar claims it offers more luggage space than any class rival. Nice touches abound, such as chromed luggage hooks, underfloor stowage, a rear power socket and storage lockers in the sides of the boot. Again, no ground is being broken here, but there’s no doubting it’s a professional job.

On the road Jaguar has unquestionably achieved its goal of making the X-type estate drive exactly like the saloon. The estate body weighs 143lb more, all of that extra weight hanging out beyond the rear wheels. But massaging the suspension settings has resulted in no discernible degradation of ride or handling.

The diesel version I drove — still by far the best of the X-types, and in the UK rightly outselling all others — felt fluent and capable on winding Alpine roads, and comfortably stable at 120mph on the autoroute.

What it lacks is what all X-types miss: that certain stardust quality to make those faithful to the established German marques drop their Avants and Tourings in favour of a Jag estate. Despite being dragged into more populist markets, the Jaguar name still commands a certain exclusive air, but whether that finds a relevance among the bright young thirtysomethings deliberately targeted by Jaguar remains to be seen. The simple truth is that a BMW 3-series Touring is better to drive and an Audi A4 Avant better to look at. Jaguar’s own research suggests that these are the qualities the market for such cars demands above all other aspects.

Then again, Jaguar is not looking to sell its new estate in anything like the quantities of its rivals; it estimates that just 15% of sales will be of estates. This is probably conservative though, reflecting uncertainty about how the market will react to the undeniably novel concept of a Jaguar estate.

I am no marketing man, so I’ll say simply that anyone considering an X-type would be nuts not to plump for the estate. For an extra £1,170 you get a considerably more practical car, a much better looking one, and one with almost certainly stronger residuals. If there’s a downside, I’ve yet to spot it.

Personally, I quite like the idea. If Jaguar has done its sums right, it’ll be a rare sight on the road for some time to come which, if you live in leafy, 3-series-estate strewn suburbia is a recommendation in itself.

VITAL STATISTICS

Model: Jaguar X-type Estate 2.0D Classic
Engine type: Four-cylinder, 1998cc
Power: 128bhp @ 3800rpm
Torque: 244 lb ft @ 1800rpm
Transmission: Five-speed manual
Suspension: (front) MacPherson struts, coil springs, anti-roll bar (rear) multilink axle, coil springs, anti-roll bar
Fuel/CO2: 48.7mpg (combined) / 154g/km
Acceleration: 0-60mph: 9.8sec
Top speed: 123mph
Price: £21,165
Verdict: A much needed shot in the arm for the X-type