THE Jaguar X-Type has won its first award for 2002, winning gold at the recent Fleet Excellence Awards. The X-Type took top honours in the User Chooser category, voted for by the readers of Fleet Week and Fleet Management magazines.

Gary Bird, editor of Fleet Management, said: "The Jaguar X-Type was voted the most exciting car to come out last year by our readers. As a result, I'm sure we will see more and more X-Types on UK fleets in the coming year."

John Abel, Jaguar's corporate operations manager, said: "This award recognises the significance of the Jaguar X-Type for the UK fleet sector. We are particularly pleased with the recognition from fleet managers voting for these awards."

The 2-litre X-Type will cost from £19,995, and the new S-Type range will be priced from £24,950 for the 2.5-litre entry model. Both go on sale in March.

Mike Beasley, Jaguar's managing director, said: "The introduction of these two cars marks a major step forward in Jaguar becoming more accessible to a wider audience.

ÒBusiness and private buyers alike can now embrace the Jaguar brand at a very aggressive price and go on to move up our range of cars."

In 2001, Jaguar sales globally exceeded 100,000 cars. This is the first time in its 80 year history that the marque has achieved this total in a year and the fourth successive year of record sales.

The UK sales total of 22,119 was also a record, some 47 per cent up on the 2000 totals.