THOUSANDS of business motorists have sampled the X-type saloon in an unprecedented series of round-the-block test drive exercises, all staged from the car parks of dozens of companies.

Jaguar's long-overdue move to join the diesel club has steered the company to a 1% share of the fleet market for the first time.

UK operations director Bob Grace said: 'We might be late arrivals to the scene, but the 847 business registrations achieved last month show we are now ready to make a big impact with fleets this year. What has happened with the X-type is just the start of a fresh offensive.'

Speaking as estate versions of the X-type were being launched, Grace added: 'I'm confident that our experience with the diesel saloon will be repeated with the estate. And I expect it to happen all over again when the S-type gets our new 2.7-litre diesel engine in June.'

According to Grace, the 2.0-litre diesel range is now accounting for 70% of the firm's UK sales with business users.

He said: 'Our success follows an intensive campaign to get potential buyers behind the wheel.

'It might have taken the corporate sector some time to appreciate what we're doing, but sales have really taken off in the past few weeks.

'The response has made us confident this surge in interest will be maintained. We've had a blitz on giving drivers a 20-minute experience of our new alternative to the cars on offer from BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz and the approach is starting to pay dividends.

'We've come from nowhere to the position of having full street credibility in the diesel sector and we know that our revised S-type line-up will do just as well as the X-type in the diesel sector.'

As a follow-up to the company car park exercise, Grace's team is now making sure that key corporate decision-makers are being given more time to sample the new estate range.

In a departure for the firm, it is delivering vehicles to the homes of more than 100 fleet executives. All are supplied for use over a weekend, with family tickets to health spars, theme parks and high-quality hotels left in the cars' gloveboxes.

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