Jaguar sales in Britain and Europe further strengthened during May, driven by wider availability of the new Jaguar diesels and X-Type Estate, to record a 31% improvement over May 2003 and to maintain the overall growth trend seen through the year so far.

European sales of 5,305 cars in the month were more than 1,000 units ahead of the same period in 2003, helping global sales for the first five months to 51,680 units and a 13.6% increase over last year.

In Britain, sales for the month totalled at 2,692 cars, a 21% improvement over last year. S-Type sales rose 57.6%, supported by an equally strong performance from the X-Type Diesel, which outperformed key competitors in the segment, and new X-Type Estate, which saw a 43.8% improvement for the month.

The X-Type has claimed a 19.2% share of the premium C/D segment so far this year, which is a 36% rise over the same period of 2003.