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The car guy seated in the passenger seat had a real concern. It’s a concern being voiced regularly, especially by those enamored of the cars from Coventry.

“Don’t you think,” Car Guy said, “that Jaguar is making a mistake by bringing out a small car at a low price?”

He went on about heritage and breeding, about tradition and history, about how Jaguar has forged a sterling reputation as the maker of premium automobiles coveted by many but affordable to few.

That’s a lot of baggage for the new X-Type to carry. Part of the problem is the Ford thing. Now that Ford owns Jaguar, traditionalists and sundry Anglophiles are watching constantly for signs that this piece of British pride is being sullied by its relationship with the U.S. auto giant.

When the X-Type started out with the platform from the unremarkable Ford Contour, the concern became heated. But the faithful can lay their fears to rest. The X-Type proves to be every bit a Jaguar, from its superb handling and steering to its lovely wood and leather interior.

The new “baby Jag” is the first Jaguar in memory to approach being affordable, and it manages the task without any obvious signs of cheapness or compromise. After many miles of back roads in Arizona behind the wheel of an X-Type, chasing after the recent Gauthier Classic car rally participants, I found the compact sedan to possess the kind of style and engineering that upholds the classic chrome jaguar mounted on its hood.

The road manners of this sedan are absolutely top-notch: a ride that is unperturbed by high speeds, rough surfaces or sharp curves; steering that is quick and responsive; and brakes that are powerful and fade-free. These are all Jaguar hallmarks.

I had a chance to take this sedan around the road course at Firebird International Raceway for a few laps. Even with a set of touring tires and two passengers on board, the Jag raced through the course quickly and with minimal fuss. Part of the formula is all-wheel drive, standard on every X-Type and underscoring its sporting nature. Electronically dividing power from front to rear depending on wheel slippage, the AWD helps the sedan feel remarkably poised and balanced in winding turns or on loose surfaces.

The car I drove was equipped with the bigger of two engine offerings, a 3-liter, twin-cam V-6 putting out a solid 231 horsepower, and an automatic transmission. While the engine was smooth and free-revving, most of its power was found in the higher rpm, feeling slightly anemic until it got up above 3,500 or so. As V-6 engines go, this one is unusually smooth and refined. Standard engine is a 2.5-liter mill that cranks out 194 horsepower.

The automatic transmission was a weak link. Shifting was harsh and unpredictable. The upshifts were too sharp and clunky, with annoyingly aggressive downshifts at the slightest touch of the throttle. And that J-gate, the shape of the floor-shifter’s p attern on the console, is weird and hard to get used to.

I would love to try out the stick-shift version of the X-Type. I’ll bet it’s far superior.

The interior is very nice, looking and feeling like a baby XJ6, with lovely wood, leather and textured plastic. There’s no chintzy signs, though the gauges could use a bit of sharpening. Here is where the X-Type looks like a Taurus.

The test car was loaded with expensive options, leaving the sub-$30,000 base price far back in the dust. Starting off at $35,500 for the bigger engine and automatic, the add-ons included a GPS navigation system at a pricey $2,200; a stereo upgrade to a superb Alpine system, $2,500; a premium package that includes glass sunroof and a sonar controlled system that beeps if you’re about to back into something, $2,500; and a few other items, all of which added up to an X-Class costing nearly $15,000 more than the lowest-priced model.

At more than $44,000, the X-type begins to overpriced, especially compared with the lower-end offerings from Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Volvo, Saab, Cadillac, Lincoln, Lexus, Acura and Infiniti. Or the S-Type, for that matter.