Ford selling jaguar?

[YSSMAN]

Uh-oh:

Ford may sell Land Rover along with Jaguar in order to "sweeten the deal" for a potential buyer, according to the U.K.'s Sunday Times. Rumors of a possible Jaguar sale broke shortly after Ford announced it had hired merger specialist Kenneth Leet to commission a review of the Premier Automotive Group (Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin and Volvo). Jaguar has cost Ford billions since it acquired the company in 1989. While the luxury carmaker shows little sign of making a turnaround, stablemate Land Rover has been one of the more successful PAG members in recent years. "Packaging" the two marques together may be the easiest way to get rid of Jaguar, the Times article explains. What's more, the two companies have strong management and technical links, and separating them might prove difficult. The report suggests Ford might retain a minority share in the companies to avoid "bad publicity" in Britain and to maintain access to technologies developed by the companies.

Well atleast they are smart enough to package the two together if they do decide to sell, but even then, they have invested so much money into each company and they are really starting to turn a corner, why sell now?

 

[Poverty]

I bet BMW would love to have landrover back, and im sure VAG would love to have them too.

 

[Dave A]

To do what? Take sales away from the X3 and X5. I can see VAG perhaps using them better, both Jaguar and Land Rover, but I wouldn't know weather to trust BMW to use a brand in a good way, or to rape it of it's good stuff and leave it to die. VAG seem to be more interested in making a brand all it can be.

 

[YSSMAN]

BMW is a no-go with this deal. Look what they did with Rolls-Royce... You wan't them to do the same with Jaguar and Land Rover? Ha, good one. Atleast if VAG got ahold of them they would restore the brand much to the way it used to be, and for the most part, let them do as they please.

...But really, I don't want them to leave Ford either. Unless Aston is comming with, I want to keep Jaguar/Rover/Aston together.

 

[m7ammed]

BMW is a no-go with this deal. Look what they did with Rolls-Royce... .

What did they do to it? its a great car desgined with the History of RR in mind ... they are going to make a cabrio version too 👍

 

[YSSMAN]

What did they do to it? its a great car desgined with the History of RR in mind ... they are going to make a cabrio version too 👍

Lets see... BMW made Rolls-Royce too ugly, too big, and overall too German to be considered a true British car like it once was. Yes, it's still built in England, and yes it was designed partially by British folks... But to me, VAG did a much better job with Bentley, not forcing them to take everything BMW gives them, and still making their cars look and feel British as well.

I've been around a Pantom or two, and to me they aren't that nice. A girl I went to school with had one (black), her father owns an exotic car dealer... Compared to the Bentley products she had had in the past, it just didn't seem nearly as cool or as nice to be around.

 

[niky]

Actually, I thought both Bentley and Rolls were becoming too Germanic. Ford's the only one keeping its subsidiaries British-looking (although slavishly so, in the case of Jaguar)... and Jaguar's absence of technology overload (the interior of the XJ is refreshingly simple and traditional compared to the technofest that a new 7 series is) is a nice touch.

 

[fangorn_forest]

What about Fiat? I haven't heard anything about them considering it, but it would make sense. I could see Jaguar sitting quite comfortably in between Alfa Romeo and Maserati. And of course they don't have anything like Land Rover, in terms of brand or models, as far as I know.

With this deal, Aston Martin would have to stay at Ford though, 'cause I just can't see the Ferrari boys being happy with in-house competition, or Maserati for that matter.

 

[GT4_Rule]

I'd like Jaguar to be owned by another Brit company - and that's TVR. But I doubt whether if they can manage a luxury-car company.

 

[1X83Z]

VAG did a much better job with Bentley, not forcing them to take everything BMW gives them, and still making their cars look and feel British as well.

You mean unbelievably heavy?

 

[Danny]

You mean unbelievably heavy?

OK Doug, stop with this arguement.

The weight of the cars, with all other points in mind, is trivial.

I agree that they are heave, but they're also luxurious, comfortable, fast and handle well.

If you can afford to buy a Bentley, I'm sure you can also afford the fuel bills.

 

[Poverty]

To do what? Take sales away from the X3 and X5. I can see VAG perhaps using them better, both Jaguar and Land Rover, but I wouldn't know weather to trust BMW to use a brand in a good way, or to rape it of it's good stuff and leave it to die. VAG seem to be more interested in making a brand all it can be.

BMW pretty much made land rover into what they are right now. The cars they sell now, done by BMW.

Why would BMW spend billions buying a company and then just letting it sit to rot? Any technology land rover have that BMW dont, bmw could replicate for alot less money.

Plus X5 and range rovers are two very different vehicles, one being that you would have a easier time going off road in a audi A3 quattro than that uber road handling biased beemer.

 

[Dave A]

Ford bought Land Rover in 2000, the third gen Range Rovers and all since including the third gen discovery and the Range Rover sport were introduced by Ford, it's worth noting that the third gen Range Rover was a key part to Land Rover starting to get thier good image back.

 

[Poverty]

From what I read BMW developed the car for land rover, but they needed to sell rover, and they added land rover into the package to make the deal more attractive.

 

[Dave A]

BMW didn't sell Rover and Land Rover together, BMW didn't combine to two to create a more appealing offer either. It was rather the opposite, BMW broke the two up, Rover and Land Rover were both part of the Rover group, until BMW sold Land Rover on it's own. When BMW sold Rover they didn't sell the name, they leased the name out, they offered Ford first refusal to the Rover name because they had bought Land Rover, however to date, Ford has shown no interest in purchasing Rover.