Quote:
Originally Posted by d_himan 
1. Ford bought Jaguar in 1990 for $2.5 billion. This sum was considered too large then given the marque's precarious history and labour-union controlled factories. The turnaround never happened - Jaguar has been a failure. The operation was selling 50,000 vehicles per year when Ford bought it, and the goal was to get it up to 250,000 annual sales. Ford never came close. Last year's retail sales were 89,802 cars.
2. Ford made enormous improvements in Jaguar's quality, reliability and handling and performance but could never create the right cars to build and the right strategy to sell them. Maybe Ford doesn't understand luxury cars all that well - can Tata or M&M help?
3. Would an Indian owned Jaguar go well with Jaguar's typically snobby target market? 50% of its sales are in the US - threatened due to strengthening of Euro. No manufacturing base in US for balancing out exchange rate fluctuations -No competent diesel threatening Euro sales. |
Excellent points you have raised here, sir.
Jaguar, while not being exactly a huge success while under Ford, have had their bright moments, although more failures than successes.
The main mistakes I believe Ford made with Jaguar are
- Not positioning the Jaguar brand properly, and not giving it's products appeal to a wider customer base. The first XK8's automatic transmission, and fully wood-n-leather interior, and its fluffy ride quality meant it simply would not appeal to anyone below 45-50 years of age. In fact, all their cars pandered to the requirements of mainly middle-aged clientile. They tried making amends by blatantly targetting a younger customer base with their X-type, but that failed due to different reasons.
-Similarly, trying too hard to give the S-type a 'retro' look in order to preserve the 'Jaguar' traditional design cues. Needless to say, the design was a complete disaster, and the car was also underdeveloped. They did not learn their lessons, and made a complete horlicks of their X-type too. Fearing that a radical redesign of the XJ would give them big trouble, their all-new model looked exactly like the older one, which diminished its new-ness. Who cared if it used aerospace construction techniques if it looked 10 years old out of the showroom?
Only towards the end of their Ford-owned period, did some radical new age designs begin rolling out of Jaguar's studios. The new XK, though Aston like, is at least new age. Now their future rests on the shoulders of their new saloon, the XF.
- Even though quality and reliability increased in leaps and bounds under Ford, it still was nowhere near the German brands, according to various surveys.
- Desperate to get Jaguar some volumes, Ford resorted to brandname-sullying measures to increase the range, and saleability. Front wheel drive, 4wd, diesel, estate- these were never previously associated with the leaping cat, and this put purists off.
Now it remains to be seen how the US market reacts to the takeover. Anything could happen.