There doesn't seem to have been much discussion in here about Jaguar's current financial difficulties or the closure of the Browns Lane assembly plant - which surprises me seeing as we're supposed to be Jaguar enthusiasts :-(> - but the latest JEC mag editorial makes a number of interesting points.
In particular it reminds us that - despite the magic of the Browns Lane name - the company was actually founded in Blackpool; the first 'Jaguars' were conceived at Foleshill; and far more Jaguars are produced at Castle Bromwich and Halewood than were ever produced at Browns Lane.
It also points out that part of the Browns Lane site will be retained as Jaguar's head office and for the Jaguar Heritage Trust, which will hopefully be able to expand... so no need to take those 'Brown Lane' signs off our garage walls.
Main problem for Jaguar at present is, of course, the strength of the dollar, which makes the cars overly expensive in the essential US market. The JEC mag welcomes the fact that all Jaguar production is being retained in the UK, but I suspect that is rather short-sighted. Surely it is time for Ford to provide Jaguar with a US manufacturing facility. After all, BMW and Mercedes assemble their US product in the US, as do most of the Japanese.
David Betts ( snipped-for-privacy@motorsport.org.uk) The Classic Car Gallery:
Place no money on those statements. This is just a red herring from the reptilian Ford finance thugs. Within a year they'll announce the lot will be moved to Castle Brom, or, heaven forbid, to Solihul. Halewood will produce the next generation Freelander alongside the X-Type, which will share a platform!!!! Boy, here's a way to screw up BOTH brands!
As an aside, we former Jaguar employees want the world to note that at Browns Lane, Jaguar did EVERYTHING Ford asked: labor reductions, massive increases in productivity and by now among the highest product quality ratings in the industry. Yet, despite Ford promises to the contrary, Brown's Lane will be closed. Conversely, Land Rovers Hell-hole at Solihul produces the WORST quality in the industry, it's historically militant workers are woefully inefficient, yet it is to be spared. Anyone with a brain now understands Ford decision making has become lunacy.
The BMW, MB and Lexus products produced in the US are for the most part SUVs. Their core products are still produced in Europe/Japan. Only the BMW Z4 and Lexus ES300 (a Toyota Camry) are the exception. Lexus sells a great number of the ES's, but remember Lexus does not face the same marque scrutiny as Jaguar, and frankly, the public trusts Toyota far more than they do Ford.
Sadly, I fear you are correct. Ford will ultimately be forced to either sell off Jaguar, which will be virtually impossible with the loss of Brown's Lane, or further rationalize it into oblivion. We only have to look at the mess Ford has made of Lincoln and Mercury here in the States to see the damage that's likely to be wrought.
Through the late 80's - mid-'90's, we at Jaguar worked miracles to save the Company and its exclusivity. It only took a few morons at the top of Ford to flush virtually the entire effort down the drain. Don't make excuses for them, they're idiots.
Actually, I am not so sure I totally disagree with Jerry.
Here in the States, there is NO estate wagon or diesel X-Types -- only the standard fare.
While I am at heart a classic Jag owner, I must admit that the 2000 Black on Black XJR my friend just bought is one of the most impressive motorcars I have driven! Then again, for $21,000 with only 49,000 miles --- how could he have gone wrong!!
To this day, Jaguar suffers from the poor dealership network and even poorer service departments. It is a shame. Since the 1940s, Jaguar has built a premier motorcar and supported it with slipshod support. It is because of the service after the sale that Jaguar suffers from a poor reputation.
Much to the chagrin of some, Jaguar (and the rest of the Euro luxury marques for that matter) succeed or fail based upon North American sales. Here in the States X-Type is selling at less than 60% of it's original sales target and is a marketplace disaster. It's being sold at the current rate only because Jaguar have put a $5,000 per unit incentive to get them out of the ports and off dealer lots.
YTD 3rd qtr 2004 unit sales for X-Type are 17061, an annualized rate of
22748. That represents 57% of its original annual sales target (40,000 units).
By comparison, BMW has sold over 80,000 3 Series in the same period, MB has sold over 49,000 C Class, Lexus over 55,000 ES330s. In other words, in its segment, X-Type sells at a rate not even HALF that of its competition.
By any measure, it is a STIFF in the marketplace! But, worse, it has developed a horrid marketplace rep for quality, throwing Jaguar Cars back at least a decade in terms of its quality reputation. The only bright spot, each sale is at a financiual loss to the Company, thus the lower sales rate holds down the financial hemorraging that's reulted from this ill-concieved and executed "faux-Jaguar".
S-Type fares not much better. 3rd qtr ytd sales are 8896, an annualized
11861, or 59% of original target (20,000). At least many of the original Ford-mandated technical carbunkles have been exorcised from the product.
That notwithstanding, it remains a marketplace flop. Over the same period YTD 2004 BMW has sold 32,617 5 Series, MB has sold 41,442 E Class. Thus, S-Type sells at a rate approximately 1/3 of it's closest competitor, BMW 5 Series, and at less than 25% of the segment leader, MB E Class.
At the point where I retired from Jaguar Cars North America in early '00, JCNA had been profitably selling 22,000 - 25,000 XJs & XKs per year in North America. Yet 2004 ytd combined XJ & XK sales are only 9613 units, an annualized 12817. That represents a sales rate WORSE than the dark days of '91 - '92 when we were hanging on only becuse Ford had other problems to deal with.
Perhaps XK can be excused for having become an aging old dowager, but XJ is a spanking new, cutting edge product that has gotten rave press reviews and is bringing in fantastic quality scores. Due to ineffectivem, tepid marketing efforts, no one knows anything about it. This amounts to a marketing scandal.
At this point three of the four Jaguar products are uncompetitive and obsolete. Where is the Ford product plan for Jaguar? Nowhere to be found. Best they have to offer is a "new" all-aluminum XK in '06. So, where'd the money go they had planned for Jaguar under Wolfgang Reitzle? Simple, they've shifted it to Land Rover and have left Jaguar to swing in the breeze.
You can make excuses for them all you like, Mr. Betts, but something is clearly wrong with the Ford organization to have allowed this mess to happen at Jaguar. Jaguar's fading star isn't about exchange rates, it's about BAD MANAGEMENT, and the sooner Ford faces reality the sooner a rescue plan can be put in place.
Actually, Web, in 1998 Jaguar scored second best in JD Power CSI customer handling, bested only by Lexus, and at that by a scant three points out of a potential 1000. Other internal, and external measures showed Jaguar was among the top 5 brands in customer service across the entire industry. Then along came Jac Nasser and his merry band of finance thugs & HR idiots.
With S & X type volume increase forecasts, we developed a plan to expand the dealer network and manage the expansion of service infrastructure to match sales volumes. We also were working on a per dealer basis to improve efficiencies and profitability. Then along came Jac Nasser and the entire plan was lost. The Company struggled to keep it's way while being shoved together with Volvo, Lincoln & Land Rover in the PAG. Knowledgeable & experienced staff were shunted aside in deference to inexperienced Ford MBA career-builders with no "dog in the fight", and no commitment to Jaguar at all. Worse, a Ford globalization plan tore the entire North American parts distribution process asunder, taking what was at one point best in class parts availability and dropping it to the bottom of segment.
Dealers were thus left to survive on their own wits, and many lost faith in the brand. It's a sad commentary, but Ford have "screwed the pooch" where Jaguar is concerned.
It's not the weak dollar, if it were then Mercedes, Lexus and Acura wouldn't be selling either. The reviews of Jaguars have all been poor and they have a reputation for unreliablity. Jaguars are the most beautiful cars on the road, unfortuately the car underneath the body has a generally considered to be mediocre. I'm in the market for a new car so I've been reading several auto newsgroups. People who post to this one are much more negative then in any of the other groups that I've been reading. Acura owners are universally enthusiastic. Lexus owners are also very positive. In the Chrysler group people either love or hate the looks of the new 300C but there is no debate about how fantastically well it drives. In this group people talk about the awful service they get from Jaguar. Most of the posts are about old Jags, there is hardly any talk about new ones. That says something to me. This is supposed to be an enthusiasts group so where's the enthusiasm?
General Schvantzkoph wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com:
Don't they have factories in america ?
Used to!
Well, most entusiasts own the older more unreliable Jaguars :-) I have three so one is always on the road :-)
New ones are to ford for me, the X and S being the worst. Mind you, we do have an aussie late model ford falcon as well.
Jaglovers is a better place for in depth discussion on Jaguars, new and old. This one is good because it does not have the what tyre, what oil, what spark plug, etc, crap, of Jaglovers.org.
"Jerry McG" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@enews1.newsguy.com:
Oh deary me, quick, raise the stars and stripes and start waving, the whole world is in trouble....
Don't you yanks build them in america?
Jaguar is made in the UK, not USA or Asia.
Have a look at this:
Jaguar's UK sales reach record level Oct 5 2004 Jaguar has offset a slump in the US by recording its best September sales figures in the UK. The luxury car maker said in advance of official industry data due to be released later this week that it sold in excess of 6,200 vehicles last month.
The drive was led by Jaguar?s best-selling model, the X-Type, of which
27,000 have been sold so far this year, 19 per cent up on the same period last year.
The XJ and S-Type saloons and the XK sports car all saw sales gains in the UK during the month.
Jaguar sales in the US dipped by 39.1 per cent to 3,671 last month and were 19.5 per cent down the year.
?US sales are disappointing, but UK sales have been increasing throughout the year and the first six months were our best ever,? a Jaguar spokesman said. ?This is good news from our perspective because we are gaining sales in an increasingly competitive market.?
Jaguar?s line up has been boosted by the launch of a diesel-powered variant of the S-Type, built at Castle Bromwich, and an estate version of the X-Type, built at Halewood on Merseyside.
PARIS -- Awash in red ink, Jaguar Cars has abandoned its long-term goal of selling 200,000 vehicles a year globally.
The chastened outlook follows parent Ford Motor Co.'s announcement last month that it would close Jaguar's historic Browns Lane factory and sell Jaguar's Formula One racing team.
Jaguar produces about 125,000 cars annually.
Company executives declined to say what they believe is a realistic production target.
"Jaguar's strategy is being re-evaluated. We're not going to be a 200,000-unit car company," said Mark Fields, executive vice president in charge of Ford's Premier Automotive Group, in an interview at the Paris auto show.
"That business model didn't offer a high chance of achieving profit. We're going to be a more focused and smaller company than we were a few years back." Joe Greenwell, president of Jaguar and Land Rover, said: "I don't want a situation where year-over-year sales are up, but we have substantial losses. We don't want to wind up with unsold stock because that leads to residual value issues and other reputational issues."
The 200,000 goal was announced in 1997 when Jacques Nasser was CEO of Ford and current President Nick Scheele ran Jaguar. The goal was part of the decision to create the X-Type sedan, which proved a disappointment.
Premier does not break out financials for each brand. But sources have revealed that Jaguar lost close to $800 million in the first half of 2004. U.S. sales this year through August were down 11.5 percent to 31,899 compared with the same period of 2003.
Ford COO Jim Padilla did not rule out any steps to turn Jaguar around.
"Nothing is off the table," he said. He declined to elaborate.
In other words, my roo-dodging, South of the Equator pal, NOTHING CAN BE DONE outside North America to recoup these sales. Ford's strategy with X-Type is a brand-killer. It was Jac-The-Moron Nasser who hosed Jaguar with this X-Type/Halewood debacle and now Coventry and the Jaguar team gets to pay the price.
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