Ford to add more bling with Vignale variants

[Interrobang]

Clueless bunch.[...]

On the contrary. Ford have done their homework. Sadly, they?ve drawn all the wrong conclusions ...

They are looking at VW and see they just hit a wall in certain segments. They may sell more cars, if upmarket buyers would be interested in buying a Ford or a Ford-based luxury car. But sadly they?ve sold Jaguar (the shortsighted bastards) to sort of be their Audi. And now they are trying to compensate by offering upmarket Fords ... wich just won?t do the trick ...

 

[Vette Boss]

Vignale must be Euro slang for worse.

 

[Spectre]

To be fair to Ford, Jaguar was a giant money pit that money was poured into for years only to never make a profit. At a time where they could have easily gone bankrupt, dumping Jaguar and cutting their enormous losses was the correct course of action. Jaguar sales have actually gotten far worse since Ford sold Jaguar (thus proving the unpopularity of the current product lineup despite critical acclaim) and the whole Jaguar Land Rover empire is currently only alive because Land Rover is doing the heavy lifting. IIRC, Jaguar is making up only 15% of JLR sales and decreasing as of last year.

Here's a case in point - The last two months are prime convertible sales months. Critics spooge all over how 'good' the F-Type is so it should be flying off the showroom floors - but the proof is in the sales numbers. Here's the sales numbers for the past six months:

November
222

December
185

January
177

February
322

March
287

April
92

Not looking good. And no, there's no supply constraints. These numbers are worse than how the XK was selling, and they killed the XK off for 'low sales' instead? Meanwhile Porsche moved 428 Boxsters last month...

For all that I love Jaguar and the fact that I own one I will not sell, I hate to say that selling Jaguar was the correct move for Ford. They couldn't make anything of it and it was best to pull the eject handle while the company still had a resale value.

 

[jack_christie]

Worldwide Jag / LR but sales this year are not so bad

Sales of its British-made Jaguar saloons and Land Rover sport utility vehicles (SUVs) rose 34 percent in China to 103,077 in the fiscal year ended March 31, more than it sold in North America and Europe over the same period, according to the company's website. It sold a total of 434,311 cars in the last fiscal year, a 16 percent rise.

Net profit rose 19 percent in the January-March quarter to 449 million pounds ($750 million) compared with year ago period. Revenues rose 6 percent to 5.35 billion pounds.

The company, part of the $100 billion Tata conglomerate, expects to start operating a new manufacturing facility in China later this year which will reduce the strain on its plants in Britain and ensure it has the capacity to meet growing demand.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/29/tata-motors-ltd-results-idUKL3N0OF3FR20140529

On May 15, 2014, Tata Motors Ltd. (Tata Motors) announced that its global wholesales for Jaguar Land Rover in the month of April 2014 witnessed a growth of 39% YoY to 40,137 vehicles. Tata also stated that its global wholesales in April 2014, including Jaguar Land Rover, were 75,026 nos., and global wholesales of all commercial and passenger vehicles were 27,054 nos. and 47,972 nos., respectively. Individually, Jaguar wholesales and Land Rover wholesales for the month were 5,704, and 34,433 nos., respectively.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/23/bc-analysts-review-idUKnPn922q5n+80+PRN20140523

Jaguar Land Rover Full Year Earnings For The 2013/14 Fiscal Year
29 May 2014

Retails 434,311, up 16%
Revenues ?19.4bn
Profit before tax ?2,501m

http://www.jaguarlandrover.com/gl/e...ull-year-earnings-for-the-201314-fiscal-year/

 

[Labcoatguy]

The key item is this:

Individually, Jaguar wholesales and Land Rover wholesales for the month were 5,704, and 34,433 nos., respectively.

Land Rover sells six times as many vehicles worldwide as Jaguar does, and probably with higher profit margins too.