Ford motor co and Jaguar/Landrover

Just heard the news that Ford is trying to sell Jaguar and Landrover.
C'mon PRC here's a bargain to be had, another piece of failed British motoring manufacture, should "dovetail" nicely with MG!!
But seriously folks, apparently Ford wants to stay with it's core products, I suppose that means cars for the masses, rather than "luxury brands, in other words I suppose Ford realise it can't compete with Lexus, BMW, Toyota, Honda e.t.c.
ATB,
Croz

IMO this is a last dash for the cash.

Ford execs realize they can't sell many more
Exploders so they've gotta do *something* to
get their parachutes greased up.

Selling off bits-n-pieces is the way this is
done.

Jim

Jaguar has been a serious money loser, almost since they bought it- probably hundreds of millions of dollars.

The whole company lost 12 Billion dollars last year, and Jaguar was a part of that, for sure.

They actually do make money on F series trucks, Exploders, Navigator's and the like.

Well, the *did* make money on trucks.

Until gas hits four bucks a gallon.

Jim

They sold almost a million F series trucks last year, and the vast majority of em had the full pimpmobile treatment, meaning an average price of over 30 grand, and an average profit of at least 5k.

The trucks aint where they are losing money.

The sell more pickups, even now, in Texas alone, than in any other country in the world.

Its true that sales on the biggest gashogs is down- but they actually lose more money on their smaller, low profit vehicles.

I guess small hybrids won't be saving the planet after all. ALgore is going to have a tough time explaining this away.

http://clubs.ccsu.edu/Recorder/editorial/print_item.asp?NewsID=188

I also in the news where Honda ditvhed their hybrid effort.

Al Gore has more to explain than that

The real inconvenient truth ?

Somehow the truth always comes out

Gore Lies and people die...

Honda stopped making Accord Hybrids, and they have dropped their Insight Hybrid too- but its not cause they hate Al Gore- its strictly business.
The market has voted with its wallets, and whether they are saving the planet or not, Toyota has just passed the ONE MILLION mark with Prius sales.
While the Accord hybrid was selling a few thousand a year.

Totally about fashion, sure, but when you sell a million of a car, you keep making it.
And when you only sell a few, you drop it.

Honda is continuing to make hybrid Civics, as evidently those sell better.

If Ford could sell a million hybrid Escapes, they would do it, Al Gore or no Al Gore.

So ford makes great trucks. Not news.

That's apparently all they make that sells.

Come back and talk this issue in a couple of
years. Folks are parking their exploders
and buying smaller cars. Or so the numbers say.

Jim

Ford have got to sell Land Rover in order to sweeten the pill to get rid of Jaguar.

Jags always have been shall we say an ''aquirred taste'' personally I think they're a POS, but that's my opinion, and Land Rover, which has always been an oddball, can't make money Detroit would like (POI) because the workhorse Defender is costly to build, they've had teams of guys over from the states, but with the range of options, wheel base, body style etc etc etc it can't really be done another way.

The buzz over her is Ford are looking to hawk it round the private equity market, and the unions fear a massive asset stripping operation.

I've gotta funny feeling that Ford aren't going to get anything like the amount they think they are either,time will tell.

Take care. Sami.

"massive asset stripping operation."

Yep. That's my guess too. And like you, I
wonder if there's much value there to strip.

The higher-ups may be in for a bit of a letdown.

Jim

Rumour is that a new US spec Defender is on its way here this year as a 2008 model.

http://www.automotive.com/future-cars/90/163-0407-2008-land-rover-defender/index.html

yes the Defender is expensive because its hand assembled.Its clearly evident by the panel gaps

Just in case someone missed the last round, my wife's Mercedes C270 Diesel Estate car with
60,000 miles on the clock is doing over 55mpg now.

My new petrol BMW MiniCooper is only doing 47.1 mpg!

Brum, brum , brum.

Now my history book goes back to 1963 with a company 1172cc Ford Popular which was fitted with economy jets and I drove it. It was the most economical in the fleet which covered the needs of 1.3 million punters but gave 22mpg.

Glum, glum, glum and things don't seem to have changed.

Now we can jump up and down and say but that is a Kraut diesel and wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding but the governor kicks in at 147mph.

We have had the old luggage tugger up to that on the Krautenbahns. In fact, it is a tad faster than our Mercedes SLK230 sports which is a lady's hairdresser's car.

I was offered a Jag the other day- it was only 5000 pounds or $10K- one careful owner. Owned by a former lady driver mechanic who now drives LandRovers full of corgi dogs.
Now this Jag was fast enough for its year.
Knew the drivers of several. One actually tried to catch Concorde with his and couldn't- but then what does one expect from a Jag?

No Limy- the bombs and missiles were extra!

Cheers- me dears.

Norm

Just the other day the car manufacturers said they couldn't get to a 35mpg average. This despite the fact that they already do in Europe.

Bunch of non-innovating whiners. Been reading Car and Driver too much. Everybody HAS to have a 300HP "HEMI" - nevermind that they never go faster than 90 and Corvettes are in the slow lane driving 60 - old codger and his mistress.

Blaaagh. Don't understand Mulally - can get a super efficient airliner built in just a few years that gets better than 80miles to the passenger gallon at 600mph but cant design a car to get 35mpg at 60 mph.

Chris P

Its all about customer expectations.
Most americans want lots of horsepower, and big heavy cars and trucks.

You want really good mileage, you need to accept slower speeds, slower acceleration, and smaller cars.

Mercedes hasnt brought anything vaguely similar to Normans in years. It only has 179 horsepower! Thats not enough for a red blooded american. The starter C class mercedes here has 200hp, but they try to push you into the 268 hp models if they can.
In England, Mercedes sells a 120 hp 4 cylinder model- they would get laughed off the lot here for that.

But if gas hits 6 bucks, I would imagine a lot of people would start to reconsider.

Me, I dont tow a big trailer, and if it was available, I could live just fine with a full size pickup with a 120hp 4 cylinder diesel in it, one that took 15 seconds to get to 60mph.

Ries
Thats probably 1 reason why Land Rover when they brought my Defender 110 here, they outfitted it with a V8.They never offered this in England on the Defenders but knew Americans wouldn't buy anything much less a 4x4 with the puny HP of the TDIs and Petrol engines they offered in England at that time.

Even the V8 is still too weak imho, well for me anyways.

Hang on, folks! Hang on a cotton pickin' Minit!

He- men don't drive trucks, do they?
Ain't they got no pride when they take the lil'woman to Church on the Sabbath? A truck- a commercial vehicle still with the second hand lathe pokin' out which they write here about how to fix? Let's get real.

I've bin to Canada and I have bin to the Good ole US of A and the toughest man that I met was a bus driver. Don't get me wrong, he had a face like a relief map of where he had bin and we stood together at the Iwojima Monument in the other Washington as two ole buddies- but he drove- a bus! We went to Boston- and his proudest moment was to show us in the other Cambridge where his son found- that he had a brain.This ole Marine fella and me were the hardest things- on the other side of Arlington!

Thought I would tell ya that I had found a Real Guy and not a big girl's blouse with a girl's name and appeared in the Longest Day- and was sh1t scared to put a uniform on. So he acted the Alamo which turned out to be a bunch of freemason's who were pissed off by the Mex.
Yea, it was a freemason's bun fight. Nowt wrong with Jim B carrying a knife- he was probably the Tiler!

OK, my turn to 'wind you guys up' but really
none of your vehicles will go around corners,
If you lot had had been in the Paris 'Terror- ferique' or a Roman autostrada you would have wiped out the Louvre and no Da Vinci Code and no Vatican. Having said that- you can carry guns but none of you are allowed to drive at the speeds a self respecting German matron can drive with her cuckoo clock hat poking out of the top of her Porche down to the Oktober Fest in Munchen.
Come on fellas, you are nice guys but do you really need to drive second hand trucks- so slow when you got all our wartime gold?

Now how is that for 'cubic inches'?

Norm in his impish mode.

When you pool together all the combined energy it takes to drive and build a Toyota Prius, the flagship car of energy fanatics, it takes almost 50 percent more energy than a Hummer - the Prius’s arch nemesis.

Click to expand...

It's called 'emergy'.

The British announcers on the BBC don't say 'jaguar' like people in the USA. They say. "jag-you-are", not "jag-wire"

My favorite Jaguar was the one Inspector Morris rode around Oxford in. Looks like a 1938, or something.

When you need a pickup, you need it. You can't haul eight sacks of horse feed, two rolls of wire fence, a bale of hay, three salt blocks and a dog in a Honda Civic.

And Art,
If you want to 'pull a bird' you don't expect her to be impressed with been included in something that has held horse feed, salt blocks and a smelly dog.

Frankly, the average American girl can find something better to lavish her affections.
I wooed my wife in a hot Mini Cooper and she - well, reciprecated in a Mk3 Triumph Spitfire.
Today, she still has a drop top in the SLK but borrows my rather more exotic BMW Mini Cooper.

After all, the luv of my life learned to drive in a Rolls Royce.
Art, sorry! It took a bit of sorting out. After all, William Morris was Morris Cars, MG( Morris Garages) BMC etc- in Oxford whilst Inspector Morse was -well, fiction like 'Marion' Wayne and Errol Flynn.

Being a European, can we now address the driving habits of 'the Ice Cream Merchants', Les Grenouilles and the Krauts. Once we get that sorted out, could we sort out the Bull Fighters of Spain who don't carry their womenfolk in the back of feed trucks for Andalusian cattle!

I did caution you about actually getting to Europe earlier. Go East, young man- and see how we really live.

Norm

Thats probably 1 reason why Land Rover when they brought my Defender 110 here, they outfitted it with a V8.They never offered this in England on the Defenders but knew Americans wouldn't buy anything much less a 4x4 with the puny HP of the TDIs and Petrol engines they offered in England at that time.

Click to expand...

Spud,

You sure about that? Defenders have always been available with V8s here in NZ, probably for 15-20 years (rough guess). Surely they were available in the UK. If nothing else, I bet the army versions are all V8 like they are here.

Lots of Landrovers seen here for many years, but the last few years has seen a strange renaissance of the brand, city people driving Defenders, I can only put it down to an odd trendiness and desire to be different from the usual Japanese 4WD.