British car guide WhatCar? has announced its 2008 car of the year awards. The categories range from supermini to performance, and every class in-between. Throughout the results common themes are apparent. No matter what type of vehicle they are looking for, British consumers are in need of everyday practicality along with fuel economy. Practicality comes in the form of tight packages that do not sacrifice storage space or good handling characteristics. Fuel economy comes in the form of small diesel engines powering almost every vehicle on the list. WhatCar? also seems to have a bit of a bias towards makes with British heritage. It named the Jaguar XF 2.7D V6 Luxury their overall 2008 Car of the Year. The Jag was also the winner of the executive car category. They noted that the car’s classic refined Jaguar design mixed with modern details is what won them over.
Corporate Business
Does Jaguar Face Extinction?
Ford is on the verge of selling Jaguar to Indian company Tata after failing to see a return on its investment after nearly 20 years. What caused the British luxury car maker’s decline? When the Ford Motor Company acquired Jaguar in 1989, the American giant was aiming for a slice of the lucrative European luxury-car business – with ambitions to snatch sales from the dominant Germans. Nearly 20 years later, however, Jaguar has yet to post a profit, its sales continue to shrink, and the British brand is about to be offloaded to giant Indian company Tata. Staff
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The British Are Coming – Maybe
According to Car & Driver, Jaguar Land Rover wants to colonize South Carolina, or at least a few hundred acres of it, for its first-ever U.S. factory. While nothing has been confirmed, Jaguar Land Rover is making headway in other markets as it seeks to grow annual worldwide sales to 750,000 by 2020, an increase of 76 percent over last year’s record sales of 425,006. On Tuesday, the first Chinese-built Range Rover Evoque came off the line in Changshu, which aims to produce up to 130,000 Evoque and Land Rover Freelander models annually. Back home, Queen Elizabeth II is scheduled to open a new plant for the company’s Ingenium engines near Wolverhampton next week. These additions come atop JLR’s smaller assembly plants in India, Kenya, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Turkey. Brazil is slated for 2016. Saudi Arabia is another possible locale. […]
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Tatas take a look at Jaguar’s new models
According to a media report, the British luxury car maker Jaguar has shown its new models and the planned product cycle to its probable new parent company, Tata Motors. Tata Motors was named earlier this month as the preferred bidder by the US car giant Ford for the sale of its two British luxury brands, Jaguar and Land Rover, after evaluating interests by two other suitors — India’s Mahindra and Mahindra and private equity firm OneEquity. “We have shown Tata our new model lines and the planned product cycle,” Ian Callum, director (design), Ford Motor Company, who is responsible for the Jaguar’s new XF and XK model ranges, told Financial Times. The Tata group company is currently holding advanced-level talks for buying Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford and a final decision is expected to be announced by the end […]