Jaguar

Tata Motors will announce its purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover on March 5 or 6. The dates have been agreed between Tata and Ford Motor Co., which is selling the two luxury brands, following talks with union leaders last week. Roger Maddison, national officer of Unite, the largest union in the UK auto industry, told Automotive News Europe that Tata had agreed to meet guarantees sought by union leaders. He said, “Everything seems fine as far as we are concerned; it’s just the lawyers working on it now.” Union leaders spoke with Ford and Tata to resolve final details before the drawing up of a memorandum of understanding for the sale.

Jaguar Cars Ltd. has taken 10,000 customer deposits globally for the upcoming XF sedan, including about 3,000 in the United States. That’s a promising start. Jaguar executives say they released the figures to show the impact of the XF even without advertising or cars available to test drive. Instead, Jaguar has combined dealer training with posh customer-only events. The company put together a 21-city road show with a few demo XFs in tow, training entire dealerships at once. Dealerships then conducted events for loyal customers and luxury intenders. Ken Gorin, owner of The Collection in Miami, has 80 sold orders from holding two events, one at the dealership and another in the Miami Design District. “I sold 30 XFs the first night,” Gorin says. “I haven’t seen a reaction like that since the (Porsche) Boxster came out. When people hear […]

Jaguar may resurrect its legendary E-Type sports car. The British motoring icon is tipped to revive the true two-seater sports car to take on the Italian and German sports cars. The most loved of the Jag family was built in the Swinging England period of 1961 to 1974. With its performance, handling and modern looks it was a huge sales success and is still a highly sought collector’s car. Even Enzo Ferrari said it was the most beautiful car ever made.

Classical Drives has some great news for us super car fans: Proteus is coming to the US. For those of you that don’t know, Proteus is a British car manufacturer that makes exacting replicas of the legendary C and D type Jaguars. These cars are not fiberglass knock-offs, they have all aluminum bodywork that is hand formed much as the originals were. If you have a fetish for the great racers of the ’60s, you have got to check out these beautiful machines. Drool away.

Ford Motor has no plans to keep a stake in its Jaguar and Land Rover luxury brands, an industry source told Automotive News Europe. Ford earlier this month picked Tata Motors as the front-runner to the purchase of the two brands. It had been thought that Ford would wish to keep a stake in Jaguar-Land Rover to protect its supply contracts for components such as engines. “There is no need for it,” the source said. “Ford really wants to concentrate on its North American operations, that is the whole reason why it is selling Jaguar and Land Rover.” Retaining a stake, however small, would only divert management time from the North American turnaround plan, the source said. By John Revill, Automotive News, Europe

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 […]

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 […]