Though I have several Jaguars and write articles for Jaguar magazines, I have oft wondered where the future, if any, of Jaguar lies. Sales of big cars are shrinking especially petrol engined ones, and the established brand makes such as Audi (who weren't so highly regarded 20 years back but have done wonders with their advertising and quality control) BMW and Mercedes are the makes that sell. Toyota went about it the right way and created a ruthlessly efficient and reliable new marque, Lexus. A Jaguar is still regarded as an up market Ford and as we all know, the Scorpio didn't stay around long as a big Ford. VW bought Bentley and made it a success but how often do you see its clone, the Phaeton? People will pay £130,000 for the Bentley badge but a used diesel Phaeton is £25,000 or less than half price. The X type has for me been one of the mysteries of all time in that Jaguars have traditionally sold with an auto box but you can have a Mondeo diesel auto and not an X type diesel auto. Sheer plain stupidity. I wonder how many sales they lost because of that? Oh, and why 4WD but not in the diesel which has more torque?
I don't question the commitment of the Whitley engineering centre but it must be disheartening to be so controlled from Dearborn. Some years back they were all but signing off a new model when a new top Ford boss scrapped it and wanted a complete redesign. The S type, great car though it is, is mostly percieved (I wish to hurt no ones feelings here) as an older persons car but not a BMW 5 series, it's competitor. The XJ6 just doesn't have the luggage room of the S clas Merc or the Lexus (though the 7 series Beemer has gone down like a lead baloon) yet is a very capable car, especially in diesel form.
No, it is down to image and Ford have managed it very badly from the outset. Putting Jaguar into Formula 1 with a budget of $150 million and then wondering why it wasn't a success when Ferrari were putting in $700 million for example, but even more stupid in that Jaguar's history is here in the Sarthe. Yet they chose to bring Aston Martin back to endurance racing not Jaguar in the end. Plain bloody stupid thinking. Are you going to sell more Jaguars at £60,000 or Aston's at £120,000? Then of course they sold Aston.
Sadly, even though there are reputedly several venture capital firms queuing up to buy, I really can't see a market share for Jaguar in what is going to be a shrinking market place. Moreover, I see the spectre of MG/Rover all over again in the end. The only name that has a possible future for me is Landrover, but would one stand the torture Clarkson put a Hilux through? Let us continue to hope for the future of the makes if only for the jobs that are on the line.
