Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Jagwire
There's a great thread running at Jalopnik discussing what Ford should do with Jaguar as part of "The Way Forward".
Here's a great comment, which almost exactly echoes my thoughts on the subject:
B Borrman says:Keep it or sell it. All that matters is that the owners are willing to correct the nASSer mistakes. Jag shouldn't ever have been vying for BMW-like volume. Turn it into what it once was, a British Maserati. I'm guessing Ford won't want to play the small volume game though.
Kill the X-Type, build the XF without compromising it to appeal to every 5-Series shopper. Turn the XJ into the Quattroporte competitor it wants to be.
Remember way back when the XJ Series III V12 was the fastest sedan in the world? Yeah, that's what you should be doing again. Remember when you built iconic designs that everyone lusted after? Do it today! Someone needs to build beautiful cars again -- Jag, it's your chance!
Jaguar has been and always should be a niche manufacturer.
They need to forget about VOLUME sales, and make it appeal to a smaller market. Make it a high margin, high quality, high performance, luxury niche brand that basically competes directly with Maserati and Aston Martin and maybe some Porsche models. Forget about the BMW/Lexus/Lincoln/Cadillac/Audi/Volvo(they're another Ford subsidiary!) competition and their respective markets, and make Jag cars for the Jag market. (which will need to be recreated since it's been torn apart for the last 15 years and no longer exists)
