Jaguar and Land Rover takaway

mike65

http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/driving/article3621873.ece

Jaguar and Land Rover, two of Britain’s most prestigious car brands, will be sold today in a £1 billion deal to Tata, the Indian conglomerate famous for manufacturing the world’s cheapest car.

The sale of the two iconic names marks the end of car-making in Britain by Ford. It follows the US company’s decision to sell its other big British brand, Aston Martin, last year. Production of its own blue-badged brand cars in Dagenham ended eight years ago.

Jaguar and Land Rover will sit alongside Tata’s other automotive assets, including the £1,200 Nano, vehicle and engineering in India, Corus, the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker, and Tetley’s Tea.

Mike.

bazz26

This has been on the cards for a while now. Obviously there is something not right otherwise one of the big boys surely would have taken them under their corporate wings.

Don't think it will make much difference to the products though. You never know maybe they might turn their fortunes around. Lotus is owned by Proton these days and hasn't suffered from it.

unkel

Yeah wasn't this agreed a good while back?

bazz26 wrote: »

Obviously there is something not right otherwise one of the big boys surely would have taken them under their corporate wings

Food for thought although most big boys have built up their full portfolio by now, I'd guess. I'd like to see more comments on that specific point though!

Del2005

bazz26 wrote: »

This has been on the cards for a while now. Obviously there is something not right otherwise one of the big boys surely would have taken them under their corporate wings.

Proberly because most of the big car makers are in a bigger mess then Ford. The only one that maybe could have bought them was Toyota and they don't need them as the have the areas already covered with their own products.

Don't think it will make much difference to the products though. You never know maybe they might turn their fortunes around. Lotus is owned by Proton these days and hasn't suffered from it.

AFAIK Jag and LandRover where the making money, but Ford is such a basket case it needs the cash.

positron

Lets not underestimate Tata (..this was in response to the other thread as well, I am not implying anyone is...). They might have been responsible for City Rover or whatever, but they in fact very good at building cars for the Indian sub-continent. Their billion+ customer base is booming, and I know for a fact that the transformation in Indian car market in last 4-6 years can only be described as extra-ordinary - the typical 'middle class' mobile has moved on from a 100 cc scooter/motorbike to a 1L four wheelers to larger saloons, and believe me the Indian middle class is many hundreds of millions strong! Tata, like others (Hyundai, Suzuki etc) have been minting money from the boom. Last few years are seeing more and more international models (your ordinary Toyotas, Scodas, Fords and VWs) entering Indian market, and probably this is Tata's ways of acquiring some first world technology - they are probably hoping to upgrade the profile of Tata's own models by infusing a bit of modern tech at Indian prices? And then sell the improved Indian cars in international market.

Interesting times ahead.

MySelf56

100% agree with positron.
I think most of the people are sceptical about the tag “Indian” or simply put them off I guess. Does any one know India has capability of launching 4 ton satellites into Geo-Sync Orbit using their own rockets?
Tata has already JV with Fiat. One shouldn’t forget given Land Rover, military history its easy for TATA’s to market to Indian Army as well for logistical support. Tata always faced stiff competition from Mahindra for Army related contracts. I bet it will be easy. Tata is well experienced players in Indian market in Automotive (http://www.tatamotors.com/products/) and Steel Sector. Yes those crazy middle class Indians hungry for every thing (finest example was India's biggest IPO raises $3 billion in a minute for Reliance Power ...) so those who understate will to eat their own words.