Where now for Jaguar?
2007-05-01

The sale of Aston Martin has gone a long way towards clearing up the brand confusion within Ford’s Premier Auto Group. About time too – the muddled mass of British luxury nameplates created by former Ford CEO Jac Nasser in 1999 has singularly failed to present a serious challenge to BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi. And it’s been a drain on Ford, largely because it includes the financial black hole that is Jaguar. So selling Aston to a wealthy consortium headed by respected motorsports executive David Richards is both a good deal for Ford – which gains a useful $848 windfall – and good for Aston, which departs PAG with a stable of modern cars and the technological resources, via Richards’ Prodrive organisation, to keep on growing. And it just might turn out to be the best result for Jaguar too, giving the brand some clear direction at last. Ford paid $2.5 billion for Jaguar in 1989 – a price that at the time was said to be five times greater than the company’s value. Since then Ford has poured further billions into Jaguar – the aim was to tackle BMW and Mercedes head-on, pitching “British luxury” as an alternative to “German luxury”. But the products have not been up to the task. Wrong decisions have been made. The demands of Jaguar’s American sales and marketing department created cars like the woolly-handling S-Type, based on the Lincoln LS platform. Jaguar’s designers accuse “fuddy-duddy directors” of insisting on retro styling. In a bid to increase volume to 300,000 and at the same time appease trades unions, the Ford plant at Halewood near Liverpool, which had been earmarked for closure, was refurbished to produce the Mondeo-based X-Type. Not good enough But the X-Type has never hit its sales targets. Bolting a retro-styled body on to the running gear of a mass-market saloon just wasn’t good enough to compete against sophisticated German rivals. At least the success of Land Rover’s Freelander has given Halewood a future. Then there’s the XJ, with its radical and expensive aluminium bodyshell. But its conservative styling makes it difficult to tell it from the old model. Arguably what was needed was the exact opposite – a radical-looking car on simple-to-build running gear. And it took 10 years to replace the old XK coupe with a new model. In the same timeframe, Jaguar’s German rivals have broadened their model offerings beyond belief – Audi has gone from six to 24, with more to come. Jaguar still has just four models. Mercedes has that many coupes. The penny dropped a while ago. The concept of “British luxury”, all burr walnut and cream leather interiors, works fine at the super-luxury Rolls-Royce or Bentley end of the market. But it lacks the mass-market appeal of “German luxury” – black leather and brushed aluminium. For the same reason, Hugo Boss suits have greater appeal among businessmen than Harris Tweed jackets. Belatedly, Jaguar added a black leather and brushed aluminium interior option in the new XK last year. In any case, Ford acquired a more potent BMW-fighter understood as a concept – just look at the success of Ikea, with its pale woods and subtle colours. Volvo is becoming a serious alternative to the Germans in a way that Jaguar could not. Hemmed in This left Jaguar hemmed in by Aston Martin above it and Volvo below, while fellow PAG brand Land Rover was the designated SUV-maker, denying Jaguar access to another lucrative sector. But now, with Aston gone, there is perhaps at last a glimmer of light for Jaguar. Production has dipped to around 90,000 – putting Jaguar in Porsche territory rather than BMW or Audi in terms of sales. And Porsche, more than any other manufacturer, defines the possible future for Jaguar – lower volumes, more expensive cars, and higher profitability. At Detroit in January, Jaguar gave the world the first glimpse of the car it believes will build that new future – the XF. It will be produced from early 2008, replacing the S-Type. And it looks like Ford’s new president, former Boeing aircraft boss Alan Mulally, is prepared to give Jaguar one last chance, stating: “Jaguar is not for sale at this time.” Designed jointly by Jaguar design director Ian Callum and advanced design studio boss Julian Thomson, the XF is the sort of car Jaguar should have been making for some time. It represents a break from the retro styling of the XJ, S-Type and X-Type models, using subtle design cues to create a new look for the struggling brand. Callum said the car’s styling was certainly not retro, but the concept was: “Sports sedans were Jaguar’s mantle with cars such as the Mk2 and Series 1 XJ of the 1960s – and we’re having it back!” Inside, the car features a very different take on Jaguar’s traditional wood-and-leather finish. The materials are there, but the wood has been scorched black, while the leather has been treated to look like carbon fibre. To return to the fashion analogy, the XF is certainly not Harris Tweed – it’s more like a suit from a hip British tailor – say Paul Smith or Ozwald Boateng. First of a series The XF is the first of a series of new cars under development that will see all three Jaguar saloons replaced by the end of the decade. “Our future is even more exciting than the XF,” said Callum. A new XJ – apparently even more radical than the XF – will follow in 2009, while the rumoured Land Rover Freelander-based crossover vehicle to replace X-Type is still coming, said Jaguar executives at the Detroit show. If Jaguar gets this right, it could be Jaguar’s ‘Porsche Cayenne’. By the time it arrives, more than 20 years will have passed since Ford bosses walked into Jaguar’s now-demolished Browns Lane factory in Coventry, a plant that former Jaguar boss Bill Hayden famously compared – unfavourably – to Soviet era Russian car plants. Until the new cars arrive, Jaguar has the problem of keeping sales of its flagging saloon models going. S-Type will need incentives to shift stocks as XF draws nearer. The XJ has already received a racy facelift, and you can expect much of the sales effort in the next two years to concentrate on Jaguar’s hit model, the XK. Still some pain before any gain. There are still dissenting voices who say Mulally should sell Jaguar – but buyers aren’t exactly forming an orderly queue. Land Rover and Volvo should help PAG move into profit this year, and that should persuade him that Jaguar is worth persevering with for a little longer. Perhaps there will be something to celebrate on that 20th anniversary in 2009.