http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/ Autoblog Comments for Jaguar/Land Rover prognostications come out of woodwork http://www.autoblog.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.autoblog.com en-us Copyright 2008 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/]]>Mar 26th 2008 2:12PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/Mar 26th 2008 2:15PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/Mar 26th 2008 3:01PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/
Good luck Tata.]]>Mar 26th 2008 2:17PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/Mar 26th 2008 2:24PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/
As for the Land Rovers, they are becoming cute-utes. The main attraction of them was that they were one of the holdouts of hardcore expedition vehicles, now they are minivan of the 2000s.]]>Mar 26th 2008 3:58PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/
What kind of bizarro world exists where people commenting on boring or ugly design are assumed to drive Toyotas? ]]>Mar 26th 2008 4:23PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/Mar 26th 2008 4:31PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/
TATA at least is getting cars which are reasonably reliable and modern with some new designs for the future.

Ford never finally decided to MOVE production FROM the UK. The cost structure of manufacturing mass production cars just doesn't work in the UK. Now one has to believe that TATA bought both brands for 2 reasons.
1) "I've made it baby"."I'm a member of the Club". Yup the developing country bites back and BUYS world brands from it's former Colonialistic Rulers (well most feel these 2 brands are more "British" than "American"). Maybe some think this an overstatement, but you get the message
2) TATA believes these brands can thrive under their stewardship. This can ONLY be achieved, IMHO, by MOVING major parts production OUT of the UK and into India. Don't fight it guys, it's for the ultimate survival of these 2 brands. It could work.]]>Mar 26th 2008 2:40PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/
These are all countries with a very comparable cost of work as the UK]]>Mar 28th 2008 11:21AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/
Coach- and supercars, sure, but anything more than a a few tens of cars per month does not do well there. Ford did well, but it had a lot of endemic QA problems that it inherited from Jag and Rover. Tata is likely going to try to build these products from a ground-up plant that doesn't have the legacy management trouble of the current UK ones.]]>Mar 26th 2008 3:34PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/Mar 26th 2008 3:07PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/Mar 26th 2008 3:24PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/Mar 26th 2008 3:55PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/
Just from skimming those stories nothing really seems new. The autoweek article in particular is a rehash of an older autoweek article. Everyone knows something must be done with the Defender as it is very labor intensive to make cutting into profitability. For the past two years a new Defender on a cut down T-5 platform has been hinted at. ]]>Mar 26th 2008 9:33PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/26/jaguar-land-rover-prognostications-come-out-of-the-woodwork/First, part of the agreement is the the assembly plants do not move off the Island. So fugetabhout that.

Second, while we have greatly increased their quality, Jaques' "plan" was to bring the cars to a greater market. (Ironically, while bringing Ford up from the "common market " - which flopped horribly.) So the next step is to re-design the products so that they are more exclusive and more attractive in their price points.

Third, it takes between 3 and 5 years to design a car / truck. So anything that comes out in the next 5 years or so is still going to be a Ford-based design. And the supplier contracts reflect that.
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