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Reader Comments for
Subscribe to this threadJaguar/Land Rover prognostications come out of woodwork
(Page 1 of 1)
Ian @ Mar 26th 2008 2:40PM
Under Ford the quality of both Jaguar and LandRover has recovered from the precipise of self annihilation. Both brands have EVERYTHING to thank Ford for. B4 Ford both these names were suffering from cost cutting and lousy quality control and poor overall management. It was amazing the Ford was so desperate for premium brands, at that time, that they way way overpaid for them.
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.
MK @ Mar 28th 2008 11:21AM
Yeah, because building cars works so very horribly in Germany, Austria, Finland, Italy, Japan, the US or France..
These are all countries with a very comparable cost of work as the UK
psarhjinian @ Mar 26th 2008 3:34PM
It's not so much the cost of manufacturing in the UK, it's that the engineering culture needed for automobile mass-production just doesn't exist there.
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.