Autoweek wrote up a compelling exposé on an internal movement at Jaguar that might have boosted profits and added some sporting credentials to the troubled marque.
The entire report is well worth the read, but the quick-and-dirty version involved slapping superchargers onto every model in the Jag lineup and pushing these high performance models as the new face of Jaguar. The rationale for this plan was simple: Jaguar's R-badged offerings made more money per unit, for both the automaker and the dealers, than any of their other models and if they could make Jag the "supercharged" brand, there might have been a light at the end of the financially troubled tunnel.
During the exploratory phase, Jag's engineers worked up a few supercharged X-type prototypes while the marketing crew was hard at work trying to gear advertising towards their new mission statement.
In the end, the X-types were either crushed or thrown into storage, numbers didn't crunch as intended, executives began getting squeamish -- especially at the prospect of the inevitable comparos between Jaguar and other high- performance luxury brands (ahem, BMW), and eventually, the entire plan was shelved. Considering that the goal was to make Jaguar a niche player, selling a small amount of unique vehicles at a profit, it's disappointing to see that the brand is now just selling a small amount of vehicles.
[Source: Autoweek]
The entire report is well worth the read, but the quick-and-dirty version involved slapping superchargers onto every model in the Jag lineup and pushing these high performance models as the new face of Jaguar. The rationale for this plan was simple: Jaguar's R-badged offerings made more money per unit, for both the automaker and the dealers, than any of their other models and if they could make Jag the "supercharged" brand, there might have been a light at the end of the financially troubled tunnel.
During the exploratory phase, Jag's engineers worked up a few supercharged X-type prototypes while the marketing crew was hard at work trying to gear advertising towards their new mission statement.
In the end, the X-types were either crushed or thrown into storage, numbers didn't crunch as intended, executives began getting squeamish -- especially at the prospect of the inevitable comparos between Jaguar and other high- performance luxury brands (ahem, BMW), and eventually, the entire plan was shelved. Considering that the goal was to make Jaguar a niche player, selling a small amount of unique vehicles at a profit, it's disappointing to see that the brand is now just selling a small amount of vehicles.
[Source: Autoweek]
Sign in to post
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Continue