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I saw that last night. Quite a turn around. It was looking like Ford got rid at the right time. But with products like the new XF, the new XJ on the way and the still excellent XK then they should make money.
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All those cars would have been developed when the company was owned by Ford;it takes about five years to go from concept to production.
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Indeed they would have been developed under Ford ownership. But things were looking bad for JLR last year when Tata was asking for government money.
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Tata has the business sense to make it work - maybe HMG should have chucked a couple of million at it - they look pretty foolish now no doubt to Tata and industry observers. Even my tea bags are made by Tata !
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>> maybe HMG should have chucked a couple of million at it - they look pretty foolish now no doubt to Tata and industry observers
What would have been the point of chucking taxpayers cash at it if it dinna need rescuing? (Unless Tata had given the govt lottsa shares at a knockdown price, which seems unlikely)
AFAICS, any our our money would just have helped enrich Mr Tata, not created any more jobs in England
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Jaguar has been doing better than Land Rover recently, which is a turn around from a few years back.
JLR with Tata at the helm weren't after much from HMG and a big chunk of their request was loan guarantees at time when obtaining loans at preferable rates was problematic aftre the banking crash. HMG in the form of Mandelson complicated it far too much and wanted to poke their oars in too much..so Tata went their own way on it.
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"products like the new XF, the new XJ on the way and the still excellent XK "
This is the key - was talking to a Jag dealer the other day and he was very optimistic and rightly so. The XF is fantastic and such a different car to the old S and X types - no comparison really. XK also - and supercaharged ones are out of this world. Same applies to"new" Freelander - so much better than previous model.
Of course, I'll never get to own any of these but at least I get chance to drive them! delivering a brand new (10reg!) Disco tomorrow - again a very good car even if it is not "my kind of car"
LRJ has a good range of vehicles nowadays - good luck to them
Phil
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The XKR can now be order/modded (not sure but skimmed an AutoExpress article) to offer around 510bhp and plenty of torque. And top speed about 171mph.
Last edited by: welshy on Sun 28 Feb 10 at 22:44
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"top speed about 171mph"
I'll take your word for that welshy! Not much chance to confirm it on British roads!!
Oddly enough, I find that in a car like the XKR/XFR/Bentley GTC/997 I am quite content to cruise along at very reasonable speeds (apart from the odd burst in a low gear to sample the sound!!) but get me in a white van............!!!
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I think the exchange rate has probably been the main reason
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Jaguar - Jaguar Motors back in profit. - rtj70
