Luxury Car Sales
The great British takeaway used to be fish and chips. Nowadays it seems no British institution is safe. After a year of uncertainty, the luxury Jaguar and Land Rover marques have been offloaded by Ford. Tata has just agreed to pay about £1.5 billion for the two brands.
Tata is a very rich Indian conglomerate that turns over some £15 billion a year; in Britain, it owns Corus (formerly British steel) and Tetley Tea and some very swanky London hotels. It also has Tata Motors, the company that recently hit the headlines for launching the Nano, the world's cheapest car. Tata is also India's biggest truck maker.
Jaguar and Land Rover have always made a fuss about being British, even when they were both owned by Ford of the USA, or before that, when Land Rover was owned by BMW of Germany. So, it shouldn't be all that hard to accept that they are now owned by Tata of India. Tata has said it will leave the British management to get on with it, claiming that they are neither interventionists nor integrationists.
Buying a car company is one thing, but it was the near-insatiable appetite for ongoing investment that scared Ford into selling. But Tata has said it will invest. Investment is what it takes: not the £1.5 billion to buy the companies, but the billions after that to fund new car development – they desperately need green technology - and keep the factories up to date. They need a new model luxury limousine that is not only modern but looks modern as well.
So what does this mean for lovers of these luxury British motoring marques? Well, Ford will continue to supply engines, transmissions and a host of other components, at least for the foreseeable future. So for the moment the customers won't notice any change, i.e. same cars, same factories. Right now, the issue isn't Jaguar-Land Rover becoming too Indian. The issue is how well they can perform as an independent car company in a global economy.
Don’t be alarmed, we guarantee you won’t find any pappadums in your Jaguar or Land Rover – unless you ordered some with that other great British takeaway - Indian curry!! If you want to hire one of these fine examples of British quality limousines, contact HireLimos.
