No surprises here at all but it's not a great read to start the weekend. At least the Defender would seemingly survive any scenario and the world would be a better place without Velars and Discos.

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https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilwinton/2023/01/05/ailing-leaderless-jaguar-land-rover-has-options-but-none-look-tempting/amp/

 

I’ll say this- Jeep had this same problem for years and years as well. They have been bounced around by all sorts of owners and the argument was that they were just too specialized to turn a profit. However, the brand loyalty was not to be dismissed and they seem to have finally hit their stride. 80 years- but still.

If anything, I see jaguar melting away like Pontiac did. The world car market is far more fickle than the SUV side at times. The name Land Rover invokes more passion, and because of that- I see far more hope that this gets sorted out. And frankly, did anyone really think Tata was a super awesome move at the beginning anyway? The worlds cheapest cars in line with jaguar and LR? 🤔

 

It is a very sad situation indeed. I personally think the UK automotive industry is doomed due to many regulatory and expensive legislations, coupled with an aging and costly work force etc...I believe Jaguar needs to be sold and it appears the Chinese would be the most likely buyers. Land Rover has a niche in the market place that no other manufacturer has but having said that, LR needs to undergo a major overhaul and eliminate its slowest selling vehicles. Jobs will definitely be lost and that is unfortunate. LR also needs to look at their factory running costs especially in the UK. Tesla has factories worldwide and LR needs to explore that further if it wants to achieve higher sales volumes. Looking at history, every corporate LR owner from BMW, to Ford to Tata has invested huge sums of monies but none have succeeded to make it work. May be a private equity group can grab LR as was the case with Aston Martin. I wish LR the best of luck.

 

Maybe BMW wants another sideshow in addition to Mini Cooper. BMW owned them before and are now supplying the V8 engines. Mini Cooper dealers near me are in a separate building on the same lot at the BMW dealership so low overhead. Mini Cooper has just 4 models and you can easily cut down the JLR line to the Defender 90, 110 & 130 plus the full size RR. None of those compete with a BMW model. Shoppers that want a RRS would have to buy an X5.

 

I thought all was well with Tata Motors?

 

My absolute favorite resolution would be this. He has the cash and the vision. What an amazing world that would be!



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Whatever happens, don’t sell to Elon Musk. He is a poison. Put his name into Wikipedia and get the real history of this egomaniac. Hey, who else could take down two companies, Twitter and Tesla at the same time. And read about his aborted ‘Boring’ company, which has become an embarrassing scam. Investors get screwed, he gets richer. JLR has a great product in the Defender and a few of its other models, and needs proper management to prosper.

 

This news really does suck

 

​​​​​​Sir Jim is truly the answer. He's an LR purist with $28 billion in personal cash and we all know the Ineos story and his attempt to buy the Defender tooling.

 

Bring back the 2016 LR Defender 110 and 90 and problem solved