Jaguar sales rise eight per cent for 2008
January 14, 2009 by George Skentzos
It was a little over a year ago that Ford was only too eager to offload its struggling UK-bred offspring, Jaguar and Land Rover, which faced plummeting sales and tough economic times.
Now in the hands of Tata Motors, Jaguar has reported a healthy eight per cent sales increase for 2008 despite a significant drop in US sales brought on by the financial crisis.
Jaguar sold 65,000 vehicles in 2008, while in its most lucrative North American market sales fell four per cent to 15,500 – although still well below the industry wide 18 per cent average sales slump.
Gary Temple, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover North America, announced the company forecasts demand for its vehicles to be flat in 2009, with analysts predicting further industry decline.
Jaguar sales in the North American market still have a long way to go before reaching the previous sales peak of 61,204 set six years ago under its former owner Ford.
The brand is set to receive a major boost in the coming year with the debut of several modern, high-performance models that will well and truly shed Jaguar’s old-time image.
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And thats all down to XF sales, the rest of the range XJ, XK, and X-type are all slow sellers. They will never survive on one car alone. My Guv’nor has an XF diesel comingfrom a 335D twin turbo thingy and is well dissapointed with the performance, so much so he’s getting shot after a year. However the XF will soon have a new 3.0D engine to sort the shortfall out.
The XF has helped them turn the corner. Hopefully the improvements will continue from here.
Just shows you make the right cars and people will buy them
Well Cupid, that is understandable. The 2.7 litre diesel has similar power outputs to BMW’s 25d engine, it’s very far off the 35d and actually, that was quite a bad choice.
If the XF keeps selling well for now, they’ll have another sales spike when the new XJ comes out and then I think they’ll bring out something smaller to keep up with the current trend and then possibly something smaller again, 1 Series/Golf competitor perhaps? I know plenty that would buy that, relying on it being a refined class leader with XF/XK beauty. A small convertible and coupe would sell extremely well too. People would complain about the prestige factor going down but considering people see Jaguar as a BMW/Mercedes/Audi/Lexus competitor anyway, they may as well branch out into more affordable areas of the market and get more sales.
The XF deserves all the sales, it is the best looking in class. People say it looks like the Mondeo, I don’t see it but besides, what’s wrong with that? People think the Mondeo looks great. As for they Hyundai comments, I have yet to see a Hyundai that was even similar to the XF. People say the front lights look Korean but I haven’t seen a Korean car that’s lights are anything like the XFs. I don’t understand the Lexus comments either. Lexus’ are gawky and pointy, the XF is rounded and European looking and very British.
Supposedly they are coming out with a coupe XF (maybe more rear legroom than the XK?), and the XF-R. A new XJ is in the pipeline too, which will be (it is said) significantly different to the current shape. Remember, the XF is now the “entry level” Jag, with the X-Type all but gone. Their quality is up, and now the sporting cred is getting up there too (love that Bonneville flats clip), and seems to be a focus for them. That 3 litre diesel looks like a ripper on the stats, but it would be the 5 litre petrol (supercharged) for this little black duck if I won the lotto.
so much for the doom and damnation predicted by many when jag and LR were sold to the indian business giant tata