Stumbling across this, Jaguar seems to finally have a plan in place: http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=106006 Jaguar Rethinks Crossover as It Plans to Become "British Porsche" Date Posted 06-09-2005 COVENTRY, England Jaguar is rethinking plans to build a crossover SUV based on the Land Rover Freelander in favor of a more expensive SUV along the lines of the Porsche Cayenne, according to U.K. reports. British magazine Autocar said plans for the Freelander-based crossover were "on the back burner" as Jaguar starts to reposition itself as a lower volume maker of more profitable models using Porsche's highly successful business model as a base. The strategy could cut Jaguar's output to below 100,000 units, from today's 115,000. Porsche is the world's most profitable carmaker, making almost $20,000 on each of the 81,531 cars it built last year. The Cayenne makes up half of Porsche's production the 100,000th rolled off the line last week. The new XK coupe is the first Jaguar to fit the new concept; it is said to be highly profitable at a build rate of 10,000 units a year. But Jaguar has to decide what models will follow the XK. In addition to an SUV, options include a supercar and a four-seat luxury coupé. If the Freelander-based crossover is not built, it could cause Jaguar problems filling its Halewood plant near Liverpool that currently builds the slow-selling Jaguar X-Type, a car that will be killed off in 2008. What this means to you: Ford is finally sorting out its European prestige brands; Jaguar will compete with Porsche, Aston Martin will compete with Ferrari and Lamborghini, and Volvo will become the BMW/Mercedes/Audi fighter. Sounds like consumers will be the winners in this campaign. So does this mean Jaguar will leave the $30k-price tag, and go to the price levels of the Porsche-Maserati lines ($60k-$100k-something range)? I think if Jaguar can build quality, sexy-looking models, this could really hurt the top-line and brand image of BMW, Mercedes, and Audi (though Audi never marketed itself or price itself really competed in the top-line range)?
It will flop unless the models bring out more performance and less luxury. If this is true, what they says to me is Jaguar is pondering the change over to be an SUV manufacturer to grab a small percentage of market share in an already SUV saturated market before attempting to resurrect their sports car roots. I applaud their stupidity. Sunny
