Just found this, doesn't make nice reading....


Jaguar accounts reveal £601m ($1.1bn) loss







The true scale of Jaguar’s financial meltdown has been revealed by accounts recently filed by the car maker. In 2003 — the year the delayed XJ was launched (right) — the company lost £601m.



A complex accounting procedure meant owners Ford reduced the paper value of Jaguar by a massive £534m in 2003. This was partly because Ford realised that Jaguar would never hit its projected sales target of 200,000 cars per year. The result was described by Jaguar director David Smith as leaving the company ‘with a negative net worth of £322m ($621m)’.

Ford will now have to ‘re-capitalise’ Jaguar with a fresh injection of cash. Ford and Jaguar have already taken a hit on the costs of selling the Jaguar F1 team and the costs of closing down production at the Browns Lane factory in Coventry. Losses in 2004 will again be in the ‘hundreds of millions,’ say Jaguar sources.

 

this is horrible... i think they need to restyle the Jaguar and get the ball rolling again. the newest concept looked promising.
i hope jaguar can stay alive

 

So, what's wrong? Why is Jaguar losing money?

 

Unrealistic goals. 200,000 units from a serious lux marquee? Seems steep to me. Plus, Jag still has a rep for being unreliable, and the late 90s models looked too much like a Lincoln.

 

I don't think Jaguar will ever be able to compete volume-wise with BMW and Mercedes. I think the brand needs to take a Land Rover-esque approach and be content with a smaller niche in the luxury vehicle market.

 

Alot of that was the cost of shutting down the team and it's assets. They won't have that to deal with this next year and if they do make the restyled coupe and the rumored lower cost coupe it could help. You'd think 200,000 would be possible or are they talking about the U.S. alone?

 

the main reason in the strong pound / weak dollar makes the Jag too expensive in America which is their biggest market. The exchange rate cripples UK exporters of anything. If the exchange rate dropped down to 1.4 again, Jag would make money hand over fist!

 

They are no longer exclusive company they once were. Just take a look at the Xtype. It may be well engineered, but it screams of Ford Contour with a Jag name slapped on it. My wife swears it looks just like our old Mercury Mystique (that was plagued with quality control problems). Not a car I would consider if I was in the market for a BMW 3 series. I think rebadging was the start of Jags problems.

I've seen some reports that Ford is planning to take Lincoln downmarket (think Buick) to throw more of the lux market to Jag. Sad.

 

Lincoln is going downmarket not because of Jaguar. I heard they are going to drop the LS.

The Euro/dollar hurts a lot.

Jaguar has the costs of 200,000 cars, but they made like 125,000 cars last year.

The X-Type doesn't share parts with the old Contour. It shares parts with the European Ford Mondeo. It is modified though, but the X-Type NEEDS to be dropped soon.

The next XK will use the new XJ's aluminum chassis which will reduce costs. Costs would go down further if the next S-Type used the new XJ's aluminum chassis.

The next XK will weigh HUNDREDS of pounds less than its competition.

 

the main reason in the strong pound / weak dollar makes the Jag too expensive in America which is their biggest market. The exchange rate cripples UK exporters of anything. If the exchange rate dropped down to 1.4 again, Jag would make money hand over fist![/b][/quote]

If that's the case, how come Aston Martin, Land Rover, and Volvo don't have the same problem?

No matter what happens to Jaguar, they did had some great cars.

 

That XJ220 was a marvel ... >200mph from a 6-cylinder, wow. Still one of my favorite cars all-time. I remember playing the original Need for Speed with that puppy heh