Despite having incurred great losses for the company, Jaguar will not be sold by the Ford Motor Company. Well, at least for now. Rumor has it that with the company's financial problems and economic instability, Ford might be planning to sell one of their European luxury brands. Since the company bought the Jaguar brand for US $2.82 billion in 1989, the brand is still yet to earn income for Ford. But CEO Alan Mulally announced that the brand is not for sale.
The brand incurred the biggest loss in the luxury division of Ford for the past year alone; it has dropped 32 per cent in its sales in the United States which is its biggest market. But the managing director of Jaguar is still optimistic and is bent on introducing a new line of Jaguars which may boost the sales of the brand. Add to that the high performance and revolutionary engineering of the brand.
The company may be giving the brand a chance to redeem itself, a chance which Jaguar is taking on with a positive attitude. And with the forthcoming release of their XF line of sports car, the brand maybe on its way to being a contender for the leadership in the luxury car market. To follow that up, the brand is also set to release an even more radical model, the XJ in 2009 and a crossover luxury SUV in the future.
The Jaguar XF line is already causing much hype in the automotive industry; the appearance of the concept car behind the soon to be produced vehicle has gathered a lot of admirers. For one, the car will be the first road car to have the BERU F1 Systems Wire in Composite technology. This advancement will greatly affect the durability, packaging, weight performance and overall design of the XF. While the system was designed for motor sports, engineers found out that it is very much applicable to road cars.
The steps undertaken by the brand and its expected impact on the financial status of the whole company will be good news especially with Ford Motor Co. still loosing money. By the end of the first three quarters of the previous year, the company lost US $7 billion, and with the result of the last quarter still probably reflecting the added loss. This is due to the fact that Asian car manufacturers are carving a bigger niche in the US market, just like Toyota from Japan which is now the second largest automobile manufacturer, following General Motors.
