In 2007, Jaguar sold just over 60,000 cars, nowhere near the 200,000 annual figure for which Ford had once hoped. Current chief Geoff Polites wants to sell 80,000 cars per year - profitably.

It surely helps that Jaguar was, in 2009, named the top luxury car maker in the U.S. by the J.D. Power Customer Satisfaction Index for the second year running. Out of a total 1,000 points available in areas including dealership facility, salesperson, paperwork/ finance process, delivery process, and vehicle price, Jaguar scored 898 points. The British brand, which beat Cadillac by just 5 points in the final tally, was particularly commended for its friendly dealers and efficiency in dealing with paperwork.

Unlike its Land Rover sister brand (within the TATA fold), Jaguar is not taking advantage of emerging markets, with sales in China up just 5.6% in 2007, and sales across the Middle East falling. Much of its growth in Eastern Europe and Russia has been due to the entry-level, diesel X-Type, which those markets perceive as somewhat prestigious.

As CAR magazine notes, "that contributes little to Jaguar's profits, and doesn't do the brand - beautiful, fast cars - any favors" (CAR, June 2008).


Toward the end of 2007, as Ford's sale of Jaguar and Land Rover nears, Bibiana Boerio, one of the chief architects of Jaguar's prior turnaround plan, retires as managing director of Jaguar Cars. She is replaced by Mike O'Driscoll, formerly president of Jaguar Land Rover North America.

Thankfully, for those who want to see Jaguar restored to former glory, O'Driscoll has little time for high-volume cars such as the X-Type. At the August 2008 launch of the new XJ, managing director Mike O'Driscoll talks of the company becoming Britain's Porsche, content to sell roughly 100,000 (high-end, profitable) cars per year.


The enlightened who own a 2003-08 Jaguar XJ luxury sedan, or XK luxury coupé, are blessed with what are, in all likelihood, among the best automobiles on the market. Both share all-aluminum construction, an important; expensive, and inherent solution to the problem of excess weight and poor weight distribution in too many of today's automobiles. A Jaguar XJ Vanden Plas weighs about 600 lbs less than a Mercedes-Benz S550, thanks to its aluminum unibody structure.

Yet the two Jaguars are also traditional in their styling in an era when creases and flares are in fashion. More is the pity that it is difficult for Jaguar to fashion, of aluminum, the same sort of surfacing that - say - BMW is able to field in the steel 5er and 7er.

In 2006, Jaguar Cars sells 24,555 cars in America. Meanwhile, BMW; Lexus, and Mercedes-Benz sell 277,461; 312,027, and 241,482 units, respectively.

It thus falls to the steel XF to embody Jaguar's next-generation styling.

By April 2008, Jaguar has sold the entire contingent of 18,000 XFs slated for production this year. Sales rise by 70% in Europe, to 4,047, climbing by 85% in Great Britain alone.


As Jaguar comes under TATA ownership, rumors of a Jaguar F-Type roadster, competition for Porsche's Boxster, are reignited. The project was killed in 2002; "that was a huge mistake by Jaguar... the F-Type would have provided an image booster to offset the geriatric S- and X-Types," muses CAR, in retrospect (CAR, June 2008).

If an F-Type happens, it will be 2013 - at the earliest - before it is rolled out.


Between 1951 and 1957, Jaguar won the 24 Hours of Le Mans five times. It last claimed top spot at the famed race in 1990, with the XJR 12. Now, new Jaguar owner TATA Motors is contemplating a return.


As Jaguar prepares for its launch in 2007, rumors abound that American owner Ford will sell the British company, together with Land Rover, to India's TATA Motors. By the end of the year, the sale is certain; by early 2008, it is complete.

"While the rest of us have been obsessing over Jaguar's uncertainties, the firm's inner management has quietly been working on a success plan, future designs and actions aimed at restoring it to profitable operation as the manufacturer of about 80,000 exclusive, exciting British sporting cars every year," reports Autocar Editor-in-Chief Steve Cropley at the start of 2008 (Autocar, January 30th, 2008).

Under Tata management, Cropley adds, Jaguar will be "a company with its heritage intact, its mission clarified, its car-making expertise at industry-leading levels and its prospects better than at any time since Sir William Lyons' day."

The Jaguar/ Land Rover business employs some 16,000 people, predominantly in the U.K., including some 3,500 engineers at two product development centers in Whitley, Coventry, and Gaydon, Warkwickshire. 70% of Jaguars are exported to 63 countries.

"Jaguar has lost its sheen over the years, and the brand has suffered," admits Tata Motors Chairman Ratan Tata.

"Despite this, it has a very loyal customer and dealer base... both Jaguar and Land Rover have tremendous engineering capabilities and now it is upon us to keep it together" ('Tata may race Jaguar back to Le Mans,' Business Standard, July 26^th, 2008).

Jaguar announces plans to leave its historic site at Browns Lane, Coventry, in 2005. Additionally, it is likely that production of the XF; XJ, and XK will move from Castle Bromwich in Birmingham to Solihull, after 2011.


Jaguar Cars Limited is founded by Sir William Lyons in 1922.