I'm impressed...

[idrivea2002golf]

That it's been 2 days and there hasn't been a post about the disappointment to the British auto market. Ford has sold off Land Rover and Jaguar to an Indian company by the name of Tata. Along with making automobiles, Tata is a large corporation that owns 96 different companies or brands. Here's the real tough one... the agreement was for 1.2Bn GBP. It seems almost like spare change to buy Land Rover AND Jag for; considering Ford paid 3.2Bn GBP (I may off a bit I'm typing from memory) for the two of them.

And Jaguar and Land Rover came cheap. Ford paid a total of $5.3bn for the brands when it bought them in 1989 and 2000. For $2.3bn, Tata gets them debt- free, along with a $600m pension contribution from Ford.

The good news for LR and Jag is that Tata has agreed to keep the current staff for the next three years. The bad news as I see it, well I'll let you look for yourself.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-01/34665377.jpg

[mike]

Well, I dunno. Tata is a smart Man, he has the cash to put LR and Jag back in black ink. I think if anything, they will become better cars, they will still be designed and built in England, but now willl likely get a center stack of their own, and new powerplants instead of the crappy Ford radios, climate controls and dreadful engines,

I will admit, when the rumors were flying, I thought we would end up seeing cars with a likened quality of Pier 1 Imports goods, but the more stories that come to light, about the man and business, it seems it will work out ok.

[Monster8V]

Ford had to sell it off. Land Rover and Jaguar have NEVER made any money for Ford, ever.
I just cant believe they waited this long to sell it all.

[idrivea2002golf]

I'm not so worried about the hands that it's come to. I think that Tata will do Jag and LR right. However my concern lies more with herritage. I mean England has been known for some really spectacular cars, the E-type, the Mini, Marcos and a few others including LR. But now that they are owned by the Indian company the heritage of LR and Jag is gone. It would be like buying a Jeep that was owned by Toyota or buying a diesel Dodge if it was owned by Honda. It's a similar car but you have to say yeah i drive a Tata.

I hope for the sake of the two brands that Tata allows the British to continue designing and building the cars for more than the three years it would be a real shame to have Tata designers come in. Look at BMW and what's happened with the 5 and 7 series. BMW brought in an American designer and they look terrible (imho). That's my biggest concern for the two companies.

[lordoftheblings]

ahahaha... heritage. um hello it was owned and cheapen by Ford, long before Tata has a chance to do that.

[idrivea2002golf]

ford only owned LR for a few years. on top of which they only actually put any money into the LR3 and the RR sport. it was still a BMW engine and components until about 2004.

Ford has had decision ownership of jag since 1996. however most of the engineering was still done by jag in england. On top of which Ford did a great number of awesome things for Jag. Without Ford's knowledge of electrical systems we would still have Jags with the worst electrical systems on the market.

while i'm aware that it will remain the same for the next three years it's the time after those three years.