As for building, the UK is a great place to get highly-skilled work carried out, that’s why so many of the world’s top racing teams have their cars designed and built there. Its no longer a good place to go for grubby, cheap, repetitive production-line worker drones, the Brits leave that to the Indians, the Chinese and the good people of Michigan.

Land Rover’s don’t sell in the US???? The US is Land Rover’s largest market and has been for a couple of years now. The UK is the second largest market. Land Rover sales are up 7.4% compared to last year in the US. Hummer is down 20.7% so far for the year.

http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/IROL/84/84530/sales_production/Oct2007_Deliveries.pdf

Jeep is up 8% but that is only because they have three new models they didn’t have for all of last year. The new wrangler is kicking ass the Patriot wasn’t on sale at all last year and the compass was only on sale for a few months last year. Jeep will most likely finish down for the year as Wrangler sales tend to drop off going into the winter.

The UK is noplace to design or, especially, build cars: UK work ethic and labor-culture issues are why Jags and Land Rovers are some of the worst-built, most-expensive-to-run vehicles in the world. They both would have collapsed long ago, like every other UK marque, if it weren’t for Ford life support.

It would be sweet poetic justice if an Indian buyer got hold of these brands, fixed the quality issues and built them better, cheaper. That will NOT happen in the UK.

They’re selling. It’s done. They will get about the equivalent of $6-7 billion for it when debt assumption is included unless they are VERY lucky. They will continue to advise and supply Jag and LR – they might even retain a significant stake. Let’s stop worrying about it and just wait for the announcement sometime around Christmas (can you imagine that Christmas present “Honey, I bought you Jaguar.” “Which model?” “No, the company. Oh, and they threw Land Rover in there as a door prize.”)

I also agree that I do not want to see Tata Motors get a hold of the duo. I am also glad to see that Cerberus has dropped out of the running; they have their hands full turning Chrysler LLC around. They do not need any distractions in this quest.

I am glad to see Ford is trying to unload these two brands. Ford simply does not have the resources to fix Jaguar, keep Land Rover going, and try to fix their ailing North American operations. I think a leaner Ford will be in a better position to attend to their issues and become competitive again. I hope the firm that receives Jaguar can advance the turnaround effort for this once great British brand.