Ford today said its Jaguar, Volvo, and Land Rover brands are not currently for sale. “For the moment Jaguar, Volvo and Land Rover are not for sale. If that changes we will tell you about it,” Lewis Booth, head of the Premier Automotive Group, said during a conference call with analysts in Europe today. He acknowledged, however, that “everything is on the table,” and the status of those companies could change.
Currently, the only Ford brand for sale is Aston Martin, which the automaker put on the block nearly a month ago. At the time, the company said Aston Martin could be “an attractive opportunity to raise capital and generate value.”
Any possible sale of Jaguar or Land Rover would likely be a package deal, due to the vast number of resources the two companies share. As discussed yesterday, a sale of Volvo would be even more complex, because the Swedish automaker uses Ford platforms.
09/27, 10:35 AM
posted by:
Stuart
Sell Jag/LR/Rover to Honda. Aston to Lotus or someone
09/27, 11:29 AM
posted by:
Endurancevm
Ford is not going to sell the companies because no one would buy them. BMW bought LR, invested alot of money into them, then dumped it to, who else, Ford. Ford made the stupid decision of buying LR because their cars arent that great and LR is also a big money loss for them. Aston Martin would hold the prestige value for other Fords(hypothetically) and Volvo will have some sort of safety effect on Ford cars. Ford never needed LR…never understood that decision.
09/27, 11:44 AM
posted by:
dl_caldwell
I don’t understand why Ford purchased these money losers in the first place. They don’t fit with Fords culture. Mazda made sense – they have a great product line with good quality control and loyal customers. All things Ford needs and needs badly. Volvo builds conservative cars with excellent safety features – they fit with Ford too. But Jaguar? Land Rover? Aston? It looks like Bill had money burning a hole in his pocket and didn’t know what to do with it. If he had only invested that money into building new Fords…
09/27, 12:24 PM
posted by:
Stuart
Jaguar actually did makke sense in the case of selling cars in europe. They had no car to compete with the Germans. THa jaguar was AND STILL IS the only brand which has the slightest chance of competing in europe against the Mercedes and Bmers.
Thats because although Audi’s are decent they are still seen as Volkswagens, Volvo are boring and nowhere near as good as the germans, same goes for Saab and Lexus, and cadillac is just plain ****.
The XJ, XK and S-type and good cars which sell well but to make money they need a proper C-Class and 3 series rival not a ford mondeo knock off.
09/27, 10:51 PM
posted by:
British_Rover
Endurancevm and dl_caldwell you two dont know much about Land Rover that is very obvious.
First of all BMW invested very little in Land Rover. BMW bought Land Rover because they wanted to get into the SUV market quickly. BMW had zero experience building trucks of any type unlike mercedes which has had many years of experience building commercial trucks. The fastest cheapest way to get into the Luxury SUV was to buy the creator of the Luxury SUV Land Rover. They used Land Rovers 4wd tech to help design the X5. They basicly raped Land Rover of all the technology they could as quickly as possible and invested very little in the brand itself. Yes they did start the design of the Current Mark III Range Rover but they made sure it was behind the X5 in terms of features. I mean come on it didn’t have auto head lights originaly designed into the vehicle and was only offered with a 5 speed automatic when a 6 speed was avaliable.
Land Rover is actually very profitable for ford. Land Rover’s sales have been in a positive rise for over two years now and we are on pace to break the 2005 CY sales record for the North American Market and the world. Land Rover is Fords most profitable single division and Land Rover is the only SUV make that is having a positive sales increase in a declining SUV market.
09/28, 8:31 AM
posted by:
lanapat7
Jaguar is dead. Not even the British Royal Family drive Jaguars anymore.
The new S-type styling is ugly- a desperate move that will not save cash strapped Jaguar/Ford.
And their marketing sucks. Those ads do not convey any sense of glamour, style, luxury, uniqueness that would make one trade in a Mercedes Benz for one of those cars.
As to the other brands- NO ONE is interested in purchasing them. Sad story, horrible end.