Jaguar Poised To Shut For The Summer

[interestrateripoff]

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/busi...icle6690388.ece

EXECUTIVES at Jaguar Land Rover, the Midlands carmaker, are drawing up plans for an extended shutdown of its UK plants and a new round of staff layoffs as it struggles to cope with the slump in the world car market.

Preparation for the closures comes just days after the company released its new flagship, the latest version of the Jaguar XJ beloved by prime ministers and top British executives.

The car was launched at a glitzy party in London’s Saatchi Gallery on Thursday, to critical acclaim. Management at the group and its owner, India’s Tata Motors, are hoping the new car, which goes on sale in Britain early next year, will breathe some life into sales that have been struggling since last autumn.

Last month Tata Motors revealed that mounting losses at the UK carmaker had pushed it into its first annual loss of $522m (£322m) in seven years, and warned drastic cost-cutting should be expected. It said sales at its British subsidiary had fallen by about one third.

Jaguar Land Rover, which employs some 15,000 people in the UK, has so far avoided the lengthy shutdowns that some other carmakers have used to save money and run down stock. Honda, for example, closed its plant at Swindon for three months.

Instead, the Midlands group has taken other measures, such as extending its Christmas break to two weeks, moving to a four-day week and laying off around 2,000 temporary staff.

It is understood, however, that one option now under consideration is an extended closure of the three UK plants over the summer, accompanied by another round of job cuts.

Yesterday the company explained that there was no concrete plan. “We have always said there may be a need in the future to take further action, but there are no plans at present,†a spokesman said.

Jaguar Land Rover is still trying to convince the government to provide a loan guarantee that would unlock a £340m advance from the European Investment Bank. The EIB gave the green light two months ago, but cannot dispense the cash until Britain agrees to repay it if Jaguar Land Rover goes under.

The car market has collapsed, over capacity is everywhere. Now people can't MEW these luxury cars can only be afforded by the rich.

[Rachman]

They need to strip out and fit out for the new XJ, that takes time anyway - the suppliers need to as well. If they can go ahead and build a load of XFs up front and have them in stock (you can usually predict the spec people want anyway) then you can easily do this without hurting sales too much. It would be a sensible move, not least because it lets them get the lines up right and not have any 'interesting BL style' engineering foibles in the new car.

I agree that in an ideal world they'd not be doing this, BUT the timing's not that bad to be doing it and it's not the complete doom and gloom the Times is suggesting to be doing it now.

The X type is a minority interest built in a Land Rover factory anyway, the XJ is almost a shed project these days, built in such tiny numbers and the XK is a small seller too....

[profitofdoom]

They need to strip out and fit out for the new XJ, that takes time anyway - the suppliers need to as well. If they can go ahead and build a load of XFs up front and have them in stock (you can usually predict the spec people want anyway) then you can easily do this without hurting sales too much. It would be a sensible move, not least because it lets them get the lines up right and not have any 'interesting BL style' engineering foibles in the new car.

I agree that in an ideal world they'd not be doing this, BUT the timing's not that bad to be doing it and it's not the complete doom and gloom the Times is suggesting to be doing it now.

The X type is a minority interest built in a Land Rover factory anyway, the XJ is almost a shed project these days, built in such tiny numbers and the XK is a small seller too....

The problem is that they are up against BMW5 series and the new Merc E class.It's pretty clear to anyone in the know that both these are a significantly better product.The last piece of engineering we built better than the Germans was the Spitfire.

[Panda]

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverp...92534-24137328/

[Not Long Now]

Where are our resident car industry experts:

My understanding of the world car industry was that there was gross oversupply even before this economic downturn.

Am I correct?

[Minos]

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/busi...icle6690388.ece

The car market has collapsed, over capacity is everywhere. Now people can't MEW these luxury cars can only be afforded by the rich.

In troubled times it's better to appear poor.

[Rachman]

The problem is that they are up against BMW5 series and the new Merc E class.It's pretty clear to anyone in the know that both these are a significantly better product.The last piece of engineering we built better than the Germans was the Spitfire.

The 1995-2002 E class was the absolute nadir of Mercedes engineering - it's an appalling rustbucket. The replacement E (just replaced itself) was another electronics mess till 2005, after it had been on the market three years. The new one has all the press plaudits, but they all get that when new. I don't believe them yet.

The current E60 5 series is not bad, but let's ignore turbo failure, gearbox failures and electronics problems for a while, shall we. And this XJ is not against those, it's against the S class (the last one was another rustbucket) and the 7 series (the last one was so oversupplied it depreciated even worse than usual and had, erm, challenging looks).

The new Merc E class is an excellent car, as is the 5 series, but the car is more than how it drives etc - where Jag have done really well in the last 15 years (apart from stupid unnecessary glitches on the electrical bits of the XF) is core reliability (X type excluded as it's a little ******* of a car). Far far far better than BMW or Mercedes (or Audi or just about anyone else).

What do you know from in the know as to why the new E and the forthcoming (it's imminent) replacement 5 are streets ahead (apart from next generation of BMW diesel engines). Where do they thrash Jag and the rest of the market ?

[Panda]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/...e-Jag-axed.html

JAGUAR is ending production of its X-Type model with the loss of 300 jobs at its Halewood plant on Merseyside.

The jobs blow comes just a week before the 2,000 workers at Halewood go on their annual summer shutdown, and a week after a VIP launch in London for its new XJ model.

It takes the number of redundancies made by Jaguar/Land Rover to 2,500 so far this year, as well as workers accepting a pay cut and reduced working hours.

The news will increase fears that Jaguar/Land Rover may close the Halewood plant, but inside sources say the plant remains a key part of their future plans.

Edited July 15, 2009 by Panda

[Skirmish]

The last piece of engineering we built better than the Germans was the Spitfire.

Really?

[CokeSnortingTory]

I actually think the upper end of the car market has got a reasonable chance of survival - cars like the XJ, S-Class etc. are usually bought by people who can actually afford them. It's the "aspirational" smaller cars like the 3-Series and A4 which I think are more vulnerable - the MEWer's/credit-hounds segment.

As in so many things, I can see our car habits returning to the 1950's - lots of luxury brands at the top, cheap-and-cheerful at the bottom, and almost nothing in the middle. Only instead of Morris Minors and Ford Anglias, we'll have Hyundais and Kias.

[blankster]

Although large luxury cars with big engines might be becoming semi-dinosaurs, the new Jaguar XF was a pretty good stab at making Jaguar cool again. It is a hard act to follow for Jaguar and it looks like the new XJ, visually, is less 'right' than the XF.

[Democorruptcy]

Whenever I see these car firm in trouble stories it always makes me wonder why the new registration system is never mentioned.

When we had just one new registration each year in August it was more of a status symbol to buy a new car.

Did the car industry get greedy trying to have 2 pay days a year but all that has done is dilute interest in new cars?

[Rachman]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/...e-Jag-axed.html

JAGUAR is ending production of its X-Type model with the loss of 300 jobs at its Halewood plant on Merseyside.

The jobs blow comes just a week before the 2,000 workers at Halewood go on their annual summer shutdown, and a week after a VIP launch in London for its new XJ model.

It takes the number of redundancies made by Jaguar/Land Rover to 2,500 so far this year, as well as workers accepting a pay cut and reduced working hours.

The news will increase fears that Jaguar/Land Rover may close the Halewood plant, but inside sources say the plant remains a key part of their future plans.

Halewood has ahd a lot of grants into it - if they close it, they are at risk of repayment - it's also a plant that makes smaller cars, like the supposedly forthcoming loosely Fiesta based (IIRC) LRX.

The X type is dead, it's amazing it soldiered on this far - it should have been shot in 2007, as planned, but the money's not been there to replace it - and replace it they will have to do, if they want to survive as a brand - you can't go flogging the odd XJ to retired people, you simply have to have an aspirational volume seller - the 3, the C class, the A4, not least because of the huge size of this market as people downsize, but also because you get people younger. The perfect car for Jag would have been the Lexus IS200 (current) - it even already looks like a small Jag would have done - with some torque in the engines (5.0 excepted). If Jag don't come up with a saloon/roadster/estate coupe based on a new chassis, their long term future looks bad - people are downsizing - a higher spec 3 series is a more desirable car than a boggo larger one - witness the death of the Granada, Omega etc....