Why: Ford PAG sells out?

If someone could enlighten me on the purpose that Ford Motor Company would sell out the Ford PAG division (Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin, and Volvo). I figured that this was a fairly lucrative association for Ford to have. Those are all considered luxury automobiles, and they obviously sell well.

I just don't really understand their reasons for sale, actually I don't know their reasons. And what would it do to the aforementioned companies if it sold out to Tata Motors?

If anyone has some insight in to this do share.

Sold them to Tata!!!!!

I will avoid jaguar and Land rover in the future - one of their cars was the worst car Top gear (UK) ever drove (the Rover City Metro - a re-badged Tata). It was so bad Rover wouldn't give them a car to review, they had to sneek a researcher in.

I think Ford and GM have some serious debts - that's the reason

I think Ford is trying to streamline the company and get back to basics. PAG required more energy both in terms of management and funds than they are able to put forward at this point. Ford has been bleeding for quite awhile now.

Yeah, Ford's on life support, and if it dropped dead tomorrow it wouldn't bother me at all. (I have a long memory; frying people on purpose because it was cheaper than fixing the problem with exploding Pintos was and is unforgivable.)

Ford did no favours for Jaguar, anyway. Building a Jag with parts from the Ford bin is worse than re-equipping them with Lucas electrics.

Ford is in deep financial trouble so they probably sold it to generate cash.

what the others have said...

also jaguar, rover, aston martin, and volvo are not real revenue generators, i would take a guess that the profits from the ford explorer alone in any given year most likely exceed that of the others combined (at least up until the last year or two.

i also don't think that tata owning those brands will be a bad thing - no worse than the general owning any particular brand.

Brown Study said:

Ford did no favours for Jaguar, anyway. Building a Jag with parts from the Ford bin is worse than re-equipping them with Lucas electrics.

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ha ha I am working for Bosch at the mo, and hear no end of jokes about Lucas parts

They already sold Aston Martin earlier this year, and from what I've read they're only looking to dump Jaguar and Land Rover. Volvo's not on the block right now.

With the exception of Volvo, seems like they got rid of a lot of dead weight.

bryphotoguy said:

With the exception of Volvo, seems like they got rid of a lot of dead weight.

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I think they're holding onto Volvo because they share platforms across the business lines. I know the 500/Taurus rides on a Volvo chassis, just as the new Volvo hatchback rides on the Mazda3/European Focus chassis.

Of course, Chrysler shares a lot of Mercedes platforms and they seemed to have separated easily...

Brown Study said:

Ford did no favours for Jaguar, anyway. Building a Jag with parts from the Ford bin is worse than re-equipping them with Lucas electrics.

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I know a guy who has been a Jag owner for many years. He once told me that Ford saved Jaguar when they took over the company. He said for several years Jag's were POS cars with legendary mechanical issues until Ford stepped in.

dacameraman said:

I know a guy who has been a Jag owner for many years. He once told me that Ford saved Jaguar when they took over the company. He said for several years Jag's were POS cars with legendary mechanical issues until Ford stepped in.

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The only reason they were pos before was because they weren't made to have the miles put on that the average americans do. Ford made them long distance worthy (if you even say that). They were originally Leyland, out of England, England is the size of one of our states, of course they didn't think people would be putting 100,000 miles on them in two years.

Btw Ford has not yet sold Jaguar/Rover, they are in "proceedings" to sell them, Tata motors is just one of the runner ups (sadly). As others have said Tata makes some really crappy automobiles.

They aren't holding on to Volvo either, Jaguar&Rover are being sold as one company for around 1.8 billion and Volvo is going to be sold as a single company for an undisclosed amount. Both are up for bidding and negotiation.

Thanks for everyones insight. Still its a shame to see these 3 companies change hands so often. The time it will take to get them back up to par, is why they are known as unreliable, no company has owned them long enough to make the necessary changes.

They are crap if your going to be putting 100k in 2 years. But they are still solid automobiles...I still love the old Range Rovers.

I can say I don't like Jaguar anymore, since Ford bought them they've become more and more to look like the taurus.

Has anyone seen the new Jaguar coupe? Its pretty much a 98' Mercury Cougar...

http://www.sportscarcup.com/cars/jaguar-xkr.jpg

http://www.fiesta-freunde-bochum.de/Mercury_Cougar_1998_C_SR_00_B_g.jpg

Unfortunately a lot of very good cars have taken that road, i.e., MG, Triumph.

louishen said:

Sold them to Tata!!!!!

I will avoid jaguar and Land rover in the future - one of their cars was the worst car Top gear (UK) ever drove (the Rover City Metro - a re-badged Tata). It was so bad Rover wouldn't give them a car to review, they had to sneek a researcher in.

I think Ford and GM have some serious debts - that's the reason

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A Rover Metro, is Made by Rover Automobile Group, it is not a Land Rover or a Jaguar. The company is owned by Ford, but upon acquiring Rover, Ford made the Rover brand defunct and sold the manufacturing rights to Tata motors Nanjing Motors, which is not associated with Ford, Jaguar, or Land Rover. The only reason Ford acquired Rover was to in fact protect their right over the name Land Rover, which they are now subsequently selling, oh the irony.

Why don't the strike through tags work?

Too bad. I really like the Range Rover and some of Volvo's cars. It was probably what I would buy when I finish school. Maybe I'll still be able to pick up a nice, slightly used something.

PapaNoHair said:

Unfortunately a lot of very good cars have taken that road, i.e., MG, Triumph.

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isn't tvr close to that path as well, or were they just purchased again?


thing is, as long as someone is willing to plunk down a huge chunk of change to have something very fast and/or very different, companies like aston martin, lamborghini, tvr, noble, and a host of others will continue to to lay thick black lines of rubber and tire smoke on the fine line between existence and the void.

I cannot debate Jag / Ford, since I can only go by what I was once told, but I can tell you I wasn't happy when DC first took over Jeep. Today I have mixed feelings - My '07 Wrangler Rubicon is the best Wrangler, Jeep has ever made - but the yuppie vehicles they continue to develop irritate me. Not that they're bad vehicles, they're just not "Jeep worthy" enough for me.

On the other hand, when Harley Davidson sold to AMF - most figured the company was doomed. The bikes they built sucked bad. It wasn't until Willie G bought his company back, that the legend was saved.

i'm with you almost completely there. the dc/jeep thing was a mixed blessing. and i do love the new jeep, especially the big 4 door version. the nitro clone on the other hand... yeesh. the only good thing i can say about it is that it isn't quite as hideously ugly as the dodge version. ;P

These manufacturers always seem to follw slow lazy cyccles.

The Rover Metro was originally an Austin, part of British Leyland in the 70's, who made some of the crappiest cars on the road. Rover did at one time have a reputation for up market quality cars, but when they too became part of British Layland, the strted churning out the same rubbish - just bigger cars.

Jaguar in the 70's and 80's had a lot of quality problems. My father bought a Daimler double six in 1979 (more or less the same as a Jag XJ12), which was for it's time supposed to be one of the best big cars on the road. Only, it didn't spend much time on the road. Almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong, including the paint falling off in big flakes. In just under 2 years it spent almost 3 months off the road, having also gone through 2 gearboxes and a torque converter.

I believe in the 90s, Jaguar got their act together, and built some decent cars. Rover never recovered, their reputation was never good after the crap they sold in the 70s.

Range Rovers have always been pretty good, but they do tend to fire up emotional responses in people - whereas a Ford or Rover is just a car and can be good or bad, Range Rovers are either loved or loathed, so you can get the idea they are far better or worse than reality. Personally I love them. As far back as I remember I have had a bit of a thing about range Rovers.