Ford to announce Jaguar sale to Tata on Wed

[DainBramaged]

http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSN2434519120080324?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

Ford Motor Co is due to announce its agreement to sell its luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rover to India's Tata Motors Ltd for about $2 billion on Wednesday, the Financial Times said on Monday.

The sale will include a pledge by Ford to contribute to the pension fund for workers at Jaguar and Land Rover and a commitment by Tata to continue buying engines from Ford (how long, a couple of days? Neither of their promises are worth the paper they are written on), the Financial Times said in the story posted on its Web site.

A spokesman for Ford Europe was not immediately available. A Tata representative could not be immediately reached. Sources close to the deal told Reuters last week that Ford was expected to announce the sale of the British luxury brands this week, just ahead of Ford's target of closing the deal by the end of the first quarter.

Tata is launching a $3 billion syndicated loan to fund its purchase of the Jaguar and Land Rover.

Ford, which lost $2.7 billion in 2007 and $12.6 billion in 2006, is spinning off Jaguar and Land Rover to focus on turning around its loss-making operations in North America. Ford acquired Land Rover from German car maker BMW in 2000. It bought Jaguar in 1989. Ford spun off Aston Martin for $925 million last March as it began to disband its stable of European luxury brands.

One, there goes the Jaguar panache (what's left of it) and TWO, TATA makes some of the most unsafe and emissions spewing pieces of shit imaginable for the third world . They won't even try and meet US safety standards and import their cars and trucks here. Even their website is a piece of shit. I guess if you have a technical or parts question about your newer or older Jaguar, you can call the call center in India now and speak to REAL Jaguar enthusiasts!!! :rofl:

http://www.tatamotors.com/



This is the "People's Car" they intend to flood the India market with.

[jimmil]

1. I worked with Jaguar

during the heady days of the XJ220 development. They contracted TWR to do the development of the car which is who I was working with. There were several really nice people that worked at Jaguar then and I enjoyed working along side them. There were lots of good stories. We had a panel van skin covering the XJ220 running gear that we drove around to prove the chassis and engine. We hit 171 mph going down the M44 blowing a poor BMW 5 series away. He never knew anything. I think that particular vehicle is in a museum somewhere now. We did a lot of testing at the BFG test track at Fort Stockton. Although not in street trim we did manage a top speed of 229 mph there. Several of us drove the cars and going 217 mph is an experience. I did get to drive one of the "lite" cars that raced at Le Mans. It was very fast. Those were the days.

[Stevenmarc]

2. There's a bit of irony ...

in an Indian company buying up Jaguar and Land Rover considering past history, oh how the mighty have fallen.