Ford sells Jaguar and Land Rover to India's Tata Motors

Danny Tse
Danny Tse Posts: 5,206
edited March 2008 in The Clubhouse
Hmmm....

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200803261244DOWJONESDJONLINE000547_FORTUNE5.htm
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  • zingo
    zingo Posts: 11,258
    edited March 2008
    Well, it seems like a smart move for them. Ford as a brand has been doing a lot better lately, and maybe without this "dead weight", they can post some profits. Mulally seems like a smart guy and it seems he's only done good so far. Thanks for posting this.
    Jake
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  • dkg999
    dkg999 Posts: 5,647
    edited March 2008
    Dumping the dead weight is always good. Those two brands are strong in very select parts of the world, and not in the US. Investing in their Volvo brand is a better strategy for them.
    DKG999
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  • exalted512
    exalted512 Posts: 10,735
    edited March 2008
    I didn't even know Ford owned Jag and LR.
    -Cody
    Music is like candy, you have to get rid of the rappers to enjoy it
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  • Jstas
    Jstas Posts: 14,806
    edited March 2008
    dkg999 wrote: »
    Dumping the dead weight is always good. Those two brands are strong in very select parts of the world, and not in the US. Investing in their Volvo brand is a better strategy for them.

    Volvo is likely gonna be next on the auction block. The only reason it hasn't gone yet is that Ford is too tied up in it.

    Besides, Ford already has a near-luxury brand that has been quite neglected in Mercury. They should ditch Volvo and start doing something with Mercury.
    Expert Moron Extraordinaire

    You're just jealous 'cause the voices don't talk to you!
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  • bobman1235
    bobman1235 Posts: 10,822
    edited March 2008
    Does Ford still own Saab too?
    If you will it, dude, it is no dream.
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  • Danny Tse
    Danny Tse Posts: 5,206
    edited March 2008
    bobman1235 wrote: »
    Does Ford still own Saab too?

    GM owns Saab, not Ford.
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  • rskarvan
    rskarvan Posts: 2,374
    edited March 2008
    Ford is selling these brands simply because they have value. Anything that isn't bolted down is for sale.
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  • bobman1235
    bobman1235 Posts: 10,822
    edited March 2008
    Danny Tse wrote: »
    GM owns Saab, not Ford.

    Ahhh, my bad.
    If you will it, dude, it is no dream.
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  • Jstas
    Jstas Posts: 14,806
    edited March 2008
    rskarvan wrote: »
    Ford is selling these brands simply because they have value. Anything that isn't bolted down is for sale.

    :rolleyes:

    Ford is selling brands because they are hemorrhaging money and alot of that is coming from the PAG. Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin barely turned a profit at all if any and Ford took an over 50% hit on the sales numbers from what they paid for Jaguar and Land Rover. Ford isn't selling them because they have value. That's gotta be the most asinine statement you've ever uttered. Everything has value. But if you are over 8 billion in the red and a chunk of that is coming from small parts of your company that aren't contributing favorably to the bottom line then cut them off.

    Ford did two things with this sale. They liquidated assets that were dragging them down and they put several billion into the coffers to help shrink that 15 billion dollar net loss from the past two years. Land Rover and Jaguar were probably 30% of that 15 billion dollar loss all by themselves and most industry analysts blame as much as 50% of Ford's financial problems on PAG overall.

    You're gonna see Volvo go too but it's hard to do because many of Volvo's platforms are shared with Ford and Mazda and Ford has huge financial investments in the workforce for Volvo. But I wouldn't be surprised if you saw Volvo go up for sale and get acquired by a private investment company.
    Expert Moron Extraordinaire

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  • ohskigod
    ohskigod Posts: 6,502
    edited March 2008
    Jstas wrote: »
    :rolleyes:

    but it's hard to do because many of Volvo's platforms are shared with Ford and Mazda and Ford has huge financial investments in the workforce for Volvo. .

    I was figuring on this when Ford mentioned selling Volvo was an option. thats going to be wierd. shame of it is, Volco, Ford, and Mazda worked together to make the platform that the Mazda3, Volvo s40 , and european Ford Focus is built on. it is a BADASS platform that was actually supossed to be expanded to support mid size cars, but now who knows,.
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  • dkg999
    dkg999 Posts: 5,647
    edited March 2008
    Ford is investing heavily in better integration of the Ford and Volvo customer databases and cross-marketing. Volvo is also heavily supporting engineering work for other Ford divisions. You might see a sale of Volvo to an investor group and not a competing manufactuer, but the sale will probably have Ford retain a lot of rights to IP, and engineering support. The other side is that the Volvo US distribution network depends heavily on Ford, and that would be an expensive change for an independent Volvo.
    DKG999
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  • ohskigod
    ohskigod Posts: 6,502
    edited March 2008
    also, is it Tata, or Bodascious TATA motors?...LOL :D
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  • dkg999
    dkg999 Posts: 5,647
    edited March 2008
    Big Bouncy TATA Motorworks :D
    DKG999
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  • wizzy
    wizzy Posts: 867
    edited March 2008
    Pretty funny

    Britain used to own India, and now India owns Jag & Land Rover
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  • sucks2beme
    sucks2beme Posts: 5,601
    edited March 2008
    Land Rover and Jag quality make Ford's look good. Getting rid of them
    was a good move. I hope they put the money to good use.
    You would think if they were paying attention to gas prices, that they'd
    know a big drop in gas sucking truck/SUV sales was coming.
    Instead, all the car makers continued to to crank out huge numbers of
    big vehicles. I guess they never learn. This gas crunch doesn't look like it's
    going away any time soon.
    "The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." --Thomas Jefferson
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  • Systems
    Systems Posts: 14,873
    edited March 2008
    When you call customer service does an American answer?

    Chuck
    Testing
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,447
    edited March 2008
    India? Ha, you can kiss quality control and reliability good bye.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • strider
    strider Posts: 2,568
    edited March 2008
    F1nut wrote: »
    India? Ha, you can kiss quality control and reliability good bye.

    Yep. No more leather, either.
    Wristwatch--->Crisco
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  • dkg999
    dkg999 Posts: 5,647
    edited March 2008
    But at least the instruction manuals will be in a language customer service reps can read :o
    DKG999
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  • sucks2beme
    sucks2beme Posts: 5,601
    edited March 2008
    F1nut wrote: »
    India? Ha, you can kiss quality control and reliability good bye.

    Jag quality couldn't get much worse.
    "The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." --Thomas Jefferson
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  • obieone
    obieone Posts: 5,077
    edited March 2008
    Ford paid almost $5B for both brands, is selling them for 1/2 of that, and has to DONATE $600M to the Jag pension fund.
    I think Nelson summed it up best....."HAAHAA"!
    I refuse to argue with idiots, because people can't tell the DIFFERENCE!
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  • sucks2beme
    sucks2beme Posts: 5,601
    edited March 2008
    It amazes me sometimes what big companies do.
    Very seldom does one of these big buy ups turn out well.
    Another case of what were they thinking?
    Did they really think putting some glitz and a "JAG" nametag
    on a Ford Taurus would turn Jag around?
    The only good news was the Taurus style mini Jag at least wasn't a
    maintenance nightmare, like the Catera "Caddy that zigs".
    "The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." --Thomas Jefferson
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  • wallstreet
    wallstreet Posts: 1,405
    edited March 2008
    I do IT consulting and way up the food chain, Tata gets some of my money. I wonder if I now qualify for an employee discount?
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  • tcrossma
    tcrossma Posts: 1,301
    edited March 2008
    Jstas wrote: »
    Volvo is likely gonna be next on the auction block. The only reason it hasn't gone yet is that Ford is too tied up in it.

    Besides, Ford already has a near-luxury brand that has been quite neglected in Mercury. They should ditch Volvo and start doing something with Mercury.

    Luxury and Mercury in the same sentence? I don't know how many years it's been since I've thought of Mercury as being a luxury car, but i'm leaning towards never :)

    But seriously, American auto makers need to really start waking up and making what people want, which is way more towards what the foreign auto makers have been doing lately than what's been coming off the american production lines. Wake up and start producing real quality products or it's going to sink even further into the abyss.
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  • Willow
    Willow Posts: 10,994
    edited March 2008
    For our next SUV we are looking at the new LR or BMWx3. I don't care who ownes LR, I like the look and the features of their new L2 and L3. What I do find odd is Tata is the comp. selling the worlds cheapest car and now they buy some of the higher ends out there.
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  • dorokusai
    dorokusai Posts: 25,577
    edited March 2008
    If it ain't a Range Rover, I'd rather buy a Hyundai.
    CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.
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  • wizzy
    wizzy Posts: 867
    edited March 2008
    The $2500 tata nano, world's cheapest car:

    112_0801_03z+tata_nano+luxury_front_profile.jpg
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  • bobman1235
    bobman1235 Posts: 10,822
    edited March 2008
    Looks safe.
    If you will it, dude, it is no dream.
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  • reeltrouble1
    reeltrouble1 Posts: 9,312
    edited March 2008
    I bet a ladybug would have mad sex with that car.

    RT1
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  • venomclan
    venomclan Posts: 2,467
    edited March 2008
    It is a start. Ford is in bad shape, the worst of the 3 with every asset leveraged. Volvo will be next. Mercury will be chopped too as it is pretty much dead already. If Ford was smart, they would just bring over the cars and management team from Europe to run the U.S. market. Ford is a quality brand over there.
    Venom
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