Jaguar, Land Rover Doing Great Under New Owner Tata; Other Castoffs, Not So Much
Facing the economic Storm of the Century, which culminated in bankruptcy for General Motors last year and a close call for Ford (F), GM and Ford between them dumped nine brands overboard -- nearly all of which sank immediately. Somewhat surprisingly, though, former Ford properties Jaguar and its sister brand Land Rover are exceptions to the rule.
U.S. sales for Jaguar were up an encouraging 62 percent in August, thanks to its new Jaguar XJ model (shown), which went on sale three months ago. For the year to date, Jaguar sales were up a more sober 13 percent, to 8,781. U.S. sales are also bouncing back for Land Rover, with help from its relatively new Land Rover LR4 model. That's a pretty good achievement, considering SUVs are supposedly out of favor.
Jaguar-Land Rover's new ownership is somewhat surprising, too. Ford sold Jaguar and Land Rover to India's Tata Motors (TTM) last year for about $2.3 billion, less than Ford paid for Jaguar alone back in 1990. Ford also sold the Aston Martin brand earlier, and announced it will drop Mercury after this year.
Tata is better known globally for developing the Tata Nano, which when it goes on sale is expected to be the "world's cheapest car," at an estimated price of around $2,500, according to The New York Times. Jaguars and Land Rovers are closer to the opposite end of the price spectrum, but at least Tata is a large, established, globally minded manufacturer.
Other brands that got kicked to the curb are out of production and either soon to be out of business, like Hummer, Pontiac and Saturn from General Motors; or trending that way, like GM's former Saab brand.
The United States is traditionally Saab's biggest-volume market, bigger for the brand even than the home market in Sweden. Yet its U.S. sales were down 40 percent in August, and down an even steeper 67 percent year to date, to a pitiful 2,106.
GM didn't intend to simply dump those brands. It sought buyers for Hummer and Pontiac, and GM almost had a buyer for Saturn in billionaire Roger Penske of the Penske Automotive Group (PAG) dealership chain. However, Penske ultimately dropped the idea when it became clear no other manufacturer wanted to build Saturns once GM quit doing it.
Ford recently sold its other castoff brand, Volvo, to Chinese automaker Geely for $1.8 billion. At least Volvo found a buyer, unlike Hummer, Pontiac or Saturn. Spyker, a Dutch boutique sports car maker, bought Saab in early 2010. In terms of size, Spyker is even more unlikely than Tata or Geely to have bought a brand from the Detroit Big Three, but then these are unusual times.
Related: