I've been thinking about this all day. Aston is a profitable brand - Jaguar is not. Why would Ford sell a brand that makes money, and keep the one that hemorrhages it?

I realize that no one might even want Jaguar, with the way their performance has been. But the Jaguar name alone is worth some money, and it makes sense, to me at least, to cut your losses in the situation Ford is in.

Any insiders care to shed some light on the situation?

 

I think you already said it. Who in their right mind would want it. Most likely the outstanding debt ooutweighs any value that the name carries.

 

Selling off divisions is not a good idea for Ford, IMO. The amount of money they could get for any division is not enough to get them out of deep water.

Eliminating Mercury might be a good move, since every current Mercury is pretty much a Ford with a better option package.

Anyway, I thought I heard that it was just a rumor, and that Ford had not actually sold AM. Did I miss something over the weekend?

 

Mercury = Plymouth = Oldsmobile

 

I don't think Aston Martin shared platforms. I know Jaguar did not share a lot of platforms, in fact I think they only share one, but that is one less model they have to get around when selling Aston Martin.

 

I don't think pulling out of the luxury segment would be a good idea. If they sold Jag, they would just need to spend billions building up another brand.

 

Aston Martin is making money, but Jaguar is a brand with serious potential. There would be plenty of people interested in it if it went up for sale. It has a solid luxury image, and would have no problem selling new products....if they had any.

 

Jaguar is up against the likes of Merc, BMW, Audi. Seriously, who'd want a Jag if they were considering an imported luxury brand?

Not me. Never, ever would I contemplate a Jag.

 

Well, let me first say I dont think selling AM was a good idea, even though Im going to outline some reasons I think they did it.

1. AMs volume makes it such that thier "profit" is really miniscule compared to other brands. Then again so is the amount they sold it for.

2. Secondly its pretty much an Ivory tower brand that isn't feeding technology to anyone else or increasing the repuatation of Ford... Which again is good gor AM, not so good for Ford.

3. Anybody into cars though, can tell you that outside of resale value, Jaguar is a better product now then it has been, thanks to Ford.

4. Despite the fact that Jag has never made a dime in its life, its still a very respected brand and yes there are people who will buy one without looking twice at a Merc or Bimmer.

5. Behind the scenes, Jaguar and Land Rover are the same company, share a lot of personnel and what not, which means:

• That super profitable Land Rover probably offsets super losing Jaguar.
  
• That Jag and LR would have to be a package deal and I dont think they really want that.
  
• Ford just spent several million dollars to buy Rover, which as I understand is or was the car equivalent of Land Rover... basically to stop the Koreans or someone from muscling in...
  
• Jag is not only well integrated into Ford, but between the two they have what could potentially be a very high market luxury brand selling in big numbers...
  
• Why spend money on AM which is solely sports coupes, when you've got Jaguar, which has an even longer racing history, and could sell in the same markets if they sucked less.

My $0.02

 

Well if you an average car consumer and you are really looking for a status symbol and you don't like the styling direction BMW is going in and....and...well I would say if you though mercedes had been dilluted by "partnering" with Chrysler, that'd probably be the same with Jag, but the number one reason I can think of buying a Jag over a BMW or a Merc would be to have this car, http://www.earthflix.com/stories/jag_xj13.php, granted there is only one, you'd probably have kill several people and still payout a bazillion jillion dollars to get it, but that is a jag worth owning

 

I think Ford's best bet would actually be to turn Mercury into Mercury again instead of Ford V1.01

Buuuut, Scott said GM lost almost all the Impala cash profit paying for the Olds skin, so maybe the badgeologist have the right idea.

 

Because Aston Martin is profitable, and thus has value, and thus someone was willing to make a decent offer for it.

 

You're right. I think its ridiculous that would rather compress Ford, Mercury and Lincoln into one unnatractive lump of coal, then use Mercury to fight the imports, Lincoln to be a lux brand, and stop throwing money at trying to make Jaguar a volume brand.

 

I heard on the news that Aston Martin sold for 840M? It doesn't seem like much when weighed against the kind of debts Ford faces.