+1 to both comments.

My Audi(s) all had parts from VW in them. Rolls Royce is a subsidiary of BMW. And the list goes on. GM shared parts among their divisions for decades.

If it looks like a Jag, it drives like a Jag and feels like a Jag... then it must be a Jag.

 

Maybe should be posting this in the "off topic" section, and there's probably an extremely generous research grant available to someone who can write a small book called "Stating the
bleeding obvious" but we're all victims - to a greater or lesser extent - of brand snobbery. Skodas used to be a joke ...... "Why do Skodas have heated rear windows - so your hands don't get
cold when you have to push them down the road" etc. etc. I freely admit that I decided not to buy a Skoda - now transformed since the VW takeover - simply because of the name. However, I
did once own a Porsche 924 which was never really taken seriously because it was powered by the same engine as a Volkswagen camper van - even though it was well engineered and
beautifully balanced. The Jaguar X Type suffered from the "Ford Mondeo in disguise" reputation even though it only shared a fairly small number of parts.
A million years ago, when I first started driving, every car (in the UK) broke down at least twice a week, because the electrical systems and components were made by Lucas. That applied
equally to an Austin Allegro and a Rolls Royce Silver Wraith. But .......... nobody ever said "Ah ha ............. you're driving a Lucas !!" Components now are extremely reliable whether made by
Delphi, or Denso or Diahatsu or an anonymous factory just outside Dong Ding. To an extent, we are judged by the brands we use, and with which we choose to be identified. Where it all
goes pear-shaped is if a manufacturer at the "high end" tries to get into a "lower end" market. So ........... I suspect that very few Aston Martin V8 Vantage owners have had the "Oh, so you
drive a pimped-up Jaguar do you ?" and I have never been asked whether my XK8 is really a Ford in disguise. But ............... when I had the X Type, I was often asked whether I was aware of
the "Ford Mondeo" connection. I didn't have a problem with that - I had Ford reliability and engineering expertise combined with Jaguar style and (Yes - I admit it) brand prestige.
Rolex have never made a cheap watch simply because they know that the brand would immediately be devalued, and that nobody with wealth will buy what can also be purchased by
somebody with little wealth.
What I think is great about the XK8 / XKR Jaguars, is that thanks to devaluation and, to a certain extent market forces, they are affordable to many of us fairly normal average enthusiasts with
modest means, but they still retain the brand "desirability" of a prestige car. I exaggerate very slightly to make the point, but I paid roughly the same money for a 5 year-old 1.4 Diesel Peugeot
eurobox as I paid for a 15 year-old XK8 convertible. Both cost roughly the same to service and maintain. One is boring, the other is fun.
I regard the fact that my window control modules are Ford branded as a plus rather than a minus, but I'm honest enough to admit that I'm happy that they are hidden away behind the door cards.

 

I for one am very thankful for Fords involvement with Jaguar. Many Jaguar enthusiast tend to forget one very important reality, that being that Jaguar was in deep financial trouble and was desperate for cash. Jaguars assembly lines were antiquated, quality was shoddy and Jaguar had developed a well earned reputation for unreliable automobiles in the 1970's and 1980's.

The hard truth is it takes a ton of money to run a car company and without capitol a car company cannot stay ahead of the curve in R and D, new and ever changing regulations etc. It is my firm believe that had Ford not injected capitol into Jaguar when they did we probably would have seen Jaguar go under or at minimum would not have seen the improvements in the XJS and the 1995 to 1997 XJ6 along with the XK8.

I have worked in the auto industry for over 30 years and I clearly remember how poor a reputation Jaguar had in the 1980's. Now in all fairness most car companies were struggling in the 80's but most were large enough to weather the storm. Jaguar was in a tough situation because it was not small enough to build only hand built high dollar cars like Ferrari and at the same time was not big enough to produce enough cars to improve their product and grow with the times.

So today I am thankful for Fords involvement with Jaguar. I am also thankful for Tata motors involvement now and the direction that Jaguar is heading. Pretty cool to see Jaguar back in the limelight with the F-type. In the 80's we in the auto industry use to equate Jaguar with bad reliability, bad fit and finish and bad resale. Who would have thought back then that in 2014 we would be saying: " Oh yes, it's good to be bad ".

 

True, Ford did not take that bailout, but they have taken others.

As for parts, yes I've found a few - including the body control module on mine. It's got something wrong with it where if I leave the headlights on "auto" and park the car, the battery will be dead in a couple of days. I can deal with leaving the lights in the "off" position like the old days, but the only way to fix this properly is to buy a replacement, Ford-sourced BCM for $1100. And to think of all the jokes people make about Lucas electric parts on British cars. Ugh.

 

I just came back from the UK where we rented a Skoda Superb for a week - nice car, for sure. It's now much less of a Jetta clone than it was in the previous version.

But those jokes - come on, I had a Triumph TR7 and heard the same ones - much more appropriate for that car, I hated to admit.

Bonus - why do TR7s have fog lights? So you can see the tow rope.

 

I don't think there was the same joke about the TR7 and the sheep as there was about the Skoda and the sheep, but I suggest Google if you want the punchline !!!!!!!

 

Hey at least my $135,00 cl600 didn't say Chrysler on it.....Oh wait it did....Seriously though Ford was the best thing that happened to Jaguar. On many levels. Takes nothing away from the name whatsoever.

 

Ok so as the original OP I'm feeling a little guilty. I've been a Chevy guy all my life and as most from the states know us Ford/Chevy guys have quite a rival. So to see my new prized possession has Ford parts was a little unsettling. To be honest it not a big deal these days. I was just surprised because I thought it was just capital backing. I know it sounds like I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth but I don't know how else to explain it.
Thanks for all the input guys.

 

Our cars are Ford vehicles. Jaguar was part of the Ford "Priemier Auto Group", Jags of that era have Ford parts throughout and most of them shared platforms with other Ford vehicles (not true for XK8 I don't think). The engines were shared between both brands and the Jag V8s were (maybe still are?) built in a Ford engine plant in the UK.

There is nothing wrong with that though and I don't think Ford hurt the Jaguar brand at all except maybe to snobbish people that are brand conscious and just don't like the idea of it. I am pretty sure Ford sold Jag for more than they bought it for and that would imply that they improved the brand in terms of profitibility.

Despite being "Ford vehicles" Jaguars continued to have styling and interior components that were a cut above even Lincoln and consitent with the historical Jaguar brand. While Ford may have had a hand in design at the same time Jaguars were sold with cutting edge technology not found on most other more pedestrian Ford's of the day. For example a 5 speed transmission, active suspension and variable valve timing. Those things are all relatively common today but there were very few cars with that had them in the late 90s.

I think mechanically and electrically Jags are much better than they would have been without Ford. Big companies excel in areas like this because they can invest more in engineering and testing subcomponents.

Another big thing which kind of gets lost today is the difference in computer technolgy then and now. By the early 90s when our cars were being designed computer aided design was replacing traditional design methods and offered clear advantages. Today you can probably design a car with an i-phone app however at that time the only computers that could do end-to-end car design from the drawing board to the assembly line were multi-million dollar mainframes with custom software used by big auto manufacturing corporations. Jaguar likely would not have had access to cutting edge car design hardware/software at that time without Ford. As a matter of fact it is widely rumored that one big reason Mercedes bought Chrysler in the 90s was to get access to their car design mainframe. 10 or so years later when they sold Chrysler it was no longer a big deal.

 

I firmly believe Ford did some great things for Jaguar, but also some bad ones. It's what happens...

Design/build for predictably consistent quality ... I reckon Ford helped.

Engineering expertise with some engines... Jaguar had/have some great people and did good things e.g. with V8 4.2 (AJV8)

Fords here are generally very reliable and have few problems over many years. Putting the same into Jaguars can't and doesn't look to have hurt.

I just wish I had an easy way to find a Ford part # for most of the spares I need!

 

That's what really irks me about Ford, the frickin part numbers! What were they thinking?! here's the part number for your oil filter, XWAA-23598273slkidj-SAAAA

 

It wasn't. X-type had a Ford Contour platform, though. Not sure about the rest.

Nope. If anything, they broke even. Barely, at that. They had to sell it after dumping tons of money into R&D and then running smack dab into the housing crunch which really killed the car (and especially luxury car) business for a while. They were victims of some especially bad timing.

That tranny, as you know, was not a Jaguar product, but made by ZF and used in many other vehicles. Mercedes made the trannies for the XKRs for a while, as you probably also know (and did a much better job of it). Previously the XJS used GM transmissions, IIRC. One thing GM was always able to do right was make automatic transmissions, but that arrangement would not last with Ford in the picture. Regardless, yes, Jaguar was brought out of the stone age in many ways by Ford's influence.

Agree - mostly. I am continuously frustrated by the poor quality of Jaguar (not Ford) plastic switches in my XKR. Not sure who the vendor was but they are worse than anything similar I've ever found in a Ford.


They definitely got a lot out of that arrangement, though it could be argued so did Chrysler - the AWD cars that followed were direct derivatives of MB products. However the Daimler group finally had enough when they were faced with $52 billion in debt, mostly from massive long term liabilities, and got rid of a company that by all rights should have gone bankrupt.

For abject political reasons, the US government ignored over a hundred years of bankruptcy law and essentially screwed over two of the largest shareholder groups who stood to benefit from liquidation. Ironically, the shareholder groups at stake were union pension funds (though they were not auto worker pension funds).

The case went all the way to the Supreme Court yet for some reason they refused to hear it. After that, the government owned part, the auto unions got part and FIAT got majority ownership with a promise to build more cars, which they did - in Italy. They also were able to leverage the dealership network to re-introduce the FIAT brand to the country, a great thing in my opinion.

As of last summer, Chrysler is now not even an American company anymore as the FIAT/Chrysler headquarters were officially moved to London. Yes, London! Chryslers and Fiats are now technically British cars - what a weird world we live in...

 

.... And that gets squarely back to my point that ALL of the major automotive companies these days are global entities comprised of many different contributions from many different parts of the world. The nature of the beast these days....

 

I have been informed the following is more or less true.... please sound off otherwise with references if possible.

1. The XK8 was for the most part designed without direct, if any Ford input.

2. Ford may have helped out with a few bits off the shelf here and there and expecially with implementing some QC during assembly for the XK8.

3. Also, in a nutshell, Ford took 5 - 7 years worth of chassis/drive train development for the Lincoln and dropped it in the trash after seeing what was already finalized for the S-type when the bought out Jag. They then copied S-type chassis design fairly directly to the Lincoln. I find this an amazing tribute to a very small company and the tallent within. Also an example of the problems in big industry with "committees" designing bits and pieces with the right hand not knowing what the left is doing.

4. The X-type is basically a Ford "world" platform used in the Mondeo and Mistique (Mistake). Just a "Jaguar" like hood & trim with all the problems.

Just my 2 cents.
Cheers
TheCounty

 

Fully agree with all of the above; Not wanting to hijack the subject, but does anyone notice the favourable impact of the f-types (including XF's etc)?

Teenagers in NL (future Jag owners...) recognize the XK as the F-type predecessor, Jags have a reliability and prestige image again. So buy your XK now, in 10 years time, thanks to excellent design and marketing from the TATA Steel Injuns, the XK's will be twice the price!

Even US press start singing along: 2015 Jaguar F-type V-6 S Coupe First Drive – Review – Car and Driver

Notable in this article is that they think F-type is sibling form E-type. XK seems to be a bit of a step child as far as the marketing is concerned, but take one look at the XK and you know better.

Jaguar NL are still advertising the XKR/S though; Confuses the laymen quite a bit