Jaguar Rethinking its Line-Up as Market Continues Shifting to SUVs | TheDetroitBureau.com

Well, I guess the dead wood in Marwah got a $371.5M wake up call. I can't get put out over dropping MTs when the take rate is 3-4%, and diesels are not the technological solution they once were, but dropping the XJ (potentially) and wagon strike me as particularly short sighted. The wagon was mis-marketed from the get go. It should have been offered at least initially with the 340 V6 at a 10K lower price point. The folks at JLRUSA only need to look at MBUSA to see how to market wagons, instead of their "you'll buy what we want to sell plan." That's what put GM in its grave.

I have seen this business plan before. Get rid of everything other than the biggest successes and then when the wind changes as it most assuredly will you are left high and dry.

BUT, how does JLRUSA justify keeping the F-Type when sells less than 2300 cars in the USA. That's my real concern. And without the F, Jaguar is just another Subaru look alike.

(UPDATE) JLRUSA now says the wagon is not, repeat not going away.

 

It appears from what you can glean from this and other articles that mismanagement by new leadership has caused the problem. The shifty winds may account for some if it but not all. Agree on the mismarketing of the wagon.

 

My product management experience is outside of automobiles, but I think I understand their rationale. While the F-Type isn't directly a big revenue/profit play, don't underestimates its value to the brand as a flagship. If JLR were run strictly by financial analyst, the F-Type would never have been built. But, the F-Type draws attention and creates excitement that carries over to the newer lines, including the SUV's.

I can personally attest that, if it were not for my F-Type, my wife would be driving a Macan or a SQ5.

 

The irony there is that the take rate is that low PRECISELY because dealerships don't stock the manual. My experience when looking for my F-Type was that, in the larger areas, they tended to sell almost as quickly as they arrived on the lot. This same phenomenon has held true when I was looking for a manual-equipped truck. In other words, we are losing the manual because they don't believe in selling them to us. It isn't fun to have to order and wait for months on end for something to show up, especially when you don't have an opportunity to get any seat time WITH the powertrain combination to make sure it is going to be one that keeps the consumer happy.

As to diesel...I would have actually been a buyer of the XE for a daily driver if they would have brought it into the States with a manual-equipped diesel option. Overseas gets all the good stuff...

 

A MT is not something I want, but I agree the low take rate is at least in part a function of the difficulty in ordering a custom Jaguar as much as anything else. If you could order a MT and expect delivery in 8 weeks I expect more would be sold to everyones benefit.