It appears 2012 changes show how little these people understand about the car business, or basic marketing principles in general.

The important rule is always: don't ever take away what you already gave!!!!

1) Warranty coverage is reduced from 5 to 4 years

2) Discontinue free maintenance program

Just these 2 downgrades clearly demonstrate the company infers, or downright admits the product is unreliable, and costs dearly to maintain. If this is true or not, is irrelevant.

Stupid is what stupid does. Any garden variety BMW salesman with half a brain will eat Jaguar for lunch.

In addition, this cost reduction drive is dumbing down the car in other ways - just one example is fold-down rear seat becomes an option.
I'm sure we will find other stupid changes.

 

That's really too bad. One of the selling points getting me over the worries about the reliability/expense issue (vs. BMW) was the maintenance and warranty. My std. response to friends chiding me about leaving BMW for Jag is my car's 5/50 warranty and maintenance. BMW is the natural competitor to Jag, so taking away sales from BMW should be a priority. My last 3 cars had been BMWs. This Jag could be a blip....

 

Very few car manufacturers include a free maintance program. BMW has it becuase their cars a expensive to maintain. Lexus doesn't and it has no problems selling cars.

The reduction to a 4 year waranty makes sense too not too many people offer a 5 year warranty and some new cars just come with a 3 year warranty. They're probably doing it as they want to move people to leasing cars as opposed to buying a new one outright.

 

I agree that reducing the warranty period may not be seen as a good thing, but they are matching the 4 year/50K that BMW offers.

It looks like you are mistaken regarding the maintenance being withdrawn.

"Jaguar Platinum Coverage includes all factory recommended scheduled maintenance for four years or 50,000 miles, whichever occurs first."

Jaguar USA - JAGUAR PLATINUM COVERAGE#

 

The opposite is true. Jaguar has been successful beyond its wildest dreams with its new product. Land Rover is also booming. Car companies offer more freebies when they are in trouble. Once they start selling big time they reduce what they offer instead of increasing the list price.

 

4/50 is the industry standard. To be honest, the extra years is irrelevant for most people. Mileage is much better, and nobody gives bumper to bumper coverage more than 50,000 miles. I think they should have kept free maintenance, but it's expensive and they have to then add it to the price of the car. Don't be fooled...BMW is making you pay for it's free maintenance. BMW's are way overpriced relative to the competition. Jaguar is still covering SCHEDULED maintenance but no more brakes, etc. It's a middle approach, but if it helps maintain lower MSRPs, then it's fine.

Only BMW does everything so let's stop using the Tata thing. In fact, anyone at Jaguar will tell you that Jaguar is much more independent and truly British under Tata than Ford.

 

I still think reducing warranty year period from 5 to 4 years will not affect the sales otherwise they could not make a decision like that .
As a customer's point of view , you may be dissatisfied .This is still a better conduct compared to an earlier decade in Jaguar's history

 

That seems like a strech considering Jaguar had the worst year over year sales decline of any brand in the US for August. In July, only Smart was worse. In June only Japanese brands effected by the earthquake did worse than Jag. I'm sure some of this could be attributed to the model year changeover.

Jag's making headway but I'm sure they dream of catching up with their competitors much quicker in the sales department.

 

??
Jaguar Posts Strong UK Sales Figures AS XJ Establishes Firm Segment Lead

http://profit.ndtv.com/news/show/jag...n-pound-156738


Jaguar sells elsewhere than in the US you know.

 

You're funny. Yep, they sell a lot of places. That's a good article you sent, kinda reads like a press release. Great that Jag's doing well in emerging markets like Russia where car sales are booming in general. Unfortunately, these emerging market are still low-volume for Jag.

Let's just focus on global sales to be fair. Your article says Jag was up 3% worldwide Q1 . Did you know that BMW was up 21% for the same period? How about that Mercedes was up almost 13% worldwide? Audi? Yeah, they were up double digits as well (18.4%)

Men lie, women lie. Numbers don't.

 

Jaguar does not pretend to be a volume manufacturer such as Mercedes, BMW, or Audi. They only have 3 models! I think a fair comparison would be comparing Jaguar sales to the equivalent 3 models from these other car makers. That would be more appropriate.

Nothing is more irritating than numbers being used to make a point based on a flawed analysis.

 

I think the saying is there's lies, danged lies and statistics.

Rates of change of sales are essentially meaningless numbers.

The only numbers that actually matter to businessmen appear on the bottom line.

Ford never made any money from Jaguar. GM made money only for FIAT and has now been broke, officially. Chrysler has been broke at least three times now.

Jaguar is turning a profit now. Jaguar has released two new models since Ford sold them and has three more almost ready to release. The XK makes money, the XF makes lots of money and the new XJ is making money.

Have you seen the Top Gear web site? They show actual pictures of the new sportscars Jaguar is building for next year and the year after. An awd sedan is also due to come out.

Tata is doing the right thing by Jaguar.

 

Yet, Jaguar is reportedly working on three new models presumably with increased volume as a goal. Yeah, we could compare sales numbers for equivalent models but by most sales measures the XF will trail it's competition as will the XJ.

YOY sales numbers are a good tool because statistically it compares the company to itself and allows you to see how it's trending in comparison to the rest of the industry. Jaguar had 3 models in the Q1 2010 (actually maybe it was 2 depending on when the new XJ touched down) and they had 3 models in Q1 2011. Merc, BMW and Audi had a similar number of models in their respective portfolios from year to year as well yet their sales increased by double digit percentages while Jags didn't. The significance of this number in an analysis of how well Jag is doing seems plain to me. Why is Jag mostly missing out on the luxury car sales growth party?

And to Jagular's comment, is this success beyond their wildest dreams?

 

Jagular you're right. The most important number is profit. However, the profitablity of JLR is largely attributable to Land Rover which is performing far better than the Jaguar brand.

 

Jaguar is also profitable. The SUV business is still inexplicably highly profitable for all makers. Inexplicably because so many people are paying premium prices for inferior vehicles that don't meet all the safety and environmental standards that apply to cars. If the SUV had to be built like a car nobody would buy one unless they needed off road capability.

Fact is Tata is doing much better with Jaguar than Ford ever did (or Leyland for that matter). This thread is about the idea that Tata is ruining Jaguar by offering inferior warranties. On the contrary, Tata can offer inferior warranties because customers are buying the cars anyway... the Tata Jaguars are better built also.

 

Reading the replies here, I'm scratchin my head. I was refering to the negative implications from marketing stand point. Some people think backwards here, I think.
If the Tata Jaguar is a much better car, then why not increase the warranty coverage rather than reduce it. Increasing will not cost the company more money 'if the cars are generally better...' That's what I would do with my products. Long warranties are an important marketing tool
It's all about comparison points to help your dealers sell more cars against the competition. Tata is making it harder.
In the USA, in this business, perception is everything.
When you are coming from behind, like Jaguar is , you must give more than the established brands.
And yes, I do think the XF is a better product than the BMW , MB, Audi direct competitors. That does not help Jaguar unfortunately to increase market share.
Word of mouth does not save brands in this business.

 

I thought Obammy said that automakers couldn't make any money selling SUVs!!!!

 

Did we find some evidence that the warrranty is inferior?

 

A longer warranty inplies that you think the car will have reliability issues. Besides, why offer a longer warranty if none of your competitors are?

Increasing a warranty is also expensive as they ahve to account for warranty on their accounting books. So they need to "prefund" the warranty expense account and it'll show up as a liability.

 

On the whole, Jaguar is much healthier under Tata ownership. The title of the thread is a bit sensationalist. However, I do agree that it would be great marketing to continue to offer a class-leading warranty given the perceptions in this country about the reliability of Jag. I think there's a flaw in your logic about the cost to Jaguar. Offering a longer, more inclusive warranty is more costly. Even if it doesn't cost more than last year (eg, because the car is better), it will cost more than offering a lesser warranty this year.

Whether the cost savings outweighs the profit realized from having best in class warranty as a marketing tool is debatable.