Sick and tired of a guy at work mouthing off at me about Jaguar's being described as Fords, I took positive action. He reckoned I didn't have a Jag because I only ever come to work in my Fiesta, which is my biffabout car. I'm not going to park my pristine XJ on a side street in the heart of an industrial estate next to the docks am I? But this guy forced the issue, saying "All Jags are Fords in disguise. All the parts have ford badges on." which is a common opinion based on a media induced public opinion regarding the X Type.

In reality the X Type shared something like 19% of components with the Mondeo, none of which was actually seen unless you dismantled it. But anyway, this guy knew better and challenged me to prove him wrong. So I did. I went home on my lunch hour and returned with my XJ.

I swooped into the yard at a swift pace and directed the car at the spot I knew he'd be standing; in front the smoking shelter which was full of men trapped by UK law into an audience with this guy. I pulled up smartly which made him jump out the way, I stepped out the car and said "Go on, have a look. Find me a ford badge on any of the parts you can see." I then opened all 4 doors, the bonnet and the boot.

Now being observed by the lads in the smoking hut, he reluctantly began hunting round the car. He even got his torch and went hunting round the engine bay's darker areas, but he was out of luck. After 15 minutes, he came up blank. Forced to admit he was wrong, I then explained that there are indeed some Ford branded parts fitted, but they are out of sight. I went on to explain how some parts are even VW/Audi items and that the spare wheels on the big brake models are both Jaguar and Aston Martin branded.

I then invited him to bring his aged Audi A3 in so I could point out how many parts have a VW badge on, an offer which he declined because he suddenly had something he needed to do. Then the boss came out, a Jag Man himself, and invited me to park in one of the empty Management spaces because my car is "Too nice" to leave outside.

I'm not ashamed to admit that parts of the X308 have Ford parts on, most cars have bit from other manufacturers on. Saab's are loaded with GM stuff found on Opel/Vauxhall, Peugeot and Citroen are more or less the same thing nowadays whereas Mazda, Toyota and Ford are closer than they seem. Even modern Mercedes Benz are in bed with Renault and some of their products are almost identical save for the badge. But this "Jaguar is Ford" business does wear thin from time to time.

Now many of you will know I'm one of the X308's biggest fans, I don't really have a bad word to say about them. It is one of my all time favourite cars, one of my boyhood dream cars and my second favourite Jaguar ever. Number one Jag is the MK2, a car I would love to own.

So next time some daft armchair car enthusiast tells you your X308 is a Ford, you can tell him that the Audi A4 is a Skoda Octavia, the current Mercedes A class is a Renault Megane and the Petrol engines in current Toyotas came from Mazda.

 

The big yellow plug that goes into the stereo says Ford on it, don't ask me how I know.

For balance this video will entertain you...

 

Lucky he didn't see the key or the keyholes... Pure Ford'ism

 

The key holes may be similar but look at a Ford key and a Jaguar key and you'll see the Jaguar one has more to it. We did discuss that, but as I demonstrated showing my Ford Key next to the Jag one we all agreed there is a difference. Also the Mazda 121 also uses a tibbe key and various LDV products use a version of it.

There are quite a few plugs with the Ford logo on, but they're not visible unless you go digging. The ones which connect the instrument cluster to the loom are Ford, but that doesn't bother me. Some 90's Aston Martins use headlight and tail light units from the Audi 80 and there are Ford Fiesta Mk3 tailights on the TVR Cerbera hidden behind binnacles.

 

I don't even care about the Ford parts as Ford got Jaguar making reliable cars. I like a reliable car.

 

I think the best part of this story is the boss telling you that you can park in one of the management spaces because your car is too nice to leave outside, especially in front of your workmates. Priceless!!

 

When I bought my XJR I had a bit of a trip back home, and knowing that frugality isn't the Jaag's strongpoint went to fill up.

My friend, who had given me a lift to see the seller, and I called in at a Shell garage on the return journey.

I pulled to the right-hand side of the pumps, he parked his BMW on the left side of the pumps....A man, in full Shell regalia, came out of the little shop and told my friend he'd be dealt with in a moment and then proceeded to fuel up the Jaag.

Needless to say, we were both shocked as it was a self-service petrol station.

 

Oh, my friend had to put his own durty diseasel into the BMW.

 

Without Ford's involvement Jaguar would have sunk. The big error was taking them into F1 when historically they're Le Mans winners. Ford turned them into a worldwide company and should have had the patience to hang onto them instead of panicking with the 2007/8 economic crash, virtually giving the company away to TATA, who are now reaping the rewards of Ford's investment and production techniques.

 

If it were not for Ford there would likely be no Jaguar.

Who flippin cares what company made the components. How could a company possibly make every part they need? Jaguar is where they are today only because of Ford. Get over it!

 

I never said I had a problem with Ford parts, in fact I said I'm not ashamed of that fact. Ford have been in business a long time, I imagine they know what they're doing when it comes to making a plug.

However I do agree with Sean, they should never have gone into F1. The Jaguar F1 team was born out of Stewart GP which were Ford powered of course. They really should have gone back into LeMans or GT Racing.

 

Have you considered agreeing with him. Tell him that the X308 is just a Panther body Ford in a fancy wrapper, Ill tell folks my Aston Martin Vantage is a Mustang in a fancy suit. That's what they want to hear. In the USA they also want to hear that you need two Jaguars as they are so unreliable and still have Lucas electrics -"prince of darkness".


They want you to agree with them profusely , and laugh at their novel jokes and validate their choice of buying a Toyota Camry or Avalon and getting married to a Jennifer.

 

You'd be surprised how many parts are identical to another manufacturer's part even when they are made by different companies. Many just license a design from another firm and manufacture it on their own or by their own supplier. Why start from scratch when for a better price, you can buy the blueprints. I was just reading an article a few months ago about how Toyota had been buying outside designs for decades, but rarely selling their own. In the future they planned to do more selling their own designs.

 

As I get older, I feel less and less inclined to argue with idiots.

 

Still, it is remarkable that a company known worldwide as Found On the Road Dead or Fix Or Repair Daily could actually make Jaguar (and Land Rover, and Volvo, and Aston Martins) reliable. Sometimes throwing money at a problem fixes it and Ford had money.

One of my favorite corporate stories from years working satellites at TRW was the company being hired by Ford to fix the Prince of Darkness problems -- we changed the electronic architecture to Denso (especially since Denso knew which way electrons flow and were much cheaper and sigma six, minimally, in reliability over Bosch and Lucas). . . This after Ford told us to buy Lucas Verity and fix the "^^^^ing brakes and steering modules" they were using in their European brands . . .

The other improvement was caused by Margaret Thatcher who convinced lots of Brit companies and unions to get rid of the "Bolshies" . . . . .

 

No, the only thing she did was systematically destroy the lives of working class people, blow apart families and destroy entire communities which to this day still and likely never will recover from the actions of her and her so called government.

 

Someone here has never owned a Volvo then

Volvos were reliabe BEFORE the Ford era from 1999 on... The term 'tanks' refer to it being indestructable (always starts, always drives). After Ford started to 'optimise' the production of the EUCD based vehicles (S60 II, V60, V70 III, S80 II, XC60 I) the car's be came unreliable. The C1 base (C30, S40 II, V50, C70 II) were about still as reliable as an average car but far off from properly reliable.

Jaguar be came more reliable, Volvo lost it's pure reliability...

 

Whatever you may think of her, she was voted in - so it was a legitimate government. That's how democracy in the UK is. Anyone there who doesn't like it is free to leave...

 

Aye, that's right. People did leave, or rather they were forced to. But it was their jobs and livelihoods that were left, leaving them in poverty. I'm not going to get into an argument about this, it's not the time or the place for politics. Besides she wasn't voted in her party was, she was merely the leader. One who was eventually booted by said party when her lunacy became too much of a problem.

 

I guess my second Volvo (a used 82 sedan) was reliable -- tried to change the struts, took a six foot breaker bar to get the bolts loose. The first one was a brand new 69 sedan; it had dual Stromberg carbs that were worthless; no power and wouldn't pass CA air test; door schedule said to inflate tires to 19 lbs, ruined new radials ("Oh, you missed the update where we replaced that with the correct one: 1.9 atmospheres), they replaced the tires.

Sorry for the offense, Stu: Most of the folks I hung around with in the UK (mostly RN and RAF types and TRW engineers) thought highly of her.