Just Toured Castle Bromwich
 

I am currently on my Europe vacation with my wife and one of our stops was to the Jaguar Factory at Castle Bromwich. If you haven't gone already I highly recommend it, they treat you like royalty and have the tour setup extremely well. One of the best plant/factory tours I have ever been on, which means alot considering I am a manufacturing engineer. Took some notes for our customer relation department.

Now to the good stuff:

1) The F-type coupe will be released in March of 2014
2) In 18 months they will have a new car to compete with the bmw 3-series. It will have available the new na v6 motor and supercharged v6 motor. It will have its own chassis which will be shared with:
3) a new suv, that doesn't use a land rover chassis. this will be a suv that is suppose to be more sporty on the road (think more bmw x6) versus the land rover's more aggressive off road design.
4) Jaguar is going to take a stance to enlarge their market share, by expanding their range to be more similar to BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, etc.
5) Tata is currently spending 550 million Pounds on upgrades to the factory
6) The F-type and XK range are built on the same production line and are made to order.
7) The facility really appears to be top notch and extremely clean.
8) The factory has the F-type v8 s which appeared in the ~15 min youtube video/advertisement/move (I will post my picture soon once I get it off my camera.)

I really look forward to the new 3 series fighter, I hope they get this one right. I am dreaming about a manual trans supercharged v6 with ~380hp, similar to a m3. My guide couldn't confirm or deny a manual trans option. However if luck would have it they would only put a true manual with the smallest motor and put some flappy paddles with the R version.

Interesting news! Although others may disagree, it would be nice to see Jaguar come out with some quality offerings in a smaller package. I guess they're already doing that with the F-type. A true 3-series competitor would be nice, but it would have to be the real deal - not something like the X-type.

Sounds like a very nice trip!

I can't necessarily say that I like the thought of a Jaguar SUV and Jaguar expanding their range so much that they just become another Mercedes or BMW or Audi with a billion models. Jaguar has always been a niche company like Masserari or Porsche and I think a big part of the brand is their perceived exclusivity. Also not too excited about their small saloon if its going to look just like the XF and XJ. Still in love with the XK and the F type though

I'm not sure I would call Jaguar of the 50s-60s 'niche'
you want a sportscar? have a C-D-E type, sir
saloon? big? Mk7, MkX, 420G etc
small? MkI, II, then the lovely XJ6 sir
SUV - no such thing then

But I know what you mean.
People decried Porsche for building Cayenne then Panamera, but it has got them lots of sales from people who have children!
Even Ferrari is going SUV I think, and AM is planning an SUV.

I dunno but at least in this country if they didn't charge $90k for the base model they might sell more cars

My tour guide said they are really trying to bring down the average age of jaguar owners. If you ask 99.9 percent of people less than 30 if they want a jag they would say no. Most want a BMW, Benz etc. They being my peers all believe a jag is an old persons car. Jaguar wants to change that, and I commend them for that.

Bring the age down? That's strange. I Know we all come from different places, but I am 31 and none of my friends would go near anything Jaguar has made since 2008. The pre 2008 models where perceived as mysterious,cool, unique cars. The much hated (by the so-called "motoring" press) S type was a favorite amongst my peers. In contrast I have heard nothing but negative comments about the new models around here. "Teutonic eurobox" comes to mind.

The only reason I would buy a new Jaguar saloon is out of loyalty to the brand. The only saloons out there that get my heart racing are the Maserati Quatroporte and Fisker Karma.....in the same way that the pre 2008 XJ used to.