[ROVERNET - UK] Sale of Jaguar and Land Rover

[Sands]

G'day Sspmilr,
                       Word from Ford UK is that Jaguar is not for 
sale... it is one of their profitable arms, if they do go ahead and 
offload it is beacause of lack of profitability of the parent company... 
Ford also own Aston Martin. There are strong design links between Aston 
and Jaguar... think of the big Aston - Jaguar duel in the last Bond 
movie...the use of a Jaguar in the same movie was no accident. The 
government in Britain does not involve itself much at all in the 
manufacturing sector...if they did there would have been a rescue 
package for Rover (the French government had no such qualms about 
shelling out for Renault).  As for the unions, don't confuse now with 
the seventies and state ownership of BL... in any case the unions  have 
little clout. Incidentally Proton (Malaysian) wants to offload Lotus.... 
again not a lack of profitability with Lotus... Like Ford it is Proton 
the parent company that is in trouble.  Some years ago Chrysler went 
through a similar patch of lack of profits and sold off most of its 
overseas interests... in Australia, Chrysler was bought by Mitsubishi 
and is still in operation... though Mitsubishi in Japan is in financial 
straits and has been considering selling off its smaller overseas 
arms.... Mitsubishi Australia being one. The smaller 'boutique' car 
manufacturers sem to enjoy better relative levels of prosperity than 
their huge corporate cousins.
Land Rover is a separate company from Rover altogether and has been for 
at least two decades... a little like Rolls Royce Cars and Rolls Royce 
Engines (aero).

Mike
sspmilr at netzero.net wrote:

>Hi Roverists:
>
>Don't know of any major car manufacturer that can afford to buy either
>company, there all in trouble.
>
>I'll bet that the Chinese are "licking their chops" over this one!  The
>company that bought the car end of Rover would be "sitting pretty" if
>they could latch onto Land Rover.
>
>As for Jaguar, I don't have any idea who will buy them?  Maybe the 
>other major Chinese car manufacturer?
>
>>From a North American view, it appears that the British government and
>Labor Unions have turned British car manufacturing into a socialist
>enterprise.  With the workers being guaranteed employment regardless
>of their product quality.  Also, small low volume companies such as
>Morgan or Aston Martin seem to trudge on.
>
>
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