Jaguar Land Rover: £1.3bn Tata gamble pays off as big cat purrs at last
The shock success of JLR is silencing the doom-mongers, writes Roland Gribben

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbys...-last.html

This is fantastic news, I also believe there should be a wake up call for the government and have some sort of incentive for the British public to buy these vehicles, they are sadly taxed to death in the UK. 80% of sales going abroad is superb but when you see hoardes of blinkered brits driving around in SquishSquashes and other overseas brands something is wrong.

I believe BMW only bought Land Rover to gain some form of knowledge before they brought out their X5. The First l322 Range Rover was tainted by poor electrics and the rubbish TD6 engine.

I agree with Taz it's brilliant to see a British car manufacturer doing so well, more businessmen should be driving XJs rather than Mercs. Hopefully this continues when the new range of engines come out. 21MY Defender 90 S 3.0 D200

The BMW/Rover deal is an interesting one.
Yes, you could argue that they used L/R to gain 4x4 knowledge but I don't think BMW needed to go to such great lengths.
However, the reasoning has never been explained by BMW.

Many in the Auto Industry believe that BMW only wanted the Mini. Certainly it was much cheaper this way rather than BMW develop a new marque and FWD. Lets not forget that BMW was associated with RWD only. And the Mini was already a Worldwide household name. BMW have also continued to market the Mini brand to great effect.

As for the success of L/R under Tata; the history of BMW and Ford has fast become water under the bridge. The turnaround of L/R under Tata is nothing short of remarkable considering the World recession.

How long the Chinese market will hold up I don't know; but Tata are pushing onwards. The Jaguar SUV might seem to some a strange decision considering the L/R models. But with VW having the Touareg who would have thought Porsche would have produced the Cayenne? I think Jaguar SUV is a clever ploy to help wipe out bad past history and relaunch the brand.

There is no doubt to me that Tata know their markets and are listening.

In the words of the great industrialist Wedgewood 'Keep ahead of the competition by innovation'.
Seems Tata are doing just that.

Long may it continue  Another member of the failed FL2 clutch/DMF club, twice.

j77 wrote:

I believe BMW only bought Land Rover to gain some form of knowledge before they brought out their X5.

And Ford bought it in order to make their current-gen Explorer.

Ubiquitous here in the U.S. (and not cheap, either!) I'd rather just have a real Rover.  CAR HISTORY
1997 Saab 900 SE 2.0 Turbo
2003 Volkswagen Passat 1.8T
2008 Land Rover LR2 SE 2.3 I6

And Ford must be kicking themselves for selling of JLR so cheaply to the Indians.
Especially as Ford redeveloped most of the range for them.
Let's hope the new engines are good enough to push the brand on.