German Car Zone

^Vanity sells cars.

B..oops are not the only ones with cautious bean counters.

Well... not sure about 2008, but Jaguar went from 500 mil $ in the red in 2006 to 100 mil $ loss in 2007. Since it's one of the few premium brands that actually saw a sales increase in 2008 (8% increase compared to B..oops' decrease of 4.3%) it's safe to say they will NOT be "in the red numbers for the next zillion years anyway".
The reason BMW is hurting more than some other premium manufacturers is exactly because of greed. They overexpanded by relying too much on financial services to move cars... instead of actual sales. The proportion of people that got BMWs through means other than actual direct sales is higher than that of the competition... a position that is not enviable in the current economic climate of restricted lending.

Welcome to 2008, Jaguar is no longer a sinking ship. Sales are on their way up and the XFhave had very positive reviews and sales are good. The cat is back so cut Jaguar some slack, their latest cars are lovely.

C'mon ... there were reports few weeks ago Tata Motors (the new owner of Jaguar) would have to invest at least $1 billion to preserve the company from a total financial collapse.

So ...

Btw, the sales in 2008 were up 8% since the 2007 sales were almost non-existing ... in 2008 XF pulled the numbers way up. Especially in 1st half of the year. The last quater was very bad.

Jaguar CEO confirmed few weeks ago the 2009 would be "very challenging".

IMO it's stupid to invest into a mid-engine supercar in the middle of the financial crisis, when the company has liquidity issues, and the banks are not willing to lend the money easily & cheap.

What's the point of the investments if the company doesn't make it - to survive the crisis, and bankrupt. Or when the parent company is forced to invest a billion to rescue a sinking division.

Business isn't a fairy tale ... or a romantic novel.