Hyundai and Jag: No deal
Newswheel staff :: 19 August 2006 :: Filed under Ford, Hyundai, Jaguar, Europe & UK, US
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Blue Oval or bust?
Thanks, but no thanks. So, says Korean car maker Hyundai in response to mounting rumours that it would relieve Ford Motor Company of the Jaguar brand. The Hyundai mothership released a statement yesterday categorically denying it had any interest in acquiring the near-catatonic cat.
The context of Hyundai’s statement, of course, is the recent revelation that Ford’s second quarter earnings were negative to the tune of $254 million. Following which came news that the Blue Oval had commissioned a former investment banker to urgently review poorly performing operations. The sale of the Jaguar brand is seen as an increasingly likely outcome of the review.
However, such is the piss poor state of Jag’s product portfolio (currently that’s a slow-selling aluminium luxury car, a low-volume coupe and cabrio, an ancient mid-sized executive car and a four-wheel drive junior exec based on Ford Mondeo mechanicals that the market has rejected since day one) that many doubt the Jag brand can now be sold to any serious motor manufacturing company. Consequently, there it’s also rumoured that any sale of Jaguar would be packaged with Land Rover as a sweetener.
Watch this space.
Linkage:
Chron.com
Posted 05 December 2006, by Freeman Count von Moyo
this is cool man