XK Jaguar XKR-S GT (2014)

[Levi68]

Are you a former employee or something?

M

I'd say so. Kilcrohane has too much inside knowledge about JLR.

 

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[Kilcrohane]

http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/jaguar-xk-be-axed

- one down, ... . Only kidding.

Interesting though.

Why go to the bother of spending money and time developing and launching 'hot' and 'hottest' models, the XKR-S and XKR-S GT, in the last short while, and then bin the whole thing?

Obviously these attempts to make the old as methuselah XK 'dance' with the likes of the 991 GT3 have been a total failure, as 'Baron95' on xfforum.co.uk has amply demonstrated, with his updates on the woeful sales performance of Jaguar in the Unites States, especially its more recent hotted-up models, which have spectacularly bombed:

http://www.xfforum.co.uk/threads/25586-Massive-Discounts-Up-to-US-20-000-on-F-type-XJ-up-to-10-000-on-XF

ps I wonder if the announcements today of David Beckham coming on board at Jaguar and the XK being binned are connected? Maybe like Victoria, and her consultancy work on the design of the R/R Evoque with Gerry McGovern, maybe David's first act was to advise Ian Callum to rationalise the Jaguar range, based upon his soundings in China? Ian would be foolish to ignore a branding expert like David.

JLR, the company that defines laughing-stock.

 

[Kilcrohane]

Just a further thought off the back of the ending of the XK.

Anyone familiar with the local mainstream media in the West Midlands UK, the home base of JLR, will know just how slavish they are to JLR, acting in effect as their broadcasting PR agents, with literally each day announcements on all platforms, TV, radio, press, websites and so on, of JLR's enormous success, with the BBC regional TV 'news' programmes and the local rag, The Birmingham Post', taking the prize for which journalists can insert their tongues furthest up JLR's rectum.

Only a few weeks ago, the BBC, the local rags and so on were splashing news of JLR acquiring additional land next to their Jaguar production base, the Castle Bromwich site, in order to expand what they, JLR and their media assistants, claim is a site bursting at the seams, due to Jaguar's runaway global success.

Yet today, just weeks later, comes new of the XK being turned off, basically because no one's buying the bloody thing.

So let's examine this JLR-Media claim of a 'fit-to-burst' Castle Bromwich site.

Castle Bromwich(CB) makes all of Jaguar's current range. The XK is dead, so that leaves the F-type, XF and XJ, with the XE not affecting CB, as it will be made at Solihull.

So, the XJ is a wash-out - most folk are agreed, with I reckon no more than 15,000 tops genuine sales a year, having been absolutely smashed by the S-Class, with its around 80,000 sales a year. The F-type likewise is a bust already, with major discounting, due to its too high price and comparatively poor performance mainly, and I reckon no more than 10,000 genuine sales for the roadster and coupe combined this year.

That leaves the 'volume' seller XF. Even though it now has a 4-cylinder diesel option, for the largest sector of the fleet user, the XF is a flea-bite compared to the all 2-300,000/yr. 5-Series, E-Class and A6. The revised E-Class is doing very, very well since launch 12 months ago or so. The A6 facelift later this year will move the A6 back to full competitiveness with the 5-Series and E-Class. The by then 7 yrs old XF doesn't stand a chance, with its ancient PSA diesel, and Ford EcoBoost engine, plus the arrival of the very good Caddy CTS, Maser Ghibli and some Japanese competiton.

I reckon by late 2014, say 6 months time, the XF will be left with no more than 40,000 genuine sales a year, absolute tops.

That all leaves CB turning out no more than 60-70,000 units a year.

Far from the CB site being fit to burst, with JLR hungrily snapping up adjoining land when it becomes available, in order to increase the constrained factory space, CB, with its approx. 4-5,000 size workforce, is becoming - very fast - very unproductive, and barely requiring its exiting factory size.

But what about JLR/the media's claim that 'a new wave of Jaguars' will fill the void shortly, I hear you say. What 'wave of new Jaguars'? The C-X17 SUV has already been quietly shoved back to 2016/17, from 2015, and even if it gets built is a sister platform car of the XE, and so would most likely be built at Solihull.

That leaves the XF replacement, which should be due any month now, given that the current XF is 7 yrs old in September. But where is it? There is no prospect of a new XF before 2016 at the earliest, if at all.

Same for the XJ. The current XJ is nearly 5 yrs old, having been launched in July 2009. It still hasn't had its first mid-life facelift, which means a replacement is probably at least 3 yrs away, again if such a thing even exists.

So where are and what are these 'new Jaguars', that will keep the substantial 5,000 or so workers at CB gainfully employed from now, early 2014, till at the earliest 2016, 21 months min., when the supposed new XF kicks in?

CB workers are in a precarious situation by my reckoning, and probably at best will be required shortly to 'volunteer' to move work location to Solihull, for the 2015 XE build, because there's no way 5,000-odd bodies are needed to build just 60,000-odd cars, with no engine or gearbox build, which of course means that those proclaimed by JLR/the media 1-2,000 additional new jobs created by the new XE build at Solihull won't/don't exist either.

http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/business/manufacturing/recruitment-drive-1700-new-jaguar-6717868

- oh well, at least it gave JLR wonderful PR in the impressionable public's mind, so job done and all that.

Anyway, just a thought, but I bet it's not far off the mark, and a damn sight closer to the real situation than the propaganda pumped out by the Beeb, the local rags and so on for JLR incessantly over the last 4 yrs or so.

 

[hoffmeister_fan]

Regarding why Jag released performance variants of the XK near the end of its cycle...doesn't Audi and their, performance branch, Quattro, release RS versions of their cars near the last 3 years of that car's life cycle?

My understanding of all this was that with release of the F-type, the next XK replacement was going even more Grand Touring in the vein of the 6er or S-class coupe to offer greater distance from the F.

Jaguar does tend to have a bunch of celeb spokes-people though....Lana something another, Becks, Hiddleston, Kingsley, etc. Never have been fond when an automaker latches on to celeb folks that have no involvement in cars. Really silly.

 

[Kilcrohane]

Just as a postscript on this XK being axed story, credit should go to the always excellent and amazingly even-tempered 'Baron95' on the xfforum.co.uk, who nailed this back in August last year, when he spotted discounts of $35k on the XKR:

http://www.xfforum.co.uk/threads/17842-Insane-Jaguar-XKR-US-35-000-Discounts/page2

As you'll know I have been prophesying Jaguar and JLR as a whole's demise since God was a little boy, but credit to Baron95, who although a dyed in the wool Jag fan is never afraid to point out the uncomfortable truth, which is why the saddos over there have tried time and again to shut him up, even lately resorting to concerted abuse, culminating in 'Piker95'. It just seems many Jag/JLR fans have a hard time dealing with the truth, or perhaps have confused JLR's years-long PR offensive with reality.

 

[JLBM]

Just a further thought off the back of the ending of the XK.

Anyone familiar with the local mainstream media in the West Midlands UK, the home base of JLR, will know just how slavish they are to JLR, acting in effect as their broadcasting PR agents, with literally each day announcements on all platforms, TV, radio, press, websites and so on, of JLR's enormous success, with the BBC regional TV 'news' programmes and the local rag, The Birmingham Post', taking the prize for which journalists can insert their tongues furthest up JLR's rectum.

Only a few weeks ago, the BBC, the local rags and so on were splashing news of JLR acquiring additional land next to their Jaguar production base, the Castle Bromwich site, in order to expand what they, JLR and their media assistants, claim is a site bursting at the seams, due to Jaguar's runaway global success.

Yet today, just weeks later, comes new of the XK being turned off, basically because no one's buying the bloody thing.

So let's examine this JLR-Media claim of a 'fit-to-burst' Castle Bromwich site.

Castle Bromwich(CB) makes all of Jaguar's current range. The XK is dead, so that leaves the F-type, XF and XJ, with the XE not affecting CB, as it will be made at Solihull.

So, the XJ is a wash-out - most folk are agreed, with I reckon no more than 15,000 tops genuine sales a year, having been absolutely smashed by the S-Class, with its around 80,000 sales a year. The F-type likewise is a bust already, with major discounting, due to its too high price and comparatively poor performance mainly, and I reckon no more than 10,000 genuine sales for the roadster and coupe combined this year.

That leaves the 'volume' seller XF. Even though it now has a 4-cylinder diesel option, for the largest sector of the fleet user, the XF is a flea-bite compared to the all 2-300,000/yr. 5-Series, E-Class and A6. The revised E-Class is doing very, very well since launch 12 months ago or so. The A6 facelift later this year will move the A6 back to full competitiveness with the 5-Series and E-Class. The by then 7 yrs old XF doesn't stand a chance, with its ancient PSA diesel, and Ford EcoBoost engine, plus the arrival of the very good Caddy CTS, Maser Ghibli and some Japanese competiton.

I reckon by late 2014, say 6 months time, the XF will be left with no more than 40,000 genuine sales a year, absolute tops.

That all leaves CB turning out no more than 60-70,000 units a year.

Far from the CB site being fit to burst, with JLR hungrily snapping up adjoining land when it becomes available, in order to increase the constrained factory space, CB, with its approx. 4-5,000 size workforce, is becoming - very fast - very unproductive, and barely requiring its exiting factory size.

But what about JLR/the media's claim that 'a new wave of Jaguars' will fill the void shortly, I hear you say. What 'wave of new Jaguars'? The C-X17 SUV has already been quietly shoved back to 2016/17, from 2015, and even if it gets built is a sister platform car of the XE, and so would most likely be built at Solihull.

That leaves the XF replacement, which should be due any month now, given that the current XF is 7 yrs old in September. But where is it? There is no prospect of a new XF before 2016 at the earliest, if at all.

Same for the XJ. The current XJ is nearly 5 yrs old, having been launched in July 2009. It still hasn't had its first mid-life facelift, which means a replacement is probably at least 3 yrs away, again if such a thing even exists.

So where are and what are these 'new Jaguars', that will keep the substantial 5,000 or so workers at CB gainfully employed from now, early 2014, till at the earliest 2016, 21 months min., when the supposed new XF kicks in?

CB workers are in a precarious situation by my reckoning, and probably at best will be required shortly to 'volunteer' to move work location to Solihull, for the 2015 XE build, because there's no way 5,000-odd bodies are needed to build just 60,000-odd cars, with no engine or gearbox build, which of course means that those proclaimed by JLR/the media 1-2,000 additional new jobs created by the new XE build at Solihull won't/don't exist either.

http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/business/manufacturing/recruitment-drive-1700-new-jaguar-6717868

- oh well, at least it gave JLR wonderful PR in the impressionable public's mind, so job done and all that.

Anyway, just a thought, but I bet it's not far off the mark, and a damn sight closer to the real situation than the propaganda pumped out by the Beeb, the local rags and so on for JLR incessantly over the last 4 yrs or so.

Yawn! You claimed the XE was a bullshit story and wouldn't see the light of day. The XK is ancient. No wonder it doesn't sell. Aston Martin are no better in my opinion. At least, for the time being, until MB gets more involved.

You really have an axe to grind..

 

[Kilcrohane]

Yawn! You claimed the XE was a bullshit story and wouldn't see the light of day. The XK is ancient. No wonder it doesn't sell. Aston Martin are no better in my opinion. At least, for the time being, until MB gets more involved.

You really have an axe to grind..

What if I have? The 'axe' is cutting through the media-created PR thicket surrounding JLR, and the only grinding I'm hearing is yours and Betty Swollocks's grinding of teeth, as the truth begins to slowly come out, obviously much to your consternation and chagrin.

As to the once again attempt to put words into my mouth, regarding the 'the XE is BS', once again for the record:

http://www.germancarforum.com/community/threads/2016-jaguar-xs-spy-shots-codenamed-x760.47600/page-7#post-685296

'I also made it plain that this perennial 'baby Jag is coming soon' thing has been ongoing since Adam was a little boy, or at least since the X-type bombed in the mid-2000s, and badly needed replacing.​

I also said the official programme for the 'baby Jag' had slipped by at least two years, most recently, from the expected 2013 date back in 2011, and for the 'Hotfire engine family, first announced in April 2011.​

Betty Swollocks said:

Kilcrohane, Jaguar's unofficial spokesperson, said: "None of this is happening. This press release doesn't exist. I don't exist. Jaguar's don't exist except in the sordid imagination of every British car journalist and idiotic fan boy."

So don't be a smartarse, putting words into my mouth.'
​

As you can see from the above, JLBM, Betty Swollocks already tried this line of attack, and little has been heard from him since.

 

[KiwiRob]

but nothing you have said has come to pass.