RE: Jaguar sells Brown's Lane plant
Monday 2nd April 2007
Jag's new courtesy car scheme for main dealersA piece of British motoring history slipped quietly away last week as Jaguar announced it had finally sold the bulk of its historic Browns Lane site in Coventry.
Jaguar sells Brown's Lane plant
Another piece of British motoring heritage dies
Jag's new courtesy car scheme for main dealers
The luxury car maker has gradually reduced the use of the 117-acre site in recent years, moving production to Halewood and Castle Bromwich, and the company’s headquarters to Whitley just outside Coventry. Production of the old XK ceased at Browns Lane in 2005 when that model died. Just 17 acres have been kept by Jaguar, including the wood veneering facility that employs around 400 staff.
Browns Lane has been sold to Australian developer Macquarie Goodman, which intends to turn the site into a business park, with offices and warehousing. It reckons on creating 1,500 jobs.
Discussion
I suppose you have to look at it in two ways, yes it's sad as it's an end to a piece of British motoring history, but Jaguar now have two modern and efficient plants elsewhere. Lets hope they can get sales back up, especially in North America where they have been slow and that'll mean more jobs for the UK work force.
On another bright note, now that Ford have sold Aston Martin, they can now invest more heavily in Jaguar.
Lets hope that AM can continue it's increase of sales without Ford backing though...
On another bright note, now that Ford have sold Aston Martin, they can now invest more heavily in Jaguar.
Lets hope that AM can continue it's increase of sales without Ford backing though...
GTEYE said:
Is this really a great loss?
Once they moved out, which they did sometime ago, then it wasn't doing anything any more. I thought they thought they'd sold it before. I guess the previous deal must have fallen through. Ford will have just needed to get this off their books, so they can free up the money to do something constructive with it.
We all knew they pulled out of the site, so that was the end of the sites history. I'm sure this was all discussed here at the time.
What else can they do after Jag making a £750million loss last year? Browns lane is/was very antiquated anyway, surely its better they move on and try to up their act to survive rathe than struggle on with a relic?
After all its only a factory, and hardly a pretty one at that, long may Jag survive, and boy they need some luck, some better cars, and a pot full of cash to do it; hope the proceeds help them.
After all its only a factory, and hardly a pretty one at that, long may Jag survive, and boy they need some luck, some better cars, and a pot full of cash to do it; hope the proceeds help them.
Well, I don't think it makes a lot of difference either way, but the site has a history now and it would be good if they developed something with a bit of quality about it and maybe with something to preserve the memory. They could have an E-Type up on a bracket a bit like the Spitfires you see at airports. Maybe they can think of something that isn't naff. This was the home of Jaguar, which is something to say.
And to think that this all came down to bad decisions by the bosses of Jaguar when they signed off the current S type and XJ Jaguar.
Too conservative and too dull in their styling, they completely misread the public - who voted by deciding on a massive scale to not buy new Jaguars !
If the XJ had been a braver design. If they have not faffed around for a decade with endless sports car concepts without actually building them - they may have sold more cars and so avoided this sorry affair.
While everyone was buying Audi's and BMW's - Jaguar was busy going nowhere.
If only they had offered cars lots of people actually wanted to buy.
Too conservative and too dull in their styling, they completely misread the public - who voted by deciding on a massive scale to not buy new Jaguars !
If the XJ had been a braver design. If they have not faffed around for a decade with endless sports car concepts without actually building them - they may have sold more cars and so avoided this sorry affair.
While everyone was buying Audi's and BMW's - Jaguar was busy going nowhere.
If only they had offered cars lots of people actually wanted to buy.
toppstuff said:
And to think that this all came down to bad decisions by the bosses of Jaguar when they signed off the current S type and XJ Jaguar.
Too conservative and too dull in their styling, they completely misread the public - who voted by deciding on a massive scale to not buy new Jaguars !
If the XJ had been a braver design. If they have not faffed around for a decade with endless sports car concepts without actually building them - they may have sold more cars and so avoided this sorry affair.
While everyone was buying Audi's and BMW's - Jaguar was busy going nowhere.
If only they had offered cars lots of people actually wanted to buy.
Too conservative and too dull in their styling, they completely misread the public - who voted by deciding on a massive scale to not buy new Jaguars !
If the XJ had been a braver design. If they have not faffed around for a decade with endless sports car concepts without actually building them - they may have sold more cars and so avoided this sorry affair.
While everyone was buying Audi's and BMW's - Jaguar was busy going nowhere.
If only they had offered cars lots of people actually wanted to buy.
The problem with the new XJ is that they built exactly the [style] car that their customers asked for. Everyone was agreed that the the XJ was the best looking saloon car and no one wanted it to change. Only they wanted it bigger, they wanted it not so low down. They wanted more boot space and more leg room. Well that's what they asked for and that's what they got.
In hindsight it's easy to say they built one too many generations of XJ. Hindsight is great. If the new car hadn't have looked like the old one they probably just have hacked off all the existing customers, who all loved the look of the old one.
I hope the replacement for the S works out, coz the update for the X350 is a balls up.
BTW, I seems to be seeing a lot more X350s recently, anyone else noticed this.
FourWheelDrift said:
GTEYE said:
Is this really a great loss?
Not really. At least the site wasn't sold to Tesco.
Or Nikolai Smolenski-- they might never have got paid
p.s bit surprised at the reported no. of employees working on "Veneers"- 400 wow ! Is that one reason Jags are expensive yet Company lost money??
Edited by sprinter885 on Tuesday 3rd April 09:23
drgp said:
I didnt think Jag actually owned much of Browns Lane - wasnt it leased? Hence the relocation to Whitley which is only a mile or two away.
400 people on veneers, sounds about right for Jag.
400 people on veneers, sounds about right for Jag.
Don't they also do all the veneer work for Aston as well. Maybe they also do Range Rover, don't know.
a8hex said:
In hindsight it's easy to say they built one too many generations of XJ. Hindsight is great. If the new car hadn't have looked like the old one they probably just have hacked off all the existing customers, who all loved the look of the old one.
Note how many times you see people here comment along the lines of ...
shar2 said:
I have driven the new XKR and thought it was fabulous, so much better to drive than the previous model, shame it just doesn't have the looks of the old one, although it is growing on me.
a8hex said:
a8hex said:
In hindsight it's easy to say they built one too many generations of XJ. Hindsight is great. If the new car hadn't have looked like the old one they probably just have hacked off all the existing customers, who all loved the look of the old one.
Note how many times you see people here comment along the lines of ...
shar2 said:
I have driven the new XKR and thought it was fabulous, so much better to drive than the previous model, shame it just doesn't have the looks of the old one, although it is growing on me.
Back in the late 60's/70's my dad went to check the factory out as it was sinking. They did some work to stop it totally falling down.
The place was falling down then, so I am suprised it took that long to move out.
Historically yep a shame, but the cars are built at a new plant so not such a loss.
Long may Jaguars be built in the UK.
The place was falling down then, so I am suprised it took that long to move out.
Historically yep a shame, but the cars are built at a new plant so not such a loss.
Long may Jaguars be built in the UK.
Makes me a bit mad as Coventry City Council allowed a road to be plowed through the middle of supposedly untouchable Green Belt supposedly to cope with the ever increasing Jag traffic. Damn thing never got used properly and Jag use probably droppped not increased since it was built.
The Jags future was brought up at the time (late eighties)but no it would never leave Coventry.
Still, I won't forget seeing the various new versions of XK/XJ flying up the Tamworth Road clothed in cardboard so you couldn't see what it looked like, not! Not quite as exotic as the stories you hear from Italy about watching test drivers and prototypes from Modena or Sant Agata.
The Jags future was brought up at the time (late eighties)but no it would never leave Coventry.
Still, I won't forget seeing the various new versions of XK/XJ flying up the Tamworth Road clothed in cardboard so you couldn't see what it looked like, not! Not quite as exotic as the stories you hear from Italy about watching test drivers and prototypes from Modena or Sant Agata.
Gassing Station | Jaguar | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff