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Tuesday, July 12, 2005

The Jaguar Daimler

Jaguar owns the rights to the Daimler name. According to the Detroit News, Jaguar is going to build a car in the $100,000 range, placed above its current high end car, the XJR. They may call it the Daimler.

I have two questions.

First, why does Jaguar think they will make money in this market, when VW (Phaeton), Mercedes (Maybach), and BMW (Rolls Royce) are struggling? Will they be able to add enough value and cachet to their current platform, to make it desirable, while at the same time keeping things common enough that costs will be low?

Second, does Jaguar think that U.S. consumers, even high-end ones, will keep the Jaguar Daimler brand separate from the DaimlerChrysler corporate name? Shouldn't Jaguar be worrying about fixing the Jaguar name, first and foremost? They are bleeding money.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think they're just reacting to the disaster of the X-Type by going the other direction. I actually think it is a good idea to go high-end/low volume if they can produce a distinctive, high quality/performance vehicle.

Can they do it? I think so (Not 100% certain), but it's got heritage & class going for it. That's better than nothing.

Dublin Saab said...

Daimler... grrrr! I had a lovely 1959 Rolls Silver Cloud reserved as the "Groom's car" for my upcoming wedding in Cheshire this September. However my soon to be Mother-in-Law took it upon herself to change the reservation to a Daimler Limo, so I would have more room. I've gone from one of the most beautiful cars to ever grace a roadway to an ugly streached London taxi, and I have to sit and take it to keep from creating a scene. Oh, and it's white too and I hate white cars. Arg!

The Daimler name could not be lower in my book, not one bit.