[Roma]

I popped into my local dealer this morning to try and fix the poor service that i've had recently. I chatted with the service and sales managers who had come in especially on a Saturday morning.

I was there for about 1.5 hours and in ALL of that time, not a single customer entered the showroom. There were two XFs there for sale that I had seen several weeks ago. The salesman who sold me mine was there too and I had a chat with him. He had sold two XFs in June so far.

There were loads of XK8s that nobody wanted to buy. Even an XJ diesel that I had seen several weeks ago was still there.

I'm quite a regular at dealerships and still pop into local Merc, BMW and Porsche dealerships as i've got to know some of the salesmen and mechanics in those dealerships. They are always busy on Saturday mornings. I'm quite concerned that there seems to be a lack of activity on Jaguar sales at the moment. The XF alone cannot sustain Jaguar.

Has anyone else noticed this? I'm popping into my local BMW and MINI dealership and i'll have a look at how busy it is.

 

[d4ve]

Jaguar is not a seperate company any more. It's Jaguar Land Rover as a whole under Tata and they've just announced a massive recruitment drive with over 600 vacancies. They are aslo making a very healthy profit at the moment and to date there are 18,000 XF orders worldwide.

Obviously the worldwide economy crash or whatever you want to call it couldn't have come at a worse time but I can't see any long term risk as long as they are turning a profit and the debts to Ford have been wiped clean.

 

[penultimateblack]

Apart from two or three owners waiting for cars to be serviced my local BMW dealer is always very quiet when I visit them with the MINI. My Jaguar dealer has only been allocated 5 XF's per month for the rest of the year and it must be getting harder to move thirsty XK's and ageing XJ's, although the sales manager, who I know quite well, doesn't appear to be worried about the low volume of new car sales.

I wonder how long it will be before prices of new cars start heading north as manufacturers are forced to pass on rocketing energy and raw material costs.

 

[craig]

How many people you get through the door is not a quality indicator of the health of a company. Go and have a look at a Rolls dealer and see how many people come through the door each day. Two things are important measures of how well you are doing from the retail end....

1) your strike rate. IE how many of those people who come through the door DO buy. IF you can get this to about 25% then you are doing very well. What you have to remember is with the internet now being so much more informative people dont go to the dealer for a brochure or basic information any more as they can find out what they need on the net. This is particularly useful when speaking to current owners.

2) the profit margin within each car. A lot of BMWs and VW/Audis are actully on very very slim margins and so to be successful you have to sell loads of them. This was the problem with the X-type. It was low margin and thus needed loads to sell which didnt happen. The XF actually has quite a large margin (especially the options) as a great deal of its development costs were cut by starting with the S-type. A company that is very low volume but high margin (Rolls Royce) can survive very well.

From what I have seen of the new XJ from my friends that work at Whitley I would sell my granny to have one and would RUN past an S-class or LS

 

[penultimateblack]

BMW has clamped on heavy discounting. Drivethedeal is now quoting a discount of only £21 on a 535D SE, yet Broadspeed has a £7000 discount on a Mercedes E320 CDI Avantgarde. Soon to be replaced I know, but still a good price.

 

[Hutton1969]

I was chatting in the week to the salesman who sold me my XF. The dealership is delivering 12 XF's per month which is the total of their allocation. They are taking orders for delivery up to the end of 2008 and do not expect a slow down until early next year. They are very exited about the new XJ. The dealership also covers Saab and Chevrolet both of which they have now decided to drop and focus only on Jaguar.

 

[Pounder]

I went to a Dutch Jag dealer last week. They sold about 65 XF's so far and expecting more to come.

 

[penultimateblack]

I wonder how long it will be before prices of new cars start heading north as manufacturers are forced to pass on rocketing energy and raw material costs.

This article has appeared in the FT. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f4fed0de-4079 ... fd2ac.html

 

[pekem]

I popped into my local dealer this morning to try and fix the poor service that i've had recently. I chatted with the service and sales managers who had come in especially on a Saturday morning.

I was there for about 1.5 hours and in ALL of that time, not a single customer entered the showroom. There were two XFs there for sale that I had seen several weeks ago. The salesman who sold me mine was there too and I had a chat with him. He had sold two XFs in June so far.

You should keep in mind that much of the marketing of cars today is done outside of a showroom. Think of the mail shots you received prior to making a purchase. Also, you may have had the experience of a "Track Day" and factory visits which I am sure are very worthwhile for dealers. Only two weeks ago I know that potential XK owners were speeding around a race track. Dealerships do not remain if they are not viable and I suspect that there are enterprising organisations around that would love to add a Jaguar franchise to their stable.

 

[pekem]

I wonder how long it will be before prices of new cars start heading north as manufacturers are forced to pass on rocketing energy and raw material costs.

This article has appeared in the FT. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f4fed0de-4079 ... fd2ac.html

It might be that Jaguar, owned as it is by a steel maker, is better placed to ride out some cost pressures. Only time will tell.