Jac Nasser Back With Interest in Jaguar/Land Rover/Aston Martin
- August 26, 2006
- The Car Biz
- Posted by George Peterson
- 1 Comment
The London Times reported on Saturday August 26 that Jac Nasser, former Chief Executive of Ford Motor Company, has expressed interest in acquiring Jaguar/LandRover/Aston Martin from Ford. Nasser is now a partner in One Equity, a venture capital firm associated with JPMorgan Chase.
Nasser weighs in with a relationship with experienced venture capital and finance sources plus over 30 years of hands-on day-to-day working at a major carmaker in ever more senior positions. Nasser was chief executive of Ford Motor Company for three years before falling prey to the Explorer/Firestone tire failure debacle of 2001.
Nasser One of Many Interested in Jag, PAG or a Combination
Nasser joins Sir Anthony Bamford, head of Britain’s JCB as possible suitors for Jaguar. Bamford has specifically excluded Land Rover and Aston Martin from his interest, but Nasser is intimately familiar with Ford’s Premier Automotive Group that was established when he was at the helm. Of course other suitors may include the Russians and Nanjing Auto (exclusively reported by VehicleVoice).
Nasser, known as Jac the Knife during his Ford career (a monicker he does not like), could bring considerable expertise to the PAG crew. Land Rover and Aston Martin are doing very nicely, thank you, but Jaguar is a basket case sorely in need of new thinking from a product standpoint. Leave Land Rover alone.
Jag Needs Help From Folks Not So Close to Its Business
But Jag is a different matter. Even though the XJ Premium Luxury Car is relatively new and an outstanding product under the skin, it look too much like its predecessor. A major styling freshing was needed even before it was introduced. Consequently the new XJ has floundered. Similarly, the new XK Sports Car looks like its predecessor and has a Ford Taurus grille. Needs a quick front end facelift. Kill the X-Type quickly before it does more damage to the Jaguar brand. Renew the S-Type ASAP… presently in the cycle plan but too late. Needs to be pulled ahead.
Stay tuned to VehicleVoice as this intrigue unfolds over the next several weeks.
1 Comment
Hi there George.
I assume you were the jackass responsible for penning the “kill the X-type quickly…” comment, yes? I can assure you that we, the buying public…ok ME specifically, think that is a completely stupid remark. Have you owned one? Driven one? They are very nice cars. Compact, quick, agile, posh, straight sexy looking, a blast to drive…what exactly isn’t “Jag” about them? I agree that it would be nice to divorce Ford from the equation, but the X-type is the preferred Jaguar for some of us. I drove all models prior to selecting mine and chose the X-type due to several factors, none of which was price. I would like to see more engine options like supercharging and possibly higher caliber sport-type seats, but the X-type does have a place in the line-up. There you have it; one mans’ unsolicited opinion. Have a great day.
Robert
Hi Robert
We are all entitled to our opinion. Thanks for sharing yours with us.
Sure we’ve driven the X-Type – from the initial press preview to later model years. The X-Type has quite a bit going for it, but not enough to be a truly credible Jag. It was launched primarily to generate more volume for the brand. Without regard to image. Simply, the car is not up to the promise of the jaguar image.
We’ll just have to disagree on this one.
ED