Believe it or not, Jaguar and Land Rovers have never been officially sold in the Indian market. That’s about to change, officially, and it has everything to do with the fact that, business-wise, Jag and Landy are now Indian brands. As most of you know, Jaguar and Land Rover were acquired not to long ago by Tata, one of India’s largest automakers. Dubbed the “Jaguar Land Rover” premiere car group, they will enter the Indian market for the first time later this year. The first showroom scheduled to be open in Worli, Mumbai, in June this year. Initially only the Jaguar XF and XK, and the Land Rover Discovery and Range Rover models will be offered.

“We are delighted to be formally entering the Indian market, an economy which is still growing appreciably, and able to offer our premium products to a whole new group of customers. It is an important strategic move for Jaguar Land Rover and will enable us to realize our competitive potential in this significant market,” said David Smith, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover.

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By Alex Kramer

Pros:

• True all-conditions capability
• Gutsy engine has good low-end torque
• Smooth, controlled ride
• Well-appointed interior
• Fantastic Alpine stereo system

Cons:

• Could use a few more ponies under the hood
• Gas gauge never more than half full
• Smallish interior, especially in the back
• Pricey, especially for its size

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Really!? They’ve sold half a million of these things in the U.S. so far? That’s an impressive figure when you consider what a Land Rover or Range Rover costs (for one thing).

Land Rover announced that it reached the historic high point of its 500,000th vehicle sale of in the United States when a Range Rover Sport was sold by Land Rover Cerritos, a retailer in Southern California. The British firm began retailing vehicles in North America on March 16, 1987 when it imported the Range Rover in the States. Which means they got to 500K in roughly 20 years, meaning they should top one million in sales around 2029, if they can keep selling huge-sigh SUVs at $50K a pop & up at that rate.

Of course Land Rover is as happy as clams at high tide.

Chris Marchand, Executive Vice President, Marketing and Sales, Land Rover North America said, “Reaching this milestone demonstrates the strength of the Land Rover brand and is a result of a dedicated and passionate retailer network.”

And as P.T. Barnum said, “You’ll never go broke underestimating the taste of the American public.” Seriously … OK, I can see The Queen of England needing one of these things, but who else?

It’s not that I’m against SUVs, I’m against buying them unnecessarily. And if I needed something that could get me to my mountaintop redoubt come Hell or high water, it probably wouldn’t be one of these (too expensive for my taste).

If you buy something like this to show off to the other soccer moms … let’s not go into it right at this moment.

Source: CarScoop

File this under “Uh-oh!”.

In another worrying sign, and hot on the the heals of Suzuki, Nissan has just announced it is pulling out of the North American International Auto show in Detroit. not only that, they’re also pulling out of the Chicago show too. So that now gives us a list of Porsche, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Ferrari, Land Rover and Rolls-Royce, and Nissan that aren’t interested in showing at Detroit.

What none of these car companies, or journalists have been able to explain is: Why? Why pull out of the biggest car show in the biggest car market in the world?

Some companies have simply scaled back and reprioritized things; a lot of them shuffled big debuts off to the Los Angeles show, but that’s only a half-answer at best.

Frankly, I don’t have a handle on it. It’s not like Detroit is going to disappear. Even in some ultra-free market/Stephen Colbert nightmare, the Earth isn’t going to open up and swallow Detroit whole. Say things get as bad as they could. By this time tomorrow, GM, Ford & Chrysler have completely shut down operations and fired everybody. Sure, huge economic catastrophe, but the city, and the workers and the factories will still be there. Something would be done with them, it’s not like Detroit (and Lansing and Flint et al) would just dry up and blow away like some mining boom down in Nevada, circa 1892.

So, Porsche, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Ferrari, Land Rover and Rolls-Royce, and Nissan, what gives?

Source: AutoBlog