Customers have long wait for Jaguar XJ40

Press, 4 October 1984, Page 31

Customers have long wait for Jaguar XJ40

By

PETER GREENSLADE

Anyone who has ordered a new Jaguar XJ4O will have to be patient for another 18 months or more, because Jaguar Cars, Ltd, has not yet set a public launch date for the new range in Britain and will not do so until its five million mile proving test programme is completed about June next year. That was the message from Jaguar’s sales and marketing director, Neil Johnson, last week when he visited Christchurch with the British trade group led by the British Overseas Board chairman, Lord Jellicoe.

Jaguar Cars, Ltd, was part of the virtually Stateowned British Leyland, Ltd, until Mrs Thatcher’s Government sold off the company recently to the general public and Jaguar employees.

The company, originally restablished in Blackpool by Sir William Lyons, has been generally recognised as the manufacturer of one of the world’s greatest marques, but its progress became somewhat chequered, particularly from the time when British Motor Holdings, which comprised the British Motor Corporation and Jaguar, joined the Leyland Motor Corporation, which comprised Leyland Motors, Rover and Triumph, to form British Leyland.

West Germany’s Mercedes Benz and BMW toppled Jaguar from the top of the luxury-car tree in the United Kingdom and, to a large extent, in other Northern Hemisphere markets. It is only in comparatively recent times that Jaguar has clawed its way to the top again in Britain and is

giving its West German competitors a lot to think about in Germany itself, as well as in North America.

It was the company’s return to profitability that probably persuaded Britain’s Conservative Government to sell it off when it looked a good stock market bet.

Neil Johnson says there is an awareness right through the company now that it has to stand, on its own feet, whereas in the past there was always a feeling that if it encountered hard times there would always be someone to bail it out.

However, he admits that for some time now Jaguar

has been left by British Leyland to go its own way. That may well be why Jaguar has made a comeback on the international motor racing scene in the last couple of years. Two week-ends ago Jaguar emerged the winner of this year’s European Touring Car Championship when Tom Walkinshaw and Hans Heyer finished third in a 5.3-litre XJ-S HE in the round at the Belgian Zolder circuit. This series has yet to be completed but Jaguar has amassed sufficient points, even with a third place, to take the 1984 championship. Walkinshaw, whose James

Hardie 1000 endurance race, in which he was to be partnered by Australian John Goss in a Jaguar XJ-S, on the Mount Panorama circuit at Bathurst, New South Wales, last Sunday, ended when the clutch packed up at the . abortive start, also emerged as the European Touring Car Drivers’ Champion at Zolder.

Not only top driver for Jaguar, Walkinshaw is also responsible for preparation of the competition cars, while Neil Johnson overseas and shoulders responsibility for the motor sporting operation. The company has a tremendous investment in motor racing, but Mr Johnson firmly believes it is an investment in Jaguar’s future as it was in the 1950 s when the company was controlled by Sir William Lyons

and its racing operations were the responsibility of “Lofty” England, a director of the company and one of the most highly respected men in motor sport. Successes achieved by the XK series of sports cars and subsequently by the C and D-type Jaguars at Le Mans and other European endurance races have been of incalculable value to the company over the years and Mr Johnson sees the latest racing campaign in the same light “If you regard motor sport as a long-term investment, the cost is actually very small,” he says. “Also there are immediate benefits in the very generous media coverage we have been receiving. That keeps the Jaguar name before the public.”

Mr Johnson is convinced the competition success has

contributed in large part to the unprecedented demand for Jaguars that the company is now experiencing in Germany and North America, as well as other parts of the world. The XJ-S is not, in Mr Johnson’s view, a sports car. The company hopes to build a true sports car in the old XK and E-type tradition some time in the future. Plans are uncertain at present In the meantime, the XJ-S will continue to be produced alongside the new XJ4O cars, the first examples of which should reach New Zealand in 18 months to two years. Mr Johnson sees no reason why the XJ4O Jaguar should not sell as well as the earlier models did in New Zealand a few years ago. He admits that the cars will be expensive, but he points out that New Zealan-

ders buy a lot of expensive cars today. One thing remains fairly certain, however. It is extremely unlikely that the new Jaguar will be assembled in New Zealand, as was the case with the older model, which was assembled in the Nelson plant of N.Z.M.C., Ltd, for some years.

New Zealand assembly may be introduced eventually. But that will happen only if Jaguar production facilities in Britain cannot not cope with world demand and if New Zealand demand exceeds the supply of imported built-up models, according to Mr Johnson.

He hinted that the C.E.R. agreement between New Zealand and Australia may play a role in the setting up of an assembly operation in New Zealand, but did not elaborate on that possibility.