February Might Be the Month to Love a Jag

by Steph Willems

Published: February 14th, 2019

february might be the month to love a jag

Jaguar hopes U.S. buyers fling some woo its way this month, and it’s flinging bundles of cash at dealers to make it happen.

As the British brand is reportedly incentivizing its U.S. dealers to go above and beyond to break sales targets in the early part of 2018, savvy customers stand a good chance of finding a bargain.

The info comes by way of CarsDirect, which reports the brand is offering high-volume dealers up to $100,000 to surpass targets for the two-month period ending February 28th. Jaguar has already adjusted financing offers to lure buyers into the showroom, where salespeople might feel compelled to go lower.

On February 9th, Jaguar began offering zero percent financing on most models — an increasingly scarce rate. That offer applies to the brand’s biggest money maker, the F-Pace. CarsDirect reports a financing offer of 0 percent for 60 months on Jag’s best-selling model, with $2,500 in bonuses thrown in. Slow-selling models like the XJ sedan can be had with up to $8,000 in unadvertised incentives, the publication claims.

While sales of Jaguar-brand vehicles rose a modest 1.2 percent in the U.S. in 2018, the marque finds itself battered by market forces. Its diesel-heavy lineup doesn’t mix well with Europe’s new hatred of oil-burning vehicles, and passenger car sales continue to fall, especially in America. Jaguar Land Rover lost a lot of month last quarter.

In January, U.S. sales of the Jaguar XE sedan sank 31.4 percent, year over year, with the midsize XF falling 52.7 percent. XF sales fell 25.5 percent. The F-Type coupe and convertible saw its volume decline 9 percent last month. The volume leader F-Pace, on the other hand, saw its year-over-year popularity rise 23.5 percent. Compact E-Pace sales came in at 447 units, though a year-over-year comparison isn’t helpful, as the vehicle only entered the market in January 2018.

[Image: Jaguar Land Rover]

#DealerNews #Incentives #Jaguar #Sales

Steph Willems

More by Steph Willems

Comments

Join the conversation

7 of 11 comments

Civicjohn on Feb 14, 2019

The point is a high amount of cars in CA are leases, every manufacturer plays the game, and it will help them move some metal. All of my friends in the music/ entertainment industry lease their cars, either by a “car allowance” in their compensation package or they simply make enough to cover the lease payment and they just view it as a monthly expense, like the electric bill. I think having any type of monthly car payment is a disease, but some need to keep up their reputation. But a Caddy? They’ll pick a Jag over that any day.

Like Reply
- See 4 previous
- Serpens on Feb 14, 2019
  
  Leasing isn't just used by those living above their means. It makes better sense than buying a car for many.
  
  Like
- Indi500fan on Feb 14, 2019
  
  @Serpens I agree, assuming the lease you sign up for is one that is nicely subsidized (aka subvented) by the mfgr. In that case, leasing pretty much always beats ownership over the same period of time. OTOH if you are going to "run your purchased vehicle til it blows" leasing is more expensive in comparison.
  
  Like
- APaGttH on Feb 14, 2019
  
  @indi500fan Number of miles you drive a year needs to be considered too. If you're driving 20K miles a year, a lease is going to hurt.
  
  Like
- Civicjohn on Feb 14, 2019
  
  @Serpens, if you read my post, you would see that it was directed to my SoCal brethren. Call me crazy, but if you HAVE to lease, maybe you should review your household finances unless there’s a heck of a lot of $$ on the hood as indy500 posted. In that case, as long as you can accurately gauge your mileage, and insist on driving a new car, go for it. It probably would have worked for me if I had known I’d break my back 2 weeks after buying my last car, but unfortunately I was not informed. 2.5 years later, and my car has 8k miles on it. But I was raised in a house of credit, and I’ve tried to break that cycle with myself and my kids, basically saying if you can’t write a check for it, maybe you can’t afford it.
  
  Like
- Outsider819 on Feb 17, 2019
  
  @indi500fan Unfortunately, in this day and age of evermore expensive and complex electronics in vehicles, keeping a purchased vehicle long term is going to get a lot tougher. So, if you keep that in mind and estimate you'll be switching cars every few years, a heavily incentivized lease on a new Jag can make a fair bit of sense.
  
  Like
Inside Looking Out on Feb 14, 2019

Just reduce number of models and prices. Simplify model line like Apple did. Get rid of this ridiculous model designations - I have no idea what all these XF, XJ, X-Pace and so on mean - very similar how Lincoln used to name its cars.

Like Reply

Recent Comments

Bd2 Lexus is just a higher trim package Toyota. ^^
Tassos ONLY consider CIvics or Corollas, in their segment. NO DAMNED Hyundais, Kias, Nissans or esp Mitsus. Not even a Pretend-BMW Mazda. They may look cute but they SUCK.I always recommend Corollas to friends of mine who are not auto enthusiasts, even tho I never owed one, and owned a Civic Hatch 5 speed 1992 for 25 years. MANY follow my advice and are VERY happy. ALmost all are women.friends who believe they are auto enthusiasts would not listen to me anyway, and would never buy a Toyota. They are damned fools, on both counts.
Tassos since Oct 2016 I drive a 2007 E320 Bluetec and since April 2017 also a 2008 E320 Bluetec.Now I am in my summer palace deep in the Eurozone until end October and drive the 2008.Changing the considerable oils (10 quarts synthetic) twice cost me 80 and 70 euros. Same changes in the US on the 2007 cost me $219 at the dealers and $120 at Firestone.Changing the air filter cost 30 Euros, with labor, and there are two such filters (engine and cabin), and changing the fuel filter only 50 euros, while in the US they asked for... $400. You can safely bet I declined and told them what to do with their gold-plated filter. And when I changed it in Europe, I looked at the old one and it was clean as a whistle.A set of Continentals tires, installed etc, 300 EurosI can't remember anything else for the 2008. For the 2007, a brand new set of manual rec'd tires at Discount Tire with free rotations for life used up the $500 allowance the dealer gave me when I bought it (tires only had 5000 miles left on them then)So, as you can see, I spent less than even if I owned a Lexus instead, and probably less than all these poor devils here that brag about their alleged low cost Datsun-Mitsus and Hyundai-Kias.And that's THETRUTHABOUTCARS. My Cars,
NJRide These are the Q1 Luxury division salesAudi 44,226Acura 30,373BMW 84,475Genesis 14,777Mercedes 66,000Lexus 78,471Infiniti 13,904Volvo 30,000*Tesla (maybe not luxury but relevant): 125,000?Lincoln 24,894Cadillac 35,451So Cadillac is now stuck as a second-tier player with names like Volvo. Even German 3rd wheel Audi is outselling them. Where to gain sales?Surprisingly a decline of Tesla could boost Cadillac EVs. Tesla sort of is now in the old Buick-Mercury upper middle of the market. If lets say the market stays the same, but another 15-20% leave Tesla I could see some going for a Caddy EV or hybrid, but is the division ready to meet them?In terms of the mainstream luxury brands, Lexus is probably a better benchmark than BMW. Lexus is basically doing a modern interpretation of what Cadillac/upscale Olds/Buick used to completely dominate. But Lexus' only downfall is the lack of emotion, something Cadillac at least used to be good at. The Escalade still has far more styling and brand ID than most of Lexus. So match Lexus' quality but out-do them on comfort and styling. Yes a lot of Lexus buyers may be Toyota or import loyal but there are a lot who are former GM buyers who would "come home" for a better product.In fact, that by and large is the Big 3's problem. In the 80s and 90s they would try to win back "import intenders" and this at least slowed the market share erosion. I feel like around 2000 they gave this up and resorted to a ton of gimmicks before the bankruptcies. So they have dropped from 66% to 37% of the market in a quarter century. Sure they have scaled down their presence and for the last 14 years preserved profit. But in the largest, most prosperous market in the world they are not leading. I mean who would think the Koreans could take almost 10% of the market? But they did because they built and structured products people wanted. (I also think the excess reliance on overseas assembly by the Big 3 hurts them vs more import brands building in US). But the domestics should really be at 60% of their home market and the fact that they are not speaks volumes. Cadillac should not be losing 2-1 to Lexus and BMW.
Tassos Not my favorite Eldorados. Too much cowbell (fins), the gauges look poor for such an expensive car, the interior has too many shiny bits but does not scream "flagship luxury", and the white on red leather or whatever is rather loud for this car, while it might work in a Corvette. But do not despair, a couple more years and the exterior designs (at least) will sober up, the cowbells will be more discreet and the long, low and wide 60s designs are not far away. If only the interiors would be fit for the price point, and especially a few acres of real wood that also looked real.