Chart Of The Day: Jaguar Vs. Land Rover

Timothy Cain
by Timothy Cain

The reasons for the drop of the red line and the steady rise of the grey line on today’s chart are perhaps too numerous to count.

Additional product for one brand. Less intervention at another.

A move toward high-riding vehicles helped one brand. A move away from traditional cars harmed the other. These two factors are made all the more apparent when one brand employs a full lineup of SUVs/crossovers and the other has yet to bring its first utility vehicle to market.

One brand’s message has been artfully constructed over a few decades; the other’s has been muddied for at least a generation.

Both have been labelled as dreadfully unreliable at different points. One brand has had trouble discarding that label; the other has succeeded in spite of it.

Both British brands were Ford-owned but now find themselves under the wing of India’s Tata Group.

These lines could yet head in similar directions. Jaguar will begin to sell a crossover and a lower-priced sedan. Land Rover’s Discovery Sport could buoy the brand’s lower range, as the majority of the company’s U.S. sales are produced by the trio of Range Rover-branded products.

At the moment, however, Land Rover USA sales are better than they’ve ever been thanks to a market which is increasingly keen on this type of vehicle and the brand’s broadest product range ever. Jaguar USA, on the other hand, sold nearly 16,000 S-Types in 2002 but might not sell that many XJs, XFs, XKs, and F-Types in total this year.

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures.

Timothy Cain
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  • Sector 5 Sector 5 on Nov 22, 2014

    Most jl buyers are after maximum status for minimum lease. They can't really afford. Wait for the price of gas to go back up.

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    • Hummer Hummer on Nov 23, 2014

      What does price of gas have to do with any of this? $2.60 and $3.50 really don't make a life changing difference, maybe eat out one less time every two weeks if money is tight, but the cars that are $

  • Jimbob457 Jimbob457 on Nov 22, 2014

    When you plot unit sales (as opposed to dollar volume) the lower end vehicles of any badge predominate the data. Under Ford ownership, the lower end Jag was just a tarted up Ford fashioned for the UK market. Taking an American design modified for the Euro market and reimporting it to North America has never worked, e.g. Mercur, et.al. The baby Jag was, as I recall, not really a hit in the UK. Even Jeremy Clarkson had very little good to say about it. The Landies had one model with horrendous reliability, but they apparently have survived it. David Beckham's choice to finish his career in LA seems to have helped their advertising.

  • Clarence Clarence on Nov 22, 2014

    When commentators make 30 separate one-line comments, it really screws up the whole system. How about a limit of two or three comments per-story? Try to gather your thoughts first. Anyway, I'm starting to have doubts about TTAC in general. Is there no explanation about Steve Lang's absence? I thought there was going to also be something more about Baruth leaving. This guy, Tim Cain, is fantastic, by the way. Keep up the great work.

    • See 1 previous
    • Petezeiss Petezeiss on Nov 23, 2014

      @Hummer "Baruth leaving." Heh, yeah... optimist much?

  • Paddan Paddan on Nov 23, 2014

    I've owned many Land Rovers since 1997 of almost every model, and they are no less reliable than any other Euro brand I've owned. And except for Italian cars, I've owned every Euro brand. I agree that lack of SUV has hurt Jag, but thats why there is Land Rover. Is Tata complaining?

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