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]
More by Steph Willems
Comments
Join the conversation
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.
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.