February Might Be the Month to Love a Jag

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

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]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Civicjohn 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.

    • See 4 previous
    • Outsider819 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.

  • Inside Looking Out 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.

  • Lorenzo Heh. The major powers, military or economic, set up these regulators for the smaller countries - the big guys do what they want, and always have. Are the Chinese that unaware?
  • Lorenzo The original 4-Runner, by its very name, promised something different in the future. What happened?
  • Lorenzo At my age, excitement is dangerous. one thing to note: the older models being displayed are more stylish than their current versions, and the old Subaru Forester looks more utilitarian than the current version. I thought the annual model change was dead.
  • Lorenzo Well, it was never an off-roader, much less a military vehicle, so let the people with too much money play make believe.
  • EBFlex The best gift would have been a huge bonfire of all the fak mustangs in inventory and shutting down the factory that makes them.Heck, nobody would even have to risk life and limb starting the fire, just park em close together and wait for the super environmentally friendly EV fire to commence.
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