(18-11-2012 09:44am)colski1961 Wrote:  after 6 months of ownership the Evoque has now been traded against a Porsche Cayenne Diesel.
We got a great deal on it and pretty much fully recovered our purchase price.

Shame as we really liked the Evoque when we got it, looks and style are still great but living with the cramped interior and lack of overtaking power - along with rear passengers compaints and the lack of any real space in the boot. Hope it goes to a good home.

Cayenne is a quality product, if not a little ugly, 3ltr V6 is a great engine (we're already doing better on the MPG than we managed in the Evoque! 39.8MPG vs 32.2MPG), we test drove against a RRS but the 3ltr was a little sluggish - we'd had the V8 in the past, that was a breast, but the loss of the excxtra 2 cylinders seems to have had a dramatic effect.

Maybe we'll come back to RR when the new RRS comes out (2014?) will be about right for the next switch.

Cheers, Colin

(18-11-2012 11:26am)THEMACS Wrote:  Anyway seeing as its today been announced tat JLR are going to satisfy the export market from China and not expand in uk, I am a little pissed off with them and probably wouldn't get another one on principal, before long we will be Importing them into the Uk, it's disgusting!!!!

(18-11-2012 12:56pm)Samson Wrote:  THEMACS, whilst I understand your concerns, I think you are wrong. I believe JLR recognise that a Chinese made car imported back to the UK or other major markets would hurt their brand and sales both here in the UK and in places like the US.

Markets around Europe are drying up as a result of politicians and banks getting thinks very wrong. The European car industry is in a right mess. The American car industry was bailed out by the Obama administration. 40% of JLR"s business is with Europe - it needs to look elsewhere. JLR is a rare success story and one of which we should be proud.

They have invested £370m to upgrade the production facilities at Solihull to build the new RR. They are currently spending around £800 million with British companies, supporting around 190,000 jobs in the supply chain in the UK, including the likes of Johnson Controls, which makes the seats. They have recently hired around 90 staff to help increase production. Further DHL has taken on around 1,200 new employees to help transport parts to and from the Solihull plant.

Whilst the China deal will be the first manufacturing plant outside of the UK, it is not the first time that JLR cars have been assembled overseas. The Freelander is already assembled in Pune, India from kits sent out from the UK, and the Land Rover Defender is assembled in several locations, including Kenya.

The fact is with export markets, one of the biggest deterrents to sales is import taxes. If JLR can overcome this with in-country production to drive additional sales and profits, that cannot be a bad thing. It will only lead to further investment in new models and will keep jobs secure both here in the UK and overseas.

(18-11-2012 05:54pm)THEMACS Wrote:  I think you are being a little naive although I agree that it does make more business sense, unfortunately that doesn't mean that te UK will benefit, seeing as JLR are owned by an Indian company!

(18-11-2012 07:42pm)Samson Wrote:  I am not being naive... just facing up to the facts. The company has been doing well, and yes Tata have benefited. They deserve to - JLR has been turned around under Tata after it tried to seek financial assistance from the Labour government in 2009 and was rejected. More than £4bn of investment has been committed to the UK by car makers in the past 12 months with most of this coming from JLR. To keep up with demand they have already expanded plants at Halewood, Castle Bromwich and Solihull and are building a new £355m engine factory in Wolverhampton. Over the past 2 years they have hired more than 8,000 employees in the UK and now employ over 20,000 people. They are also going to add a further 1,000+ employees as part of their expansion plans.

As a result of demand for the Evoque (never mind the new RR, F-Type, etc.), they are going to increase orders for components over the next four years generating £1bn+ with UK suppliers and that is on top of £2bn of contracts already agreed with more than 40 UK suppliers.

In this day and age does it really matter who owns the company if importantly it also secures the UK base, its employees and those within the supply chain in the UK? I don't think so.