Round-Up - 1990s Jaguars

Following Ford’s acquisition of an independent Jaguar in 1989, the Coventry-based luxury car maker underwent a transformation that led to the introduction of a range of capable models that today are reasonably affordable as well as being fun to own and drive.

- Iain Wakefield

The 1980s were challenging times for Jaguar’s new boss Sir John Egan. When he took over the reins at a still independent Jaguar in April 1980, the company was seriously underperforming and the quality of the finished product was at an all-time low. Under the new CEO’s direction Jaguar quickly started to tackle these issues but a bomb was about to land on Egan’s desk. In late 1989 the Ford Motor Company narrowly beat General Motors to the wire when it completed the purchase of Jaguar Cars for £1.6 billion with a promise that it would ‘build on Jaguar’s strengths and expand sales in Europe and the US’.

Despite all the corporate hype, the management at Ford were still reeling from the high price they’d had to pay for the Coventry-based car luxury maker. To justify the sale, Egan, brilliantly summed up his company’s worth by explaining to ‘Red’ Poling, the new boss at Ford, how Jaguar was made up of $500 million of ‘sausage’ and $2 billion of ‘sizzle’! Sir John’s eloquently put metaphor translated into Jaguar’s plant and equipment being the ‘sausage’, while the ‘sizzle’ element represented the iconic carmaker’s heritage.