Jaguar needs a lineup of “drop-dead gorgeous” vehicles to revive the brand, Ford Motor Co. COO Jim Padilla said, in remarks published by AutoWeek.
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Injecting looks, power and excitement into Jaguar is Ford’s core job as it tries to turn Jaguar around.
“We’ve lost some of that,” Padilla said at the J.D. Power and Associates International Automotive Roundtable. “And we’ve got to get back to that.”
Cars such as the Advanced Lightweight Coupe Concept revealed at the 2005 Detroit auto show can help, he said. The concept is a precursor to the redesigned XK coupe scheduled to arrive in 2006.
“You’ll notice that styling was more contemporary and looking forward,” Padilla said. “One of the issues at Jaguar is some of our more recent styling was looking in the rearview mirror.”
In the same AutoWeek issue, Tom Scarpello, Jaguar’s new vice president of marketing, said that Jaguar needed more time to establish its slow-selling X-Type model in the US marketplace and find a natural volume for it, backing off heavy incentives.
