Baby Jaguar saloon must be extraordinary to succeed

For Jaguar’s junior saloon to have any chance of competing successfully against the BMW 3-series, it will have to be “extraordinary,” Jaguar Land Rover CEO Ralf Speth said to Autocar. The test mules were spied while testing. The car is believed to start selling in 2015.
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CarCrazedinCali - 4/16/2013 7:21:50 PM

+2 Boost

thanks for that captain obvious

xjprou - 4/18/2013 1:53:55 PM

+1 Boost

Dear Mr.Speth:

That's a very interesting statement from you. Is it true that Jaguar’s junior saloon will have to be “extraordinary" to be able to compete with well established products, like BMW, Audi and Mercedes Benz; Good news that you are aware of that. Another extraordinary thing to do in order to compete in this segment, is with pricing.
I would like to remember you and Jaguar, that you model the XF, is competing in a segment with all new models, like the Audi A6, BMW 5 series, Mercedes Benz E series, not just a face lifted model like yours, but with no price advantage over its competitors.
If you like to score a hit with this new model, focus on something appealing to a younger target of customers which are not by the way what you are used to. Show them by using the premium lightweight architecture as in the new XJ, that you can make an interesting car to attract young buyers. Make a car with character by offering different engine variants, probably by using the newly added to the XF lineup 2.0 turbo engine, as well a top of the line version with the S/C V6 engine. Last but not least, please remember that you need to follow an aggressive price strategy in order to position what Jaguar is offering nowadays.
A good example of your price strategy is the newly presented XKR-S GT at U$D175,000.00
How many people looking for a sports car or a GT, would pay that amount for that car?