JAGUAR dealers should prepare for selling DOUBLE the amount of cars when the new saloon arrives.
In an exclusive interview with Car Dealer Magazine, global brand director Adrian Hallmark said the new BMW 3 Series rivalling saloon will propel Jaguar back to the volumes the network was used to with the X-Type.
‘Dealers can look forward to selling double the amount of cars they were selling last year,’ explained Hallmark.
‘The saloon will result in a significant uplift. What’s more, between now and 2015, when it arrives, we’ll have a full year of F-Type, Sportbrake and the 2.2 diesels and all the other stuff we’ve put into the mix.’
The Jaguar network should be able to cope with the increased sales volumes – but Hallmark wants showrooms to offer an even more premium experience.
‘When dealers were selling X-Type they were selling way more cars,’ he told Car Dealer. ‘They were set up for that. And most markets were geared up for the previous entry into the saloon segment.
‘There is a huge amount of dealer investment going in to upgrade and we want to use these launches to transform the look and feel of the network. They need to be more premium, more modern, more progressive without flattening everything and rebuilding.’
Jaguar is hoping to compete with BMW, Audi and Mercedes with the new saloon which Hallmark believes will be the ‘most efficient, most refined, most advanced and best designed’ car in the class.
With that in mind, just how big can Jaguar grow? Will it be able to beat the Germans in the sales charts?
‘We want to change the dialogue from quoting the “German three” to the “European four”,’ said Hallmark.
‘We want to be in that four. I won’t put a number on the sales volumes. In seven years we won’t beat Mercedes – giving them a good run for their money would mean multiplying our current combined volume by six and that won’t happen in seven years.
‘Last year we sold 58,000 Jaguars globally – that’s all models globally. When I say we should be able to beat that number with the saloon alone, comfortably, you can see the difference this car will make to our brand.’
Jaguar showcased the platform the new saloon will be based on with this, the CX17 SUV concept. Click here to watch the car unveiled on the Frankfurt Motor Show stand.
