Hummers are, for true car lovers, a bit of a laughing stock.  They are big, cumbersome, ugly, smaller inside than they should be and terrible in terms of their fuel economy.  They are also not very cheap.  Worst of all perhaps is that they aren’t fit for purpose.  Such a vehicle should surely be good off-road, yet they are about as much as a BMW X3 - i.e. none at all.  However, they do have one thing going for them.  That thing is character.

One thing though is obvious.  Character cannot save you in today’s climate of $130+ barrels of oil and finally the Americans have woken up to the fact that they live on the same planet as the rest of us.  This means that sales are down by one third and (almost exclusively) gas guzzlers are off the menu globally.

Apparently, General Motors has confirmed that the future of the Hummer brand is hanging on a knife-edge.  Will they sell it on?  Will they keep it?  Then tension is almost too much.  Perhaps it’ll take a revamp to make the range more economical and look like the current trend for crossover coupes before it’ll be successful once again in the US.  Who knows.

Ironically, here in the apparently environmentally concerned UK and Europe sales of Hummers have gone up by 34%.  Mind you, they weren’t selling very many so that figure still only puts about 300 cars on drives.  Is that saying much then?  Well no, not really.  We’re far to sensible and enjoy our Land Rovers just too much thank you kindly.

In light of all the big American brands fault, I still like Hummer.  In the same way that I most American things.  It’s a bit too brash, bold and showy but there’s just something about it.  I’d hate to see all cars look the same and that’s perhaps one of the problems with British roads.  To those 300 people out there I’d like to say I want to see your Hummer (as it were).  Just don’t expect me to foot the bill for a refuelling when you head home.

It is of course now confirmed that the Indian conglomerate Tata is the proud owner of two traditionally British marques, Land Rover and Jaguar.  Apparently this all came to conclusion over months of painstaking negotiations, along with several new cars from the various marques such as Tata’s Nano (shown, the ultra small, ultra cheap new Indian transport) and the Jaguar XF.

Ford (the owner of Land Rover and Jaguar previously) hadn’t commented on the financial performance of the two companies, but it’s probably fair to say that Jaguar was losing money whilst Land Rover was on the making money side of things after clocking up record sales in the last three years.

For those interested in the finance side of things, the overall cost came to a staggering £1.15 billion.  Quite, quite incredible money.  More of a pressing concern is the fact that both Jaguar and Land Rover employ staff to the tune of about 16,000 at UK plants in the West Midlands and Merseyside.  What will become of their jobs?  Of course, it will be cheaper to manufacture abroad.  Will Jaguar, as a luxury marque, survive this sort of change?

As is the current relationship, Ford will continue to supply Jaguar and Land Rover with engines, stampings and car components along with various technologies.  This is important for continuity as well as of course reliability - do you want a Tata engine?  Probably not.

So what should Tata be doing with their new IP’s then?  Well, a few things.  First, we’ve seen the F-Type appearing here and there as an interesting concept.  Porsche is currently selling the Boxster on the original 50’s styling.  Tata should capitalise on this and take advantage of the ‘new/retro’ vibe that’s going on.

Diesel power is a requirement these days - whether we like it or not.  Tata’s range of Land Rover and Jaguar needs to encompass mid and top range diesels in order to appeal to the modern day market.  I’m not going to ask for an electric Jaguar XJ mind you, but some versatility is required in what they supply.

So, what has Tata bought, and should they be pleased with it?  Well, I’m not about to say it’s a bargain purchase, but I will say that they are two of the best-known marques in the automotive industry.  Okay, so Jaguar might have a bit of an ‘old man’ reputation and Land Rover must, and I mean MUST shrug off the ‘it’ll break down on you all the time’ reputation.  I mean that’s gone beyond a joke; some have said they’re worse than Alfa Romeo.

Nonetheless, you have two British car brands that are arguably the best known in the world with an amazing heritage.  We know Tata is flexible and the Nano is sure to bring in significant revenue.  Will they be able to handle these new car ranges though?  Well, that remains to be seen.  What I will say though is they’re a strange fit.  Odd bedfellows if you will.  I also have reservations on how the Nano will impact our global environment.

Regardless, for Land Rover and Jaguar the future’s bright.  The future is Indian.

With the sale of Jaguar and Land Rover about to be announced, it would seem that the favourite bidder would be the TATA Group, best known for the rugged trucks, but soon to known as the company that makes some of the UK’s most desired cars, or so the chairman Ratan Tata will tell you.

But if you are worried that some of the UK’s automotive heritage is going to moved lock, stock and barrel over to India. Yet as what will happen with the companies is unknown, yet we cannot see the whole production being taken over to India nor can we? Labour and everything else is so much cheaper over there.

But to put things into perspective, the Ratan Tata has confirmed that if his company gets the deal then he is very interested in the proposed “F” type Jaguar which is a sort of retro looking Jaguar that will take many people back to the sixties in style but will in fact be a highly technical machine that could be a possible rival to Porsche.

But at the moment we can only wait and see what Ford announces and only them we get a clearer picture on the way that the two makes and new models are going in the future.

Source [The Motor Report]