Honda Cars : Ford sells Jaguar and Land Rover to India's TATA | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

Not much in the way of Honda news front, so I thought I'd fill the void with some other news.

Ford Motor Co., the world's third- largest automaker, agreed to sell Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata Motors Ltd., for less than half what it paid for the two brands as luxury-vehicle demand drops.

Tata, India's biggest truckmaker, will spend $2.3 billion (I've also heard as high as $2.65 billion), while Ford will contribute about $600 million at closing to the Jaguar Land Rover pension funds, the companies said today.

Ford is ending its investment in U.K.-based brands as the U.S. housing slump and job losses curb sales of models such as the $80,000 Jaguar XK. Ford is working to return to profit next year after $15.3 billion in losses in 2006 and 2007.

"Ford's financial situation is so severe it simply can't afford to sustain the two companies any longer,'' said Peter Schmidt , managing director of U.K. consulting firm Automotive Industry Data. ``Jaguar has been nothing but a financial millstone.''

Ford acquired Jaguar in 1989 for $2.5 billion and Land Rover in 2000 for $2.73 billion as part of a European-luxury strategy it began by buying Aston Martin in 1987. It sold Aston last year. (Ouch, talk about cutting your losses.)

Here's a link to the rest of the article;

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a6BCGuWnMT8Q&refer=home