Finally some good news for Jaguar Land Rover as it's US sales soared by 24% during December 2018 to a total of 14,080 cars, ending a great year for JLR in the US seeing sales surge to nearly 123,000, up from the 114,300 for 2017, with the US now accounting for approximately 28% of total sales.

This follows a year of bad news for the car market that saw profits of £953mln for the period March to September for 2017 wiped out for the same period in 2018, replaced with a loss of £354mln triggering in the loss of over 1 thousand jobs and many more being put on a three day week. With rumours of plans to shed as many as 5000 jobs during 2019 out of a work force of approx 38,000 as the loss making car manufacturer attempts to cut costs. With worse to come in 2019 as JLR's formerly biggest market China experiences a sharp slow down that could see sales fall by as much as 20%, that all but offsets the gains being made in North America,

Whilst here's a detailed 1 year review of JLR's flag ship Discovery Sports model that illustrates the difference between the Land Rover sales pitch and owning and driving reality.

In my opinion one of the reasons why build quality does not always live up to customer expectations is because the manufacturer is offering the market too many models. Instead should seek to concentrate on improving the quality of production of it's most popular models. Instead JLR's decision to move production to eastern europe is only going to make matters worse. Because no one wants to pay premium brand prices for junk manufactured in eastern europe! Especially given the fact that as BrExit beckons British customers will be more likely to favour home produced vehicles than those made in an hostile EU.

Nadeem Walayat

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Nadeem Walayat has over 30 years experience of trading derivatives, portfolio management and analysing the financial markets, including one of few who both anticipated and Beat the 1987 Crash. Nadeem's forward looking analysis focuses on UK inflation, economy, interest rates and housing market. He is the author of five ebook's in the The Inflation Mega-Trend and Stocks Stealth Bull Market series that can be downloaded for Free.

Nadeem is the Editor of The Market Oracle, a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication that presents in-depth analysis from over 1000 experienced analysts on a range of views of the probable direction of the financial markets, thus enabling our readers to arrive at an informed opinion on future market direction. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any trading losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors before engaging in any trading activities.

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