Both Land Rover and Jaguar were sold in March 2008, to Tata the Indian car giant for $2.3 billion; Ford invested a total of about $10 Billion into the two companies. It has also been reported that Ford are going to have to find another $600 million to make up a shortfall in the companies pension funds. It seems like a massive loss until you consider that Daimler Benz invested $36 Billion into Chrysler and sold 80.1% nine years later for $7.4 Billion. Tata have recently been on a spending spree and it is clearly good timing for them to make this acquisition whilst the US Dollar is so weak.

Most people feel that there are far too many cars on Britain’s roads today and indeed, if you look at the figures, there are. In a study carried out by the World Health Organization in 1996, we had 408 vehicles per 1000 of population, Spain had 488 and France had 524. America was very high at 787 per 1000 of population but then it is a country of 3.537 million square miles compared with the UK, which has 90,504 square miles. In general the countries that have a large number of vehicles per capita are much larger countries than Britain.

What Car magazine voted the Jaguar XF car of the year 2008. The award was well deserved. Leasing and contract hire companies are experiencing strong demand for the XF. It somehow seems odd that the manufacturers of a car so expertly designed and advanced technologically, should have started out as a manufacturer of sidecars; the Swallow Sidecar Company. Started in 1922 by William Walmsley and William Lyons both very keen motorcyclists. However the real driving force behind the company was William Lyons.

Over the years Mercedes have certainly had a great deal more successes than failures. Their cars so impressively designed are a shining example of how a quality car should engineered, but has it always been this way? Well certainly it has not always been easy for Mercedes; they have had to face many challenges throughout the years, many of which were completely out of their control. And some perhaps not; for example their more recent problems with build quality, which many believe were completely of Mercedes own making. Confidence in Mercedes dropped in the late 1990’s when it became evident that both mechanical and electronic faults were on the increase. Contract hire and leasing brokers became worried about recommending Mercedes Benz to clients. The M class received the most criticism from motoring journalists.