>>28599744
Yes. I've been in the Range Rover plant at Solihull for work and it's still just big sheds built in the 70s, they're only just 'modernising' it now. Someone coming over from Affalterbach or Wolfsburg would be horrified.
The R&D end at Gaydon is very high tech but the assembly and manufacture is far behind the Germans and Chinese.
Management decisions at JLR are fucking baffling as well.
They launched the XE and Mk2 XF in 2015/16. They spent fucking loads on a bonded aluminium chassis with double wishbones at the front and a very clever multilink at the back which gives the XE a magic carpet ride quality and better handling than the 3 Series, but then they went to the pub and did nothing. The only series production sports model was the XE S, with a 340 and later 380hp supercharged V6. Fucking brilliant car easily competitive with the 340i, C43 AMG and Audi S4. Problem was that because the engine is very old school (and IMO better for it) it had massive CO2 emissions compared to the Germans, so fleet buyers weren't interested as company car tax would have been crippling. A plugin hybrid like the 330e would have boosted sales massively, but it never came.
They also never made a proper M3 competitor even though as the Project 8 proved the chassis could definitely handle it. A RWD V8 XE with 450/500hp would have been the best sports saloon of its generation.
The story of modern Jag is missed opportunity after missed opportunity.
