A badly needed sales promotion works out.
Jaguar says it took four hours and four minutes for it to sell all 50 of its special edition 2010 XJL Supercharged Neiman Marcus cars that were offered by the Texas retailer’s Christmas Book. The 2010 Jaguar XJL vehicles retailed at $105,000.
Jaguar will place potential buyers beyond 50 on a waiting list in the event a reservation does not result in a final sale.
Moreover, if marketing is doing its job, surely they can come up with some other enticement or incentive to coax a Texas- sized contribution to owner Tata’s coffers. Through September year-to-date, Jaguar sales totaled 8,674 units, down 28% from the year earlier period, which pretty much makes every Jag exclusive in the automotive universe.
New vehicle sales of Jaguar and Land Rover are down globally by 30%. This has resulted in manufacturing capacity utilization of less than 60% at the struggling company, which was losing money for decades when Ford Motor owned it, well before the current economic crisis.
Tata, the Mumbai-based owner said it ran up consolidated net losses for the year to March of 25 billion rupees (£315 m) compared to net profits of 21.68 billion rupees a year ago.
Not surprising then, that “interested buyers are encouraged to continue to call” 1-866-524-6963 for purchasing details. For those not lucky enough to reserve one of these 50 Neiman Marcus Editions, the XJ arrives in showrooms nationwide in early 2010.
Jag calls the Neiman Marcus “an aggressive take on the highly anticipated all-new 2010 Jaguar XJ.” It comes in an exclusive Celestial Black metallic paint exterior and a custom butter-soft navy and ivory leather interior with Zebrano matte wood accents.
It also has 20-inch, double-10 spoke polished alloy wheels, illuminated tread plates and trunk finisher as well as the nameplate on the custom interior Intaglio that reads: “Neiman Marcus 1 of 50.”
The Neiman Marcus XJL Supercharged is powered by a new third-generation 5-liter V8 engine with an Eaton supercharger that delivers 470 horsepower and also features the a six-speed ZF automatic transmission that adapts to its driver, with wheel-mounted shift paddles for sport, standard, and winter mode driving.