Jaguar E-type Series 1 4.2l Roadster 1966 on 2040-cars

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Jaguar Land Rover to cut $6.8 billion in costs

Jaguar Land Rover reduce costs by $6.8 billion and will push annual production volume to 1 million vehicles under a secret project called Leap 4.5, according to Reuters. The British automaker wants to achieve these ambitious goals by the end of the decade to compensate for the changing market in China and to counteract the price of meeting stricter emissions standards around the world. Leap 4.5 won't mean firing workers or cutting the automaker's $4.5 billion annual research budget. JLR will instead find savings by underpinning more models with modular platforms and by adjusting its supply chain. Future factories like the one in Brazil and the proposed plant in Slovakia also won't be affected by the new strategy. Globally, JLR continues to grow, and deliveries are up two percent through October 2015 to 390,965 vehicles. Business just last month was up 24 percent year-over-year to 41,553 units. However, the auto market's downturn in China has taken a bite out the automaker's success because volume dropped there 32 percent in the third quarter, Reuters reported. A global volume of 1 million vehicles will mean more than doubling 2014's 462,678 deliveries, but JLR has made significant investments to boost production recently. In addition to the future factories, it opened its first plant in China last year and an engine assembly site in the UK. The company also signed a deal with Magna Steyr in 2015 to build an upcoming model in Austria. Related Video:

Jaguar to reveal small sedan at Paris show

Small sedans are big business for luxury automakers. The C-Class is the top seller for Mercedes-Benz, much as the 3 Series is for BMW, but Jaguar has historically missed out on that market. Its last attempt, the X-Type, proved woefully inadequate, and Jaguar hasn't attempted to take on that market again since. But that's all about to change.
Coventry has been working on a new small Jaguar for some time now (using test mules like the one above wearing modified XF body panels), and according to the latest reports coming in from the UK, it will showcase the result of those efforts at the Paris Motor Show next October. The show car will take the form of a pre-production concept that is expected to preview the production version very closely before the final item is unveiled at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show.
Tipped to be called XS (somewhat appropriately for the brand's smallest model), the new sedan is expected to be the first to use the company's new aluminum platform previewed by the C-X17. Expect styling to follow along similar lines to said crossover concept and the F-Type sportscar, with eventual sedan, wagon and coupe versions to round out the family.

2015 Jaguar F-Type V6 S Coupe

My first, ill-fated job in the auto world was at an exotic car dealer in metro Detroit. The job itself sucked, but the cars, they were exceptional. Amidst a sea of Tiptronic Porsche Boxsters, first-gen Mercedes-Benz SLKs and abused second-generation Range Rovers, there were some real gems.
In particular, I have fond memories of a trio of undrivable Jaguar E-Types. Two Series II coupes as well as a Series III convertible (that featured a mostly broken roof) spent the entirety of my brief tenure at the dealership in the back of the musty service garage. I'd make side trips through there just to see the trio of E-Types, which rarely failed to put a big, ridiculous grin on my face.
Since that time in the summer of 2005, there hasn't been a single Jag that's been capable of eliciting the same goofy smile. Not the XFR-S, with its un-aristocratic wing, nor the XKR-S. At the 2013 Los Angeles Auto Show, though, Jaguar introduced this F-Type Coupe. Sure, the droptop model had been around for a bit, but I thought it was the new coupe that most captured the E-Type's classic aesthetic, with a swooping roofline, those gorgeous rear haunches and a long, powerful hood. I had to drive one.