Series II XJ12 I think, which would indeed be mid-70s, but having worked for a
supplier to Jaguar from 1975-1981, and done some consulting work for Jaguar the
following year, I would say it's unfair to single out Lucas. How Jaguar managed
to survive until 1982 is something of a mystery to me - at a time when all
other volume manufacturers (some within the same BL group) had computerised
materials purchasing systems, Jaguar's system was manual, with typewritten
delivery scheduled to suppliers (the only other contemporary example was ERF,
who made heavy trucks at much less volume than Jaguar). Needless to say, both
of them were plagued by materials shortages/overordering as their manufacturing
systems were unable to match fluctuations in sales.
But worse, their production engineering seemed to be run on a similarly "make
it up as you go along" basis. While Ford and GM would provide confirmed and
stable drawings of the parts needed, with a marked-up sample of the assembly to
which they would be attached, Jaguar would provide (for example) a hand-painted
transmission tunnel with bits of wiring harness attached accompanied by
sketches of what else was going on nearby. From time to time an engineer would
visit with a paint brush to alter the tunnel paintwork to reflect the state of
cars on the production line, because things were changed as they went along and
the documentation never properly caught up!
And the same has to be said for the US marketing. They were always clear that
their competitors in the US were Mercedes Benz and BMW, with Cadillac as the
locally-produced benchmark for pricing and market sector. But their pricing
over time was *all over the place* - sometimes below BMW, other times above
Mercedes Benz. It came as a nasty surprise to them when they were shown the
truth - they did not keep track of local prices. And of course they had nothing
like coast-to-coast customer support.
Jaguar cars of the era were more like hand built cars produced in much higher
volume than they should have been. A good 'un must have been a miracle!
Things changed when Ford took over. Suddenly a what had once been a Ford
Scorpio became something much more desirable - and what had been an XJ6 became
something much more reliable!
Piers
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Braun [mailto:pbraun42@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 14 February 2013 13:54
To: Olympus Camera Discussion
Subject: Re: [OM] OT Classic Cars
That‘s a mid-70's XJ-6, right? Nice. But mired deep in problems with The
Prince of Darkness, Lucas.
Paul Braun
Certified Music Junkie
"Music washes from the soul the dust of everyday life.". -- Harlan Howard
On Feb 14, 2013, at 6:25, "Brian Swale" <bj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> While we are talking about cars, here are two photos of my son's
> Jaguar which he bought in 2006. He doesn't have it now.
>
> http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=114
>
> He fulfilled his fantasy, had some fun with it, and is over it.
>
> Many years before that I had a Jag Mk VII which i used to tow my 1.2
> ton boat. Wonderful exhaust sound - unmistakable straight-6 howl.
>
> Brian Swale
> --
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