Aston Martin is turned around, which is why they are selling it. As well as the fact that they have very little into it compared to the bloodsucking death machine that is Jaguar. Volvo is also very profitable, though they don't report P.A.G's individual unit results. Consider that AM sold 42 (no, I did not forget a digit) cars two years before Ford took control, and they sold the aforementioned 4500 units last year. They've never been in better shape, or built better cars.
I spent a day with a DB9. Absolutely stunningly beautiful car. Horrid paddle shift, but who cares? It's sex on wheels, has a wonderful sounding V12, and makes you feel like James Bond. It'll be sad to see A.M go, only because Ford did such a fantastic job bringing the magic back to that wonderful brand.
People want to read too much into Jag. It's problems are pretty transparent, and can't be fixed by enthusiasm alone. Way too much capacity, way too much investment in technology the base doesn't care about, and expansion into a market it could never compete have killed it.
Jag spent billions retooling to build aluminum bodied sedans that are brilliant to drive compared to the old cars, but people who buy Jag's said "so what"? Jag drivers don't care about weight, or how it goes 'round the bend. At least not like Audi A8 drivers do. The cars are quiet, serene, smooth and comfortable. But so were the old cars. And they look almost identical ( I say this having had an 05 XJ8 L). Whoops. If you're going to spend a 10 figure sum on a new car, you had better make people take notice of it.
They had 3 plants operating with practically triple the capacity they were utilizing, in a brutal currency market with tremendous raw material and labor costs. They closed (most of) Browns Lane, and had to retool and update at an untold cost to build the new product elsewhere.
And then there was the X-type, the silk purse from the nylon Mondeo wallet. Oh X-Type. Nice car, bad decision. Jaguar was never going to be BMW, selling 3 series to the masses. And now they are paying, in more ways than one, for that decision.
This stuff won't be fixed easily or quickly unless someone immediately finds a cure for 80 years of reputation for shoddy British reliability from a niche marque, ENORMOUS raw material costs (I can't adequately articulate how ****ED Jag and FoMoCo in general are by this currently. It's the single biggest challenge they face day-to-day right now, and it's a real bitch to fix, as anyone in mfg knows), and a way to absorb a gigantic amount of poorly placed but well intentioned capital expenditures. I.E No quick fix.
