We reported earlier that new Jag and Landie owners Tata Motors want to take its once-proud luxury brands back upmarket. According to Auto Motor und Sport, boss Ratan Tata has suggested to investors that Jaguar could revive the Daimler brand to take on Bentley and Rolls. Daimler as in Mercedes? Nein. A little history… Gottlieb Daimler sold his cars in Germany under the Mercedes name. He also licensed the construction of his engine in England. Jaguar bought that company, known as Daimler, in 1960. By the time Ford bought Jaguar in 1989, the Daimler name had become [more or less] a Jaguar trim line, denoting the top level of XJ Sedans in every market but America (where it was called the Vanden Plas to avoid confusion with Daimler-Chrysler). Mercedes-Benz paid Ford $20m for non-exclusive rights to the Daimler name. Ford then sold the Jag, Land Rover and Daimler brands to Tata Motors. Now, for those of you who think think that reviving the storied Daimler name is a no-brainer for Ratan's mob, I have one word: Maybach.
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20mill for non-exclusive rights?
WTF were they smoking?
toxicroach :
July 28th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
20mill for non-exclusive rights?
WTF were they smoking?
Chrysler’s stash…
Actually the Daimler name has probably more name-recognition than Mehbock!!
Even my mother would think we are talking of a Mercedes!
The legal implications of this situation should certainly be interesting. Tata is setting itself to walk on a minefield.
Maybe the British are tradition-minded to go for a reborn Daimler, which was that nation’s first automobile brand. Daimler was long the car of the Royal family.
BTW, Maybach worked with Gottlieb Daimler to develop their innovative internal combustion engine.
Taking Jag up-market is a no brainer (Amazing Ford couldn’t comprehend something so simple and straight forward – and freaking obvious)
If I’m not mistaken, some Indians are rather enamored of all things British, and Diamler is pretty well known in the UK for being the top drawer Jag. I believe it’s considered a separate marque there – but I may be wrong about that. This means they should do better with the traditional home market, and with the Indian upper classes.
Diamler -as a top trim level Jag- differes from Maybach in both price and cost to build. Tata will already be building the Jag, so what’s it going to cost to “Diamlerize” it? Whatever it costs, just mark that up and pass it along to the customer. Yes, this is a no brainer.
Daimler seems like a good brand to revive, it has a good name and little baggage. Now the only little problem is how to make a good enough car to compete in that market :)
Daimler (UK) produced limos for a long time. The Queen used to have some.
Taking Jag up-market is a no brainer (Amazing Ford couldn’t comprehend something so simple and straight forward – and freaking obvious)
@Dynamic88:
Well…that’s what happens when you’ve got a hierarchy. Aston Martin was dropping down with the V-8 Vantage at $110K+, and the XKR was $90K+. How much higher can you go before the overlap starts?
CarShark :
July 28th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Taking Jag up-market is a no brainer (Amazing Ford couldn’t comprehend something so simple and straight forward – and freaking obvious)
@Dynamic88:
Well…that’s what happens when you’ve got a hierarchy. Aston Martin was dropping down with the V-8 Vantage at $110K+, and the XKR was $90K+. How much higher can you go before the overlap starts?
I believe he meant upmarket in quality as well as price. ;-)
I’ll be interested to see what Tata comes up with for the Jaguar and Land Rover brands. Initially I thought what are they thinking buying two luxury brands when they make bottom of the barrel cars and work trucks/heavy equipment. But, it finally struck me, they do have design departments chock full of engineers who would probably be ecstatic to design something upscale rather than squeezing the last cent (literally) out of every design-the Tata Nano has one wiper blade simply to reduce costs. It will be interesting to see if they can best Ford. By the way, using the Daimler name is a no-brainer both here and in the UK.
“Now, for those of you who think think that reviving the storied Daimler name is a no-brainer for Ratan’s mob, I have one word: Maybach.”
Not really, Maybach is a contrived resurrection of a long dead name, whilst Daimler has never been out of production in 120 odd years, they were still making bespoke limos into the 1990s with the DS420 for goodness sake.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daimler_DS420
you know, if Maybach was more than a tarted up S-class it might have suceeded. They even looked the same for god sakes!
Whatever TaTa do they always make a huge success of it – thats why they are one of the Worlds leading businesses. Daimler, like the pheonix, shall rise from the ashes