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Jaguar demanding customer data from reluctant dealers

Nearly every major business is collecting consumer data these days, and keeping that data secure has come to the forefront of many customer's minds. Jaguar Land Rover North America's decision to begin requesting more customer info from its dealer network appears unfortunately timed, however. If it had come a few years ago, it might have been ignored, but in today's climate of heightened awareness, a few dealers are pushing back. To put the showrooms in an even tougher position, JLR NA is threatening to deny quarterly incentives if they do not turn over the customer data, according to Automotive News.
JLR NA instated the nationwide plan, which it calls Single View CRM, on February 7, but according to Stuart Schorr, Jaguar Land Rover North America Vice President of Communications, the automaker has been negotiating with its dealers to institute the new program for over a year. Schorr tells Autoblog that no financial information is being shared, noting that such data is limited to customer details, including things like what vehicles they own and whether they have any pending service. The initiative is meant to "improve customers' and owners' engagement with the brand," he said. Also, the company is not accessing dealer data itself; instead showrooms are asked to enter the info into JLR's database.

Jaguar design boss admits X-Type was a mistake

History has a way of repeating itself, especially in the auto industry. When Jaguar was owned by Ford, the British brand attempted to field a competitor for the BMW 3 Series, called the X-Type. Based on the bones of a Ford Mondeo, it aped the styling of Jaguar's flagship model, the XJ, while borrowing liberally from the Ford parts bin. That was 2001.
Now, in 2013, Jaguar is planning a new 3 Series challenger based on the platform previewed by the C-X17 Concept, while Ford is attempting to take the latest Mondeo upmarket. The moves have both brands recognizing where, why, and how the X-Type failed. "It didn't look mature or powerful or anything. It was just a car," Jaguar's current head of advanced design, Julian Thomson, told PistonHeads. Basing the X-Type on a front-drive car while giving it styling that was meant for a rear-driver lead to proportions that "were plainly wrong," Thomson told PH. Ford's European head of quality, Gunnar Herrmann, added that the X-Type was "a fake Jaguar, because every piece I touch is Ford."
For what it's worth, the X-Type's successor in the segment will sport rear-drive, with plenty of input from Ian Callum. Thomson described the new model, which would challenge the 3 Series as having, "Big wheels right to the ends of the car, low bonnet, short overhangs, very low cabins." Sounds good to us.

Watch the trailer for Jaguar's short film staring the F-Type and Damian Lewis

Jaguar continues to think well outside of the box when it comes to marketing it's new F-Type, now furthering plans for a short film which highlights the sexy roadster. Desire, featuring Damian Lewis (star of the hit series Homeland), Jordi Mollà (unforgettable in Bad Boys II) and Shannyn Sossamon (that girl you had a crush on for like a month in 2002 after you rented A Knight's Tale), Jaguar is clearly pulling out all the stops for this one. Well, nearly all the stops anyway ­- the "Ridley Scott Associates" billing isn't quite the same has having the man himself, if we're splitting hairs.
The short video below is still just a trailer for Desire - the full film will make its debut sometime in April, we're told. The sketched out plotlines tell us that Lewis' character Clark, "...delivers cars for a living, running into trouble after a chance encounter with a mysterious, young woman (Sossamon) in the middle of a lawless desert." The car looks good, at any rate.
Call us crazy, but the Desire trailer feels an awful lot like a spoof on the cool-but-overly-serious short films that BMW has done in this vein, already. Maybe we're just being cynical? Tell us what you think in comments after watching the clip.