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Ford's Jaguar Luxury Unit Had 2001 Operating Loss of $82 Mln

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London, Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co.'s Jaguar unit had a loss of 52 million pounds ($82 million) in 2001 on higher development and sales costs as well as unfavourable exchange rates, the company said.

The loss compares with a profit of 83 million pounds in 2000, according to company documents filed with the U.K. government. Ford executives said in September that Jaguar would have a loss of $500 million in 2002. The company had not previously disclosed details of the 2001 loss.

The world's second-largest automaker is trying to return to profit in 2002 after last year's $5.4 billion loss. It wants its luxury vehicles, including Jaguar, Volvo and Land Rover, to generate a third of revenue by 2005, up from a fifth currently.

Jaguar's lost money while unit sales rose to a record 100,770 cars, helped by introduction of the X-type, the least-expensive Jaguar at $30,000. The X-Type and S-Type, a larger sedan, haven't been as successful as the company had hoped.

``Sales of the S-Type and X-Type have been disappointing, partly because Jaguar doesn't have a diesel engine to offer,'' said Alastair Bedwell, an auto industry consultant with JD Power- LMC in Oxford, England. ``I'm not sure they got the design right.''

Unlike rivals Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and DaimlerChrysler AG's Mercedes unit, Jaguar offers only cars with gasoline engines. More than a third of all Western European car buyers chose cars with diesel engines last year.

The 2001 financial results were filed Oct. 31 at the Department of Trade and Industry's Companies House and are the most detailed figures available about Jaguar. Ford doesn't break out the unit's results.

Increased Revenue

Jaguar's 2001 revenue rose 18 percent to 2.46 billion pounds. Cost of sales, including material, labor and overhead, rose 31 percent to 2.36 billion pounds.

Ford said the $500 million Jaguar loss this year is related to delays in production of the redesigned XJ sedan, the luxury sedan. The car's aluminium chassis has been difficult to manufacture and sales to dealers won't begin until the first quarter of next year, rather than the current quarter, as Ford expected.
 
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