Bugatti 16C Galibier and its friends

Bugatti recently revealed their four door sedan, Bugatti 16C Galibier. I think we should not say sedan to a car which is producing one thousand horsepower! When Bugatti puts this car on production, it will be the most powerful sedan has ever been produced. However Bugatti is not planning to produce 16C Galibier until Veyron is on production. Their plan is to produce Galibier after the Veyron is finished.

Recently, some people saw the Galibier near Molsheim, France (Bugatti HQ). However, I noticed something from the pictures. This car is looking very similar to BMW 5 GT and Porsche Panamera. Yes, these cars are just costing no more than a Bugatti gear lever but their similarity is very interesting. Like Veyron, Galibier has the identical Bugatti DNAs in its design but product extension strategies are obsessed, they started to look very similar to each other.

Therefore, I have posted the pictures of Porsche Panamera, BMW 5 GT and Bugatti 16C Galibier. Panamera is the best for price and performance! One thousand horse power is very exciting but price tag is so depressing :)

Pictures are taken from;

Bugatti, Porsche, BMW and Worldcarfans Websites

Two foreigners in forbidden city, Jaguar & Land Rover

In 2008, Ford started to sell everything under its brand. Land Rover and Jaguar were one of the toughest sales at that time. As the Land Rover was very profitable, Jaguar was losing blood all the time and no body was looking forward to buy Jaguar! However, Ford packages them together as a promotion and whoever buys Land Rover was going to have Jaguar free!

At the same time, Tata was looking for automotive brands to expands its automotive division. However they were reluctant to buy Jaguar as you can imagine the reason! Tata decided to buy Jaguar and Land Rover after they see the potential demand on Jaguar XF model which was introduced  before the deal.

Now, Tata decided to move Land Rover and Jaguar production plants to China. And it will be the second foreign brand to be built in China after Volvo. However, unlike in any other business product of origin play significant role in luxury automotive industry. And mainly Land Rover was using this as an important asset to compete with Germans. After this decision, Land Rover and Jaguar's reputation might be adversely affected. Also in Chinese market, it may not receive the same demand as the brands are produced in China!

It is a very complicated decision to make. And I can see why Tata is trying to move it production plant outside of UK, but they should focus on East European countries to minimize the damage on product of origin. Producing Land Rover and Jaguar in China and selling to China may not have the same impact as exporting from UK.

Pictures are taken from;

Land Rover, Jaguar Websites