Ford executives have a long and noble history of failing upwards. This seems to be especially true where the company's Premier Automotive Group (Jaguar, Volvo, Land Rover, Aston Martin) is concerned. After Premier's premier Premier Wolfgang Reitzle bled billions trying to transform a rag tag army of money-losing foreign car brands into the Louis Vuitton collection of upmarket autos, Bill Ford offered Wolfie the keys to the entire kingdom. When Mark Fields assumed control of Ford's English patient, his efforts failed to staunch the arterial spray of red ink. In fact, Automotive News reports that Jaguar North America CEO Mike O'Driscoll, marketing executives Richard Beattie and George Ayres, sales boss Doug Speck, PR chief Simon Sproule and finance boss Geoff Cousins hatched a plan in '04 to restrict Jag sales to supercharged models. Rather than making a Bold Move, Fields let the brand's British bosses smother it in its crib. Today, supercharged X-Type prototypes are in storage, Jaguar's American sales are in the toilet and Fields has the keys to the executive washroom, as Ford's President of the Americas. Go figure. [FYI: Best quote: "All Ford's 'no' guys came out of the woodwork," says a Jaguar source. "You know, legal, engineering, warranty. It was doomed."]
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Spy Photos: 2009 Jaguar XF [internal]