Professor Elam

Jerry Herrera asked in a blog post, who is buying Aston Martin, Jaguar, etc? Good question!

David Richards, the British equivalent of America’s Roger Penske bought Aston Martin. I urge you to read both these articles.  Richards owns Prodrive Racing and has big plans for Aston, which has gone from 200 units sold in the US in the early 1990s to 7,000 this past year, an amazing recovery for a niche car maker.  And with Kuwait money behind it and Ulrich Bez as CEO this is a winner.

Cerebrus a private hedge fund bought Chrysler.  And no doubt some similar consortium wil step up to buy Jaguar. There are more folks than ever with the money and proclivity to show off their wealth to buy such cars.  And finally Ford has made a success of Jaguar after pouring billions into the project.  And that is the irony.

Ford paid $2 billion for Jag. Then they have spent probably another $10 B fixing the problems.  Now with the new XK model in demand, they are having to sell. 

One has to sell the good assets to save the less than good assets. I made the observation on this blog that I had much rather be with Richards and his Kuwait investors with Aston than in the union mix with Alan M. at Ford.