Vroom with a whew! Tatas set for motown debut

21 Dec 2007, 0052 hrs IST,TNN

WASHINGTON: When the patriarch Jamshedji Tata traveled to the United States in 1902, he visited many cities in the country’s rust belt, looking for technology for his proposed steel mill in India. But India's greatest business visionary searched for other opportunities too.

He went as far down as Georgia looking into the cotton industry, and in the north, he touched Michigan. There was only one reason he did not eye Motown and its most famous product. It wasn't even born. By the time the Ford T-model debuted in 1908, Tata had been dead four years.

Nearly a century later, Tata scions are poised to set right that historical missed opportunity by buying Ford's premier brand Jaguar and Land Rover, for an estimated $ 2 billion plus. The deal could be announced as early as Friday, various business media outlets are reporting, although Ford itself maintained a studied silence. But the natter in the auto industry is that the auto giant wants to get the deal out of the way before the Christmas holidays.

The world greatest automotive society is agog -- even horrified -- at the prospect of a Tata-owned Jaguar and Land Rover. Much of the debate has centered around Tata’s ability to handle luxury brands at a time there is great attention on its Rs 1 lakh car ($ 2500), whose January 10 debut is also the talk of the auto world.

How can Tatas own both the world's cheapest car and a luxury brand? For the record, Ford has announced that the latest model of the Jaguar 2009 XF sedan will go on sale March 1, 2008 at an MSRP of just under $50,000 with a standard V8 engine.

In contrast, Tata's $ 2500 scoop is less than the price of a Segway or some specialty bicycles sold in the US.

But if the Tata legacy is any indication, the US fears may be overstated. Tata's Indian Hotels run some of the world's finest luxury resorts.

During his 1902 visit to the US, the patriarch was so shocked by the condition in the American steel cities that he wrote to his son Dorab, who was handling the Jamshedpur project: "Be sure to lay wide streets planted with shady trees....Be sure there is plenty of space for lawns and gardens ...Reserve large areas for football, hockey and parks. Earmark areas for Hindu temples, Mohammedan mosques, and Christian churches."

Still, the image of India as a poor country incapable of making or marketing luxury brands persists -- perhaps for good reasons. One blogger wrote last week that "Instead of the Jaguar XK-R, we may soon see an XK-Vindaloo."

But early this week, as the inevitability of the Tata take over sunk in, another called the deal 'Gandhi's Revenge.'

"Family-run Tata certainly has the means, and the metal," Todd Lassa wrote on the Motor Trends website, referring to the Tata's acquisition of steel-maker Corus.

"For the Indians, owning these symbols of British civilisation is nothing less than poetic justice."

Ford has had a long and enduring relationship with India going back to pre-Independence days. Many Indian leaders of that era used Ford automobiles and there were Ford dealerships across India. The Ford patriarch, Henry Ford, exchanged correspondence with Mahatma Gandhi even though they were poles apart in their approach to life -- one a champion of the machine age and the other a fan of human labor.

Gandhi once sent Ford a "Charka" (a spinning wheel) as a gift. Little could Ford have foreseen that his scions would be turning over two luxury brands to an Indian company in return.

(http://timesofindia.com)