Who Owns Who?

Who Owns Who?

New Delhi: A spin off the infamous recession of 2008 was that it united the auto-industry and further strengthened it. Sales were hit hard globally forcing various brands to trade hands after the bailout. This helped the overall industry to get back to a new structure of operations and the tie-ups had a major scope to revive the auto-industry to normality. What seemed to have been clear, direct and straight forward is now a bit complex and convoluted. Here鈥檚 the compiled list of who owns who with some trivia. Founded in 1916 as an aircraft engine manufacturer, the company slowly and progressively ventured into motorcycles and eventually went on to produce cars. At some point the American car maker owned or had major stakes in Volvo, Jaguar Land Rover, Mercury, Mazda and Aston Martin. Demerging from these companies from time and again helped the company to juggle with the 2008 crisis with a bit of ease but the company was still hurt by the declining sales. Currently, Ford owns Lincoln and retains a minor stake in Aston Martin.

Model-by-model road accident statistics from the UK Department for Transport show that the Land Rover Defender is one of the safest cars on British roads as measured by chance of death in two-car injury accidents. The original Land Rover Owners Club was set up by the Rover Company in 1954. The company published the Land Rover Owners Club Review magazine for members from 1957 to 1968 when the club became the Rover Owners Association. This original association fell away when the company merged with British Leyland. There are many Land Rover clubs throughout the UK and internationally. Land Rover clubs break down into a number of groups of varying interests. Single marque clubs have a global membership. Regional Clubs in the UK break down into two groups, competitive and non-competitive. The non-competitive clubs activities generally relate to social events, off-road driving or green laning on un-surfaced public highways or 'pay and play' days at off-road centres. Association of Rover Clubs (ARC) the association applies its own vehicle regulations to all of its member clubs who have the opportunity to compete together at regional events and an annual national event with vehicles approved to the same standard.

The first Jaguar F-TYPE customer cars leave Jaguar Land Rover鈥檚 Castle Bromwich manufacturing facility today. The all new sportscar has resulted in contracts worth 拢2.8 billion being placed with companies internationally, with in excess of 拢1.5 billion placed with companies in the UK. Contracts have been awarded to more than 270 companies globally following the completion of a global competitive tendering exercise on component sourcing for the vehicle. Of these, 116 are based in the UK and 50 per cent are from the Midlands. Jaguar Land Rover has created almost 9,000 new jobs in the UK over the last two years, including 2,000 new engineers and 350 to directly support the new F-TYPE. The contracts awarded to support the F-TYPE are expected to create thousands more new skilled jobs across the UK鈥檚 automotive supply chain. Ian Harnett, Jaguar Land Rover鈥檚 Purchasing Director said, 鈥淎s one of the leading investors in automotive research and development in the UK, Jaguar Land Rover generates several billion pounds of economic activity here every year.

Dealers seldom spend the 10-15 minutes it takes to do this unless asked, in our experience. Rotate your original Michelin tires every 7500 miles. If you don鈥檛 do this you鈥檒l get a saw tooth wear pattern on the insides of the front tires and within 30,000 miles your truck will sound like it has bad wheel bearings. To check for this wear run your hand around the inner circumference of the front tires. Go one way, then the other. You鈥檒l probably feel the saw teeth one way while the other will be smooth. The rear glass gates rust out every 5-6 years in the Northeast. 1,300. An aluminum frame and several steel aftermarket options are available at lower cost. Classics are prone to corrosion. Look for rust holes in the floorboards in front, in the rocker sills, on the seams where the front fenders attach under the hood, and around the rear lamp housings.

The area surrounding the fort comprised of numerous water filled dykes teeming with freshwater fish so this was high on my list of weekend visits. The only access to the fort area was across a railway line then there was an old military concrete road which ran over the marsh. Because this road was some 4 miles from the army shooting range it was roughly where the shells that completely missed the targets, landed. Indeed the area was pockmarked with shell holes and the trees and telegraph poles were shattered by the shells passing through. Because of the danger the road was supposedly guarded, at the railway end, by army sentries who thinking this was a 鈥渃ushy鈥?job spent most of their time asleep. This allowed us to pedal furiously past them and down to the fort area either to go fishing or play on the ruins. One day I went fishing on my own and having a bad day decided to explore the old fort.