Jaguar slashes prices – in Australia

Jaguar has slashed prices across its range in Australia – by as much as £40,000 – as it fights for a bigger market share.

[nggallery id=826 template=customlinks]

Australians have been used to high prices for imported luxury cars for decades, once caused by huge protectionist import duties – which no longer really exist – but also by Australia’s Luxury Car Tax of 33 per cent.

But there’s also a feeling that all those years of protectionist import tariffs have inured Australians to the high price of luxury cars, and that car makers take advantage of that by keeping prices high, regardless of the level of taxes imposed on their products.

That means something like a Rolls Royce Phantom costs £650k and a Porsche 911 starts at £150k.

Now, in what looks like a bold move, Jaguar is slashing its prices in Australia by as much as £40,000 as it fights for a bigger share of Australia’s luxury car market.

At the top end of Jaguar’s offerings, the XKR-S Convertible drops from an eye-watering £234,000 to a still painful £192,000, the Jaguar XJ Supersport LWB from £240,000 to £206,000 and the XFR from £135,000 to £121,000.

At the bottom end of the Jaguar range in Australia, the new 2.0 litre petrol XF now starts at under £45k, undercutting the equivalent offerings from Lexus, BMW and Mercedes by at least £5,500.

It’s an aggressive move by Jaguar to make a bigger mark on the luxury car market in Australia, although it’s unlikely other luxury car makers can ignore Jaguar’s initiative.

Now what we need is Jaguar UK – and every other car maker – to stop pre-reg and huge fleet discounts and slash list prices here by 20 per cent, and we’ll all be happy.