Reports that Ford Motor Co. may sell its troubled British luxury marque Jaguar or its credit unit may have been premature. During an interview with BusinessWeek, Ford President of the Americas Mark Fields denied the Jaguar auction reports. Alternatively, he outlined plans to reposition Jaguar to sell fewer, but more profitable vehicles. However, the move could be a temporary one intended to prop up the brand ahead of a sale down the road because Fields did not say whether Ford has unequivocally ruled out a sale. Perhaps tepid response from possible acquirers has led to the automaker's caginess concerning a sale. Although early reports indicated that GAZ may have been interested, the Russian commercial vehicle maker has denied the speculation insisting it is not interested in consumer vehicles. In the meantime, the company also has gone on the record to say that it will not follow GM's lead and sell Ford Motor Credit. Earlier in the year, equally troubled rival GM agreed to sell its finance arm GMAC to a group of private equity firms led by Cerberus Capital. —Matthew Wurtzel
See story about Jaguar from The Birmingham Post
See story about Ford restructuring from BusinessWeek
See story about Ford Motor Credit from Reuters
See related story about GMAC from The Deal
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Seems unlikely that poor Jaguar sales had caused additional injury to Ford's already struggling situation at present.