On the clock: Y&R Brands…

Well it seems Ford has gone off and sold both Jaguar and Land Rover to the Tata Motors for around £1.3bn ($2.7 billion USD) as demand for the luxury vehicles falls at the fastest pace in at least three years.

The companies have been in negotiations for almost three months after Tata emerged as the leading bidder ahead of rivals One Equity, a private equity concern, and automotive group Mahindra and Mahindra.

Tata Motors is known for its fleet of sturdy trucks and buses and functional passenger cars, including the $2,500 Nano, the world’s cheapest car which it plans to launch later this year in India.

How that affects the relationship that Y&R has with the two auto brands remains to be seen — but you’d have to think that Tata has completely different ideas on how to market them from how Ford did — and as a result, Y&R is going to be in the crosshairs.

It is pretty much acknowledged in the auto industry that Ford ran the two companies into the ground in terms of successful marketing to consumers (which follows to the plunging sales numbers) — and Tata will probably want to shake things up a bit.

Jaguar sales dropped 33% in the US and Europe in the first two months of the year, while Land Rover sales fell 13% in the US and 7.7% in Europe during the period.