The question is simple: Who got the better end of the deal, Ford or Tata Motors in the sale to the latter of the Jaguar Land Rover operations?  Is it possible that the answer is “Neither”?

Essentially, the deal is that Tata will pay Ford $2.3-billion.  However, Ford will contribute approximately $600-million to the Jaguar Land Rover pension plans.  Which means, of course, that there’s a good bit of money that’s being taken out of that $2.3 billion.

However, according to the official news release from Ford, the Blue Oval “will continue to supply Jaguar Land Rover for differing periods with powertrains, stampings and other vehicle components, in addition to a variety of technologies, such as environmental and platform technologies.  Ford also has committed to provide engineering support, including research and development, plus information technology, accounting and other services.

“In addition, Ford Motor Credit Company will provide financing for Jaguar and Land Rover dealers and customers during a transitional period, which can vary by market, of up to 12 months.”

Now we can only hope that Ford is going to be making some money while working as a supplier to Tata Motors with the powertrains, stamping and whatnot, as well as for the engineering and other services being provided.  (Isn’t this a bit odd—the Dearborn-based company providing IT services to a Mumbai-based Tata.)

So how did the two brands do last year in U.S. sales?  Looking at 2007 sales, Jaguar sold a total of 15,683 vehicles in the U.S.  That is not a typo.  There is no zero missing from that number.  Just shy of 16,000 units for the entire year.  By comparison, Ford sold 55,069 F-Series pickups in the month of December, 2007, alone, and that number is off by 22% compared to year-earlier sales.  On an annual basis, Ford sold more Crown Vics in 2007 than Jaguars, 60,901, or nearly four times as many XJs, S-Types, X-Types, and XKs combined.

The Land Rover brand did better in U.S. sales for 2007, with a total of 49,550 vehicles being shifted, which was actually a 3.7% improvement over 2006 sales, whereas Jag ’07 sales were down 24.2% compared to the previous year.  Still, the annual Land Rover sales in the U.S. in ’07 are less than the sales of the Mercury Grand Marquis, which were at 50,664 in ’07.

Of course, the U.S. is not the rest of the world.  Presumably, when Ratan N. Tata, chairman of Tata Sons and Tata Motors, said, “We are very pleased at the prospect of Jaguar and Land Rover being a significant part of our automotive business,” he was thinking in the context of places other than the U.S.  Tata Motors, India’s largest auto company, builds cars, buses and trucks, and markets them in the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and South America.  It has a joint venture with Fiat to build cars, engines and transmission in India; it distributes Fiat cars in India.  It is associated with Daewoo in South Korea though Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicle; owns 21% of a Spanish bus coach manufacturer, Hispano Carrocera; has a joint venture with a Brazilian bus coach manufacturer Marcopolo; and has a joint venture with Thailand-based Thonburi Automotive to produce and sell pickups in Thailand.  While it numbers things like the Indigo XL among its Indian-based passenger cars and the Sumo Grande among its SUVs, the likes of the Jaguar XF and the Range Rover are certainly remarkable additions.

The Ford argument is that basically it will focus more on its “Ford” brand.  Funny thing, though.  In 2007, just 106,213 Volvos were sold in the U.S., which is fewer than the total number of Mercury-branded vehicles sold in ’07, or 109,029.  You sometimes hear the drumbeat for dropping Mercury.  But Ford clearly needs Volvo for its engineering.  But doesn’t it need Jaguar and Land Rover (or one of the two) in order to maintain cache in the global market?  What’s that worth?

Tata is buying instant credibility with the Jaguar and Land Rover brands.  It may also be buying some headaches vis-à-vis the historic problems that are associated with manufacturing the storied products, as well as post-sales maintaining of same.  So it is not an unalloyed “deal” that it is getting, the purchase price notwithstanding.

Here’s something that you may have missed.  On January 8, 2008, Ford announced that it was going to be investing $500-million more in its India operations (bringing the total investment in that country to $875-million), as part of its plan “to elevate India as one of the strategic production hubs for small cars in the company’s Asia Pacific and Africa region.”  This money is being spent on expanding the company’s plant in Chennai for the production of vehicles including the Fiesta and to develop a “state-of-the-art and fully-integrated” engine plant, that can build gas and diesel engines.  You’d think Ford might have simply struck a deal with Tata Motors. . . .