The future of Jaguar and Land Rover seemed to be in the balance last night after owner Ford slumped to its worst quarterly loss for 14 years.

Newly-installed group chief executive Alan Mulally refused to commit to retaining the two West Midland brands in wake of a massive deterioration in the group’s finances.

In fact, Ford revealed that it had wiped £851 million from the book value of the two operations to reflect their declining importance to the world’s third-largest carmaker.

On top of that, it said the warranty cost of rectifying faults in Jaguars and Land Rovers had contributed to a big increase in losses at Premier Automotive Group (PAG), the stable of European luxury brands that also includes Volvo and Aston Martin, which is already up for sale.

PAG showed a loss of £315 million in the third quarter of this year compared with a deficit of £57 million in the same three months in 2005.

Aston Martin was put on the auctioneer’s block in September but Mr Ford said at the time that he had no plans to ditch Jaguar.

Posted: 10|24|06 at 12:57 pm. Filed under: UK News.