The Jaguar Rally in Bridgehampton

Beautiful people and beautiful cars were on display at the Jaguar Rally in Bridgehampton last Saturday night.

Did you know that Jaguars are the only cats that like to swim? Google it.

We Won "The Pride of Jaguar!"

“And the award goes to Madison Jaguar!” Congratulations to our entire team at Madison Jaguar team for a great effort this year in winning the prestigious “Pride of Jaguar Award” for outstanding achievement in Customer Satisfaction (the only dealer in the tri-state area to do so!)

Our Parts Manager Michael Stella won the Marque of Distinction Award for being the best of the best in North America. Angelo Renzulli our General Manager celebrated his 25^th year with Jaguar (a Sovereign Winner) and won the Jaguar/Land Rover North American British Cup for exceeding sales projections. Our Jaguar Gold Certified Service Manager, Al Pepe celebrated his 32^nd year with Jaguar (he’s always been here at Madison or with our Bergen store). Luke Incognio, our Service Advisor extraordinaire is celebrating his 11^th year with us; he was first with us at our Englewood store, then Bergen, and now at Madison. He’s been a real customer service hero and a wonderful person.

It hasn’t been easy these last few years, but JLR has made enormous progress by introducing all-wheel drive on our XJ and XF sedans and launching the all-new F-TYPE Convertible. This year’s launch of the very gorgeous 2015 F-TYPE Coupe continues from last year’s exciting convertible introduction.

All of our cars are fast, beautiful and always in style. Plus, who can forget that Super Bowl commercial? Jaguar finished first in JD Powers Customer Satisfaction Survey this year and is one of the fastest growing luxury brands in the US. I believe we have one the nicest and best-qualified group of people in the car business and I’m very proud to have them on our team.

I’m excited to say that Madison Jaguar was rated number 11,12 and 13 for 2013. Number 11 in new car sales in the country, number 12 in used car sales in the country, and number 13 out of 164 in Jaguar’s Dealer Score Card. However, we will not be satisfied by resting on our past achievements, we will continue to do our best with the best people around and the best customers… stay tuned for new products and a renovation sometime during the year… my best to all.

This is Not Your Father's Jaguar

FAST, stunning looking cars, always in fashion. How many times have you heard someone say this about Jaguars: ”They’ve always been the most beautiful car, but don’t they break down, or aren’t they expensive to maintain?” Or maybe you’ve heard, ”they’re for older people, I’ll get one when I’m my father’s age.” 

Well, your father is probably driving a Mercedes or BMW, forgive me for not mentioning Lexus or Audi (let’s just leave that for another time). Jaguars are as dependable, and some models even more dependable, than that of our German and Japanese rivals. As a matter of fact, Jaguar dealers are constantly rated above those of Mercedes, Lexus, BMW and Audi. 

So why don’t we see more Jaguars on the roads? The reason isn’t great for Jaguar dealers, but it is for our customers who love British luxury. Jaguar imports less than 15,000 cars to us here in the USA. (Yes, they are all still made in the UK). By comparison, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Lexus, and Audi import more than a 1,000,000 cars in comparison to Jaguar’s 15,000. Jaguars are as gorgeous as the competition and as tech friendly, maybe even more so, remember the Brits invented Radar after all. Jaguars are not more expensive to own, they stand out in the crowd and seem to always be parked out in front of the restaurant.

Since Jaguar is a niche luxury motorcar some might think you’d be missing out on a few things, but with all the technology you could expect from any other luxury car, all-wheel drive and an interior that puts our competition to shame, Jaguars are an absolute joy to own and drive. Whether it’s a trip to the mall, a soccer game or to the bagel shop on a beautiful spring Sunday morning while listening to “Born to Run” Jaguars tend to make every trip a special occasion.

At Madison we sell and service only Jaguar. We are the only Jaguar dealer in the tri-state area to be exclusively Jaguar too. Don’t come in just for the exceptional customer service, come in for the hospitality too. We’ve been in Madison since 1955, and believe me, we know what we’re doing.

"And the Big Man Joined the Band”

I live very close to the Palisades Parkway, which starts at the George Washington Bridge and goes north along the Hudson River towards the US Military Academy. The Palisades Parkway is one of the most beautiful roads in America, it’s a winding road with two lanes, river views, lots of trees and no trucks. What a great ride and what a great time to listen to music, especially now.

When you’re my age you can’t go around the neighborhood or to Whole Foods with your convertible top down or windows and sunroof open blasting “Revolution” from the car. You really look like a degenerate old guy trying to look cool, but on beautiful Sunday mornings, after the gym around 9 am ish, without too much traffic on the Palisades and the top down or windows open with the radio blasting it’s totally worth it. I can sometimes even ride with the top down into November (with the heat and heated seats on).

When I first got my license there was only AM radio with a speaker the size of a coffee cup saucer. I remember the first car I drove was my mom’s Malibu Blue 1964 Thunderbird and The Beach Boys came on the radio... “Fun, Fun, Fun, till her daddy takes the T-Bird away.” I thought I was in heaven. You see, freedom for a 17 year-old was a car, and for less than $.30 a gallon you could buy $2.00 worth of gas and drive all day or night long with the windows open, radio volume on 10 and static every time you’d go under an electric wire. Actually, static all of the time, but you felt free.

Later on when I bought my own car, a 67 GTO, I bought one of the first eight track players. The guys who installed it suggested I buy separate speakers and run it through the new speakers not the existing ones... a really great idea. Plus, they gave me two eight tracks free, The Four Tops Live and Sargent Pepper. I remember the first time I went through the Midtown Tunnel and the music stilled played. (In those days the radio didn’t play in the tunnel.)

One of the pleasures of my life has been music. It helped define my generation’s politics and personality. And driving gave me freedom, the first freedom I really tasted as a young man. I have fond memories of both. I still treasure my freedom to drive every once in a while listening to the re-mastered “Born to Run” and I appreciate all the people who helped me get the freedom to be able to do this.

The reference to “The big man joined the band” at the beginning of this blog post is from the re-mastered “Born to Run” Tenth Ave Freeze Out, which I just downloaded from I Tunes. Give it a go yourself. What I do is divide the album in half and drive one-half of the album and then turn around.

I also sometimes drive to work on the Garden State Parkway listening to Springsteen. Does it get better than that? Oh yeah, I’m driving an F-Type… so it does even get better. Yep, freedom did some amazing things in those cars, especially in the back seats, but I never ate in them, drank coffee or put on makeup in traffic…

A Splendid Time was Had by All

This past April Jaguar Corporate invited their Dealers to Austin, Texas to a new State-of-the-Art Formula One racetrack to test-drive the three versions of the new Jaguar 2014 F-Type against it’s competition (if there is such a thing). 

It’s always a lot of fun to be with the dealer body, especially when there is new product. The event, as well as the reception to the new car, was great. There’s a picture of me with my favorite racecar driver, Davy Jones and of friends I’ve known over the past 20 years.

I had the opportunity to talk about family, furniture, music and cars with Wayne Burgess. He’s the young lad in charge of the design of the F-Type, boy that was fascinating. I had met Wayne a few times when I was on the Dealer Consul and traveled to the U.K.  He’s a very talented guy and is part of the “New Jaguar.” It also was fun watching the “Brits” enjoy the Texas BBQ and country music.

 

I invite you to Madison Jaguar to really get a sense of what the F-Type is like to experience. I’m personally enjoying the summer in a F-Type V8 495 HP S/C version, Italian red… sweet…

  

Goodbye Mr. Rata Tata... Good Luck & Thank You

Goodbye, good luck and thank you. This past December 31st Mr. Rata Tata retired from Tata as Chairman and CEO. I was very lucky over the past 4 years to have met with Mr. Tata at our store in Paramus, and at a few breakfast meetings I had the pleasure of attending.

 

Over the past 20 years I have met many people who have had a hand in changing Jaguar, but none had the real passion and “guts” to get it done. Not so long ago, I attended a meeting in the UK with a boatload of engineers that gave us (the Jaguar Dealer Council) an hour and a half long lecture explaining why we couldn’t have AWD in our XJ and XF. They also explained why we didn’t need it.

Mr. Tata took the time to tour the States and meet with dealers. He listened and asked questions, he didn’t lecture… We now have two of the best AWD sedans made.

I’m going to miss our breakfasts and wish him luck with his piano lessons. Who knows, maybe we can do a duet together sometime… I’d like that.

Best holiday wishes to you and yours...