7th September 07

Castle Bromwich Factory Tour

by Karl Schleich

The XKEC has organised a number of Jaguar factory visits over the years. Browns Lane, Coventry (now closed), Whitley Engineering Centre, Coventry and more recently the Castle Bromwich plant, were the XJ saloon car, the new XK sports models and the S-Type are built. The S-Type is, of course, being replaced by the new XF.

The last tour took place in August this year, were we witnessed the assembly of the new XK and XKR models at Castle Bromwich.

On this occassion participants were split into smaller groups of about 8-10 people and each of these were led by a Jaguar guide. The tour started with an introductory Jaguar Corporate video and some general instructions, followed by the issue of cordless headphones which helps to hear the tour guide’s explanations and comments en-route through the factory.

The guides are generally ex-Jaguar employees who are knowledgeable with real comparative experiences from the ‘good old days’ with present day methods of construction and work pattern.

The overall tour took about 2 good hours and most visitors leave with a positive impression of the way Jaguar cars are now built. Many of the operations are, of course, performed by robots. However, there are still quite a few assembly and quality check functions carried out by the different teams along the assembly line.

During our Tour visit a model XF pre-launch European dealer seminar was in progress and we had an opportunity to view the new XF model during a break in the proceedings. A small group of us took this unique opportunity to get close up to this latest addition in the Jaguar stable.

I can highly recommend a visit to this factory, it is educational, interesting and generally a good day out – and best of all, you can give your XK a run out and the visit is free-of-charge.