Would Indian Ownership Be A Sticky Wicket For American Consumers?

Automotive News is reporting that some Jaguar dealers have discomfort with an Indian company taking over the luxury brand. To quote Ken Gorin, chairman of the Jaguar national dealer council,

“I don’t know that the United States consumer is ready to deal with a premium brand like Jaguar being owned by an Indian company. It has nothing to do with reality, I’m sure there is a reality that exists that is terrific. But when we think about India, we think about a Third World country and people going to work on their bicycles.”

Personally I find the above opinion a bit more troubling than Indian ownership of Jaguar. Concerned dealers are rooting for a Jac Nasser-led bid from One Equity Partners, although I'm not exactly sure why. It's not as if Nasser did such a great job the first time around. Nasser seems to have done far better when he "shook it like a Polaroid" than he did as a leader of Ford.

Ford should be announcing the winning bid shortly, perhaps by the end of December.