Jaguar Factory Tour

[Tall dad]

Just completed the tour with my daughter. Fantastically good value for money and highly recommended.

The ‘How Its Made’ video above is a great summary but it doesn’t give any sense of the sheer size and complexity of building and running an assembly line. Jaguar don’t build assembly lines but we were both left agog at how any team of humans could conceive of and conjure up football fields worth of robots and tech that reliably assembled so many components.

At all stages of the Body in White build I found myself smiling knowing that I own one of those chassis. Then whenever I saw a red one I was reminded that this is where my car was built.

Happy days.

[Dan_Veluwe]

..reminded that this is where my car was built. ..

So you fit in an F-Type too " Tall dad" ; how tall are you.. Do you beat my 6'6 3/8" ..

[Tall dad]

Competed to you I’m a stumpy 6’5”. The only way I fit is through having 14way performance seats and no sunroof.

The downside is I can’t fit a helmet on my head and take it for track days which is a shame.

[Dan_Veluwe]

Well, 6'5" is still tall enough ! I only have the basic seats with seatpack 2, my problem is mosty in the leggs department.
But I still put my seat 1 cm before the endstop en recline more, to gain headroom..

Strangely the sunroof wasn't an issue for me as I ended with my head about 2cm clear of the lowered part, in the window opening !
But a helmet is also for me not an option.

[Deleted User 1715]

I stand corrected! Maybe all the humans had gone home when we went in? It was after 3pm

[Dan_Veluwe]

I stand corrected! Maybe all the humans had gone home when we went in? It was after 3pm

.. tea break..

[Kdes]

Just got home after my jaguar factory tour at Castle Bromwich.


As posted above the the tour is excellent value for money. Took 3 hours and we in a group of 7. we basically walked the pressing shop for XF/XE and then the f-type line which has a building all to itself.

Amazing to see so many f-types in one place. Line builds mixed specs with the part arriving just in time. Can’t visit the paint shop but saw a video. Cars aren’t painted in batches of same colour they can switch colour in 10 seconds!

There is too much information given to remember all the facts and some of the info given is quite mind blowing but a couple of things stuck-
- most cars are exported so 70-80% are left hand drive
- the coupe tailgate is made in Portugal.
- The bumpers are made (and painted) by a sub-contractor, using the same paint batch as the body.
- dhl handle all the “just in time” logistics including managing the inter-building movements
- only the exterior is sprayed by robot. The interior and under bonnet are sprayed by hand.
-only 43 robots are used on the ftype line compared to 200+ on the other line so a lot of the build is by hand
- as the convertible hood takes a while to fit they don’t send 2 down the line consecutively, there are usually 4 coupes separating them.

Kev

[Dan_Veluwe]

Thanks for the info Kev ! Makes me want to go also..

"..- The bumpers are made (and painted) by a sub-contractor, using the same paint batch as the body..." ..

I do think I see a slight difference in colourtone... Detailer said is has to do with the porosity of the sublayer,
how the paint attaches to the basecoat, which is a different compound on the plastic as on the body...

Anybody happens to know if the strip with the spoiler on the top of the tailgate of the coupe is
plastic or aluminium ? My car was hit hard by a chestnut falling in the forest, deafening "clonk" when
it hit... No mark exept for a tiny spot on this spoiler. But that could also be a small imperfection if
its plastic..

[Senninha]

Thanks for posting ... is the guide an employee or a contractor?

There is too much information given to remember all the facts and some of the info given is quite mind blowing but a couple of things stuck-
1 most cars are exported so 70-80% are right hand drive
2 The bumpers are made (and painted) by a sub-contractor, using the same paint batch as the body.
3 only the exterior is sprayed by robot. The interior and under bonnet are sprayed by hand.
4 only 43 robots are used on the ftype line compared to 200+ on the other line so a lot of the build is by hand

Kev

1 Given almost 70% of the planet is LHD I would challenge the first fact they’ve given you, unless the guide was referring the JLR stats and not just Jaguar ... then it would make more sense given the volume of RR models that are being shipped overseas ...

2 this explains as noted above why so many cars have the non matching issue ... and as most of these cars have metallic or pearl paint finishes, if the body is painted left to right by the robots, and the stubby paints right to left, even the same pot of paint will look different

3 This would explain why my underbonnet was so dull then

4 we need more robots ... have you seen how few F-type bumpers and near side doors leave the factory correctly aligned??

I Was fortunate this time last year to be given a tour of the Bentley factory at Crewe. It was absolutely fascinating, much like this one sounds to have been. One this was clear, there is a lot of money around as on the day I went there were over 2 dozen Bentayga’s on the line with an ‘average’ sale price a little over £200k .... that’s an average of £40k in optional extras per car!! NOw that’s a mind blowing stat

[Kdes]

Thanks for posting ... is the guide an employee or a contractor?

There is too much information given to remember all the facts and some of the info given is quite mind blowing but a couple of things stuck-
1 most cars are exported so 70-80% are right hand drive
2 The bumpers are made (and painted) by a sub-contractor, using the same paint batch as the body.
3 only the exterior is sprayed by robot. The interior and under bonnet are sprayed by hand.
4 only 43 robots are used on the ftype line compared to 200+ on the other line so a lot of the build is by hand

Kev

1 Given almost 70% of the planet is LHD I would challenge the first fact they’ve given you, unless the guide was referring the JLR stats and not just Jaguar ... then it would make more sense given the volume of RR models that are being shipped overseas ...

2 this explains as noted above why so many cars have the non matching issue ... and as most of these cars have metallic or pearl paint finishes, if the body is painted left to right by the robots, and the stubby paints right to left, even the same pot of paint will look different

3 This would explain why my underbonnet was so dull then

4 we need more robots ... have you seen how few F-type bumpers and near side doors leave the factory correctly aligned??

I Was fortunate this time last year to be given a tour of the Bentley factory at Crewe. It was absolutely fascinating, much like this one sounds to have been. One this was clear, there is a lot of money around as on the day I went there were over 2 dozen Bentayga’s on the line with an ‘average’ sale price a little over £200k .... that’s an average of £40k in optional extras per car!! NOw that’s a mind blowing stat

You are correct - I mistyped right it should have been LEFT HAND DRIVE.. My brain transposed RHD and driving on the Right. CORRECTED MY ORIGINAL POST ABOVE.

Kev