Mohamed Yousuf Naghi, chairman of Mohamed Yousuf Naghi Motors (MYNM), said that the economic climate which had been provided by the government of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah had enabled us to overcome the fluctuations which hit many markets around the world.

"For this reason, we have focused our efforts on consolidating our path of success through partnership with renowned brands which are propitious to the position of our company in the Kingdom's markets."

Naghi noted particularly the Jaguar and Land Rover companies for whom MYNM now acted as distributor and provided the highest international standard of services.

"We are looking forward toward further deepening our partnership with these two companies in a manner that would best serve our clients," he said.

Saudi Arabia is a key export market for Jaguar and Land Rover the fifth biggest globally. Colgan predicted that the British company would sell around 8,500 units of Land Rovers and 2000 units of Jaguars annually and that made it a critical market for the company. "The majority of the 4x4 we sell are Range Rovers and we expect the groundbreaking new XJ to be our best selling Jaguar model in 2011," he said.

Asked what characterized the Jaguar brand and the new XJ particularly he replied "In a word, luxury." The XJ is a radical change of style from previous iterations of the marque but it retains the exceptionally responsive and driver-friendly characteristics that derive from the company's extensive history in motor sport.

Colgan identified two elements that would drive Jaguar-Land Rover success in the Kingdom: Ensuring the best possible sales and after sales service to clients and, "making great product that is relevant to this market and delights our customers." He added that the partnership with MYNM was founded on that premise and to that end a new management team with extensive Jaguar Land Rover experience was now in place.

"We particularly recognize the importance of a high standard of after sales service and a team of 4 British after-sales experts from Jaguar Land Rover are embedded with the local team to train and support our partners during this critical set-up phase," he concluded.

Edwards said that 2010 had been a very positive year for the company with record global sales increase of over 43 percent on Land Rover in the first quarter of the year, and almost a 20 percent increase in sales across the MENA region in the same period.

He added that he was impressed and inspired by the development of the market and the growth of the luxury automotive segment in Saudi Arabia. It was, he said essential to have a distributor perfectly aligned with his company's brand values.

"It takes us approximately 4 years to bring products of this standard to market and the financial investment is considerable. Developing new products like the Range Rover Evoque unveiled at the Abu Dhabi motor show, or the all new Jaguar XJ takes an enormous amount of time and money."

He added that having viewed Naghi's excellent facilities here in Jeddah, and met the new team, he was confident that Jaguar Land Rover would achieve that alignment.

Asked if the much loved Land Rover Defender was to be returned to market or whether the company was to pursue the luxury car segment, Edwards offered some hope to devotees of the iconic all terrain vehicle.

"We are working on a new version of the Defender now," he said. "It will be back, not in the next two years, but the Defender will return."