A Brief History Of Jaguar Cars
By admin ~ August 25th, 2008. Filed under: Jaguar.
What Car magazine voted the Jaguar XF car of the year 2008. The award was well deserved. Leasing and contract hire companies are experiencing strong demand for the XF. It somehow seems odd that the manufacturers of a car so expertly designed and advanced technologically, should have started out as a manufacturer of sidecars; the Swallow Sidecar Company. Started in 1922 by William Walmsley and William Lyons both very keen motorcyclists. However the real driving force behind the company was William Lyons.
Lyons and Walmsley certainly went into the market at the right time; motorcycle sidecars were extremely popular at the time and continued to be right through till the 60’s. The reason being that the average worker could not afford a car, once they could motorcycles almost disappeared from Britain’s roads, until their revival many years later. Sidecars proved so popular because they allowed the married man to take his family out on day trips. They could accommodate the children whilst the wife would ride pillion, crash helmets however were not a legal requirement at the time. The Swallow Sidecar Company captured market share by having very appealing designs.
The company’s next venture was building car bodies for other motor manufacturers; they built the body for the Austin 7, which was very popular. This prompted them to change the company’s name and became The Swallow Sidecar and Coachbuilding Company. They also moved premises from Blackpool, to the heart of the British motor industry, Coventry. Their high quality work had started to become recognized and they were in demand to build car bodies for other manufacturers.
The company was ambitious and before long had launched a car of their own, the impressive SS. It proved to be a real crowd puller when it appeared at the London Motor Show in 1931. Although it only cost 310 to buy, it gave the impression of being far more expensive; it was quite long and low to the ground and its wire wheels gave it a distinctly sporty look.
The name of the company changed again, to SS Cars Ltd in 1933 and the SS1 Tourer was introduced. Shortly after William Walmsley left the company. During the mid 1930’s the SS90 was launched; it was low to the ground and very sporty in appearance, the car was very reasonably priced, less than 400. It was followed by the SS100, this time with a 2,663 cc engine and twin carburettors. It was very fast although later an improved version was on show at the 1938 Motor Show with a 3,845 cc engine. This model never really got of the ground because the Second World War followed soon after its launch.
Normal production stopped during the war as it did for all motor manufacturers. Both German and British motor manufacturers switched their production to military vehicles. Because of it’s concentration of manufacturing industry, Coventry was heavily bombed by the Germans. Equally Volkswagen BMW and Mercedes were prime targets for the allied forces.
SS Cars had little choice but to change its name after the war, sales would not have been helped by having a name that was so closely associated with the recently defeated Nazi Germany. Jaguar Cars became the company’s new name in 1948. That year also saw the launch of the outstanding XK 120.
The Earls Court Motor Show in 1948 saw the unveiling of the XK 120; 120 being the top speed of the car. It may not sound very fast today but it was very fast in those days. It’s speed and road holding were unmatched. Also unmatched was its design it was quite staggeringly beautiful, both then and now. It was a drop head sports car that was so desirable because of it’s combination of speed and looks. Demand was strong and it now very much is a collector’s car.
The 1950’s were a wonderful time for Jaguar; the Mark V11 was launched, a large impressive saloon that proved very successful in motor racing. Mike Hawthorn Britain’s first Formula One world champion and Stirling Moss both raced in it. In 1956 the Mark V11 won the Monte Carlo rally. The XK140 was introduced during 1954; it had rack and pinion steering. It also had other new features including a seat at the rear that could accommodate small children. Although small children were probably far from the mind of the typical purchaser of the XK140, thinking perhaps more about speeding along the coast road of the Cote d’Azur. This was followed by the XK150, with disc brakes, and also Mark1, the Mark 11, the Mark V11 and the Mark 1X.
In the late 50’s and early 60’successful businessmen drove the Mark 11 but strangely it also became the mark of the successful villain. It was also targeted by car thieves, once stolen they would be used as getaway cars for Jewellery smash and grab and bank robberies. Police then bought the Mark 11 and to give themselves an edge, modified the engines. In a Florida auction in 2008 a Mark 11 was sold for $75,900.
In 1961 Jaguar launched the Mark X, it was a very large car much more suitable for the American market than Britain. It was long and wide and did just seventeen miles per gallon, which was not to much of a problem in the US where they were used to gas guzzling cars but of course they were paying much less for their fuel. In the UK it was too large and expensive to run for most .The car became know in some circles as the poor man’s Rolls Royce. The revolutionary E Type was launched in the same year. It was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show, the motoring press and public couldn’t believe their eyes; it was a most extraordinary looking car, long, low and sleek, with a bonnet that seemed to go on for ever. To describe the car as eye catching would be an understatement; when it was first on the road, it stopped traffic and pedestrians in their tracks. Jaguar must have been very proud of their achievement.
The XJ6 was launched in 1968 and it proved extremely popular between 1968 and 1973 almost 100,000 came off the production line. The series two was to follow and various versions of this model continued through to the present day. During 1972 William Lyons retired from Jaguar.
1975 saw the introduction of the XJS; the motoring press gave it very good reviews but some Jaguar enthusiasts were disappointed with the design. Some twelve years later their faith in the Jaguar design team was restored when the XK8 was launched in 1997. A wonderfully designed car that had almost as much class and style as the E Type of some 36 years earlier.
In 1966 Sir William Lyons as he had now become was in negotiation with BMC who were interested in purchasing Jaguar. Leyland were also interested in acquiring Jaguar, this put Lyons in a strong negotiating position. BMC won the day, as did Sir William, as he got what he wanted; which was for Jaguar to be autonomous and to have a seat on the board of the company that had now become BMH.
In 1968 when Jaguar became a division of British Leyland, Sir William continued to fight Jaguar’s corner but the company was in chaos. Jaguar’s workforce were demoralised further in 1972 when Sir William retired. Inevitably build quality suffered. British Leyland Exports became the new name for the company that had previously been Jaguar Cars ltd and morale plunged even further. After British Leyland’s bankruptcy in 1975 the Labour government nationalised the company.
Jaguar was then in the hands of Bob Knight a loyal Jaguar man, who was determined to turn the company around. Jaguar reputation for poor reliability was becoming well known and sales were dropping. Knight was convinced that a lot of the company’s quality problems were as a result of outside suppliers supplying components that were of poor quality and subsequently failing, making Jaguar cars look bad in the eyes of the public.
In 1980 Bob Knights role was taken over by John Egan. Michael Edwards, who was head of what had become BL, gave more independence to Jaguar and allowed Egan to carry on where Bob Knight had left off, in restoring the company to profitability.
When Bob Knight joined the company the workforce were on strike. He didn’t have much to offer the workforce at that early stage but persuaded them to put their faith in him and production re-started. The low morale, from which the company had suffered, started to recover. Things did not improve overnight and in 1981 Jaguar only managed to sell a little over 13,000 cars.
Morale amongst the workforce improved when in 1982 the company was restored to Jaguar Cars ltd effectively giving it back its identity and in 1984 the Thatcher government privatised the company, it became Jaguar plc. After so much turmoil the company was safe again. Ford bought Jaguar in 1989 in a deal worth $2.5 billion. Over the following years it is estimated that they invested another $10,000 billion between the two companies they had acquired, Land Rover and Jaguar
In 1982 the company was re-named Jaguar Cars ltd and in 1984 was privatised by the Thatcher government, Jaguar Plc was formed. John Egan remained with the company as chief executive. Jaguar’s future was once again secure. In 1989 Ford bought Jaguar for $2.5 billion, it has been estimated by some observers, that since then it put between $1billion and $1.5 billion a year into the company, more conservative estimates are that Ford invested over the years, a further $10 billion into Jaguar and Land Rover, which it had also bought.
Ford got some return on their investment into Land Rover but not from Jaguar. Ford was worried about the future of large cars and in 2001 launched the X Type. It was hoped that it would rival BMW’s and Mercedes’ entry models, it did not. Using Ford Mondeo components in the X Type did not help its reputation, Jaguar was after all a luxury brand. With the benefit of hindsight Ford must have seen the X Type as a big mistake.
Ford was running into problems, it sold it’s interests in Aston Martin during 2007. Jaguar and Land Rover were sold together for $2.3 billion in March 2008. The purchaser was Tata an Indian motor manufacturer, with many other diverse interests around the world. A substantial loss for Ford made worse by having make up the shortfall in both Jaguar and Land Rover’s pension funds, this cost them a further $600,000. Any benefit from the excellent XF model, designed whilst they owned the company, will now go to Tata. At least the sale of its various subsidiaries has allowed Ford to concentrate more on their own problems, without the added distractions.
More importantly Jaguar’s future seems to be secure. Jaguar needs to have its identity to succeed and Tata have confirmed that is how they want it to be. Naturally they will want to have some input but they will probably keep that to a minimum acknowledging that Jaguar is very special case and can do very well if left to get on with things.
In 2006 of 30,000 Germans polled, the majority favoured Jaguar over the German produced Mercedes, BMW and Audi; Jaguar is also extremely popular in America. The XF model being hailed as a triumph and with contract hire and leasing companies, that are responsible for so many of the cars on the roads of Britain, placing significant orders for this model, there seems no reason why Jaguar will not be around for another 86 years.
By: Harvey Williams
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