Jaguar History

The Jaguar brand name first appeared on a 2.5 liter saloon car, the SS Jaguar, manufactured by the Swallow Sidecar Company, in 1935. Swallow Sidecar was founded in 1922 by William Walmsley and Sir William Lyons. The company dropped the SS name in 1945, due to the unfortunate association with the German SS organization. The entire company became Jaguar.

After the Second World War, Jaguar achieved some success with its commercial models, although it was faced with the same difficulties as other Coventry manufacturers. Jaguar became known for its attractive sports cars, including the XK 120 in 1949 and the E Type or XKE in 1961. These cars achieved some sporting success as well as becoming commercially popular. Jaguar cars won the Le Mans 24 hours in 1951 and 1953. The sales slogan for the company was Grace, Space, Pace.

During the war, Lyons had perfected his design for a new six cylinder engine. With the help of William Heynes and Walter Hassan, this engine developed into a commercial engine, which became the mainstay of Jaguar cars such as the XK 120 and the E Type. The XK Engine continued to be used for decades.

Jaguar aimed to manufacture cars that would provide excellent value for money. They achieved this with their sporting saloon or sedan cars, including the Mark 7/8/9. This success was particularly impressive during the economic hardship of post-war Britain.

In 1960, Jaguar purchased the Daimler brand from the Birmingham Small Arms Company. Daimler became the name used for the most luxurious cars produced by Jaguar. In 1966, Jaguar and the Austin-Morris combine the British Motor Corporation merged to become British Motor Holdings. The BMH went on to merge with Leyland in 1968. Leyland had already taken over Standard Triumph and Rover by the time of this merger. The new company was known as the British Leyland Motor Corporation. In 1975, due to financial problems and the effects of the Ryder Report, the BLMC was effectively nationalized as British Leyland Ltd or BL plc.

During the 1970s, the Daimler and Jaguar brands were part of the Jaguar Rover Triumph Ltd specialist division of British Leyland. However, at the start of the 1980s, the company was restructured. The Austin Rover Group was created as the main volume manufacturing division. Jaguar was not a part of this. In 1984, Jaguar became a separate company, as part of the privatization process under the Thatcher government. Jaguar was now listed on the stock market.

In 1989, the Ford Motor Company bought Jaguar from its UK and US shareholders, and the company was removed from the stock market in 1990. In 1999, Jaguar became part of the Ford Premier Automotive Group, together with Volvo Cars and Aston Martin. Land Rover joined this group in 2000 and became closely associated with Jaguar, sharing sales and distribution networks in many countries. Ford sold Aston Martin in 2007, and Jaguar in 2008, without having earned any profit on Jaguar. Jaguar was sold, along with Land Rover, to Tata Motors. The sale also included the dormant brands Rover and Lanchester, and the Daimler brand which was part of Jaguar.