Everyday Blog

The new Jaguar XF was voted by What Car magazine, car of the year 2008 and quite deservedly so. Contract hire and leasing companies are seeing a strong demand for the vehicle. It seems strange that a vehicle so beautiful and technologically advanced should have its beginnings with a motorcycle sidecar manufacturer; during 1922 two keen motorcyclists William Lyons and William Walmsley formed the Swallow Sidecar Company and stared manufacturing aluminium sidecars. Of the two William Lyons was the driving force behind the company.

At the time motorcycle sidecars were very much in demand, this continued until the ordinary man in the street could afford a car, which was when car sales really took off in the 1960’s. If someone could not afford a car, they would usually have a motorcycle, which was ideal for the single man but not so practical when they got married and had children. The answer was a sidecar. This would allow them to go out for the day as a family; the children would sit reasonably well protected in the sidecar and the wife would ride pillion. The Swallow Sidecar gained market share by having modern and very attractive designs.

By the late 1920’s the company had ventured into cars and built the body for the Austin Seven, a fairly basic and inexpensive car that proved extremely popular. They changed the name of the company to The Swallow Sidecar and Coachbuilding Company and moved from Blackpool where they had been based, to bigger premises in Coventry. Coventry was at the time the centre of the British motor industry. Their work became recognized and respected throughout the industry and they went on to build the bodies for many different manufacturers.

It didn’t take the company long before they were producing their own car the company launched the SS1 in 1931. It sold for 310 but actually looked a lot more expensive. It was low, had wire wheels and was quite long, the overall impression was of an expensive sports car. It was shown at the 1931 Motor Show and gathered large crowds. The Company name was changed again during 1933 to SS Cars and they launched the SS1 Tourer. William Walmsley resigned from the company.

The SS90 was introduced during the mid 30’s; its cost was under 400, which was very good value for money and the design was very sporty. Next came the SS100, it had twin carburettors and 2,633 cc engine. The car was fast, however an even faster version went on show at the Motor Show in 1938, this time with a 3,845 cc engine. Its production was interrupted by the start of the Second World War.

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.

In 1948 the company’s name changed to Jaguar cars. Clearly the SS name had to be dropped, considering the possible association with the horrific SS in Nazi Germany. The Jaguar XK 120 was launched in the same year. It is said that it was designed during those war years, at night, whilst the designers, were on fire watch; it was standard procedure during the war to have personnel on fire watch duty, to ensure that the factory was still going to be there in the morning.

The XK120 was first shown at the Earls Court Motor Show in 1948. So called because that was the top speed of the car, very fast indeed for it’s day. At the time there was nothing that could match its speed and excellent road holding. It was however the design that made it so breathtaking, a design that even today is so admired, an open sports car with wire wheels often seen with a leather strap over the bonnet. Men dreamed of owning one, girls dreamed of being driven around in one. It became know, perhaps a little unfairly, as the cad’s car; with images of a rather unchivalrous Terry Thomas type character behind the wheel.

Jaguar did very well during the 1950’s; the Mark V11 was introduced, which enjoyed a great deal of success in motor racing. Stirling Moss raced the car, as did the Formula 1 world champion Mike Hawthorn. It also came first in the 1956 Monte Carlo Rally. Rack and pinion steering was a new feature when the XK140 was launched in 1954. The other new feature was a rear seat designed for seating small children, perhaps not seen as a great asset by the typical purchaser of an XK140. The new feature of the XK150 when it was launched was disc brakes. Also launched was the Mark 1X and the very popular Mark1 and Mark 11.

The Mark 11 came out in 1959 and proved to be an extremely popular car with successful business people but also became associated with the criminal world; successful criminals tended to favour the Mark 11 Jaguar. It also became a target for car thieves; they were often then used as getaway cars for bank and jewellery robberies. Later the police bought a number of them and modified the engines so they could keep up. A Jaguar Mark 11 was sold at a Florida auction in February 2008 for $75,900 USD.

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 William Lyons who had by now become Sir William Lyons was in talks with BMC, who were keen to buy Jaguar. The fact that British Leyland had also expressed a strong interest in Jaguar, allowed Sir William to negotiate from a position of strength. BMC eventually bought Jaguar and BMH was formed. Sir William got the deal he wanted.

In 1968 Jaguar’s fortunes started to change they became part of the British Leyland Corporation; British Leyland had become very large and chaotic. Labour relations deteriorated to an all time low and whilst Sir William did everything he could to look after Jaguar and its workforce Morale was slipping and it deteriorated further when Jaguar’s founder retired in 1972. Even the company’s name had been changed from Jaguar Cars ltd to British Leyland Exports ltd; it appeared to be change for the sake of change but it certainly caused the workforce to further loose identity. The inevitable happened and in 1975 the company went bankrupt and was nationalised by the government. One can only imagine what Sir William felt for Jaguar the company he had nursed for fifty years.

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.

John Egan took over from Bob Knight in 1980, not joining at the best of times; he took over whilst the Jaguar workers were on strike. He didn’t really know what he could offer them, so he asked them to trust him and they agreed to go back to work. Michael Edwards head of what was now called BL, agreed to give Jaguar more independence. Egan carried on with Bob Knights fight to return the company to its earlier profitability. Morale improved but it was going to be long struggles in 1981 just over 13,000 Jaguars were sold.

Bob Knight first identified the problem of inferior components being supplied to Jaguar; Egan also quickly realized that Jaguar’s reputation was being damaged in part by their suppliers. When he made it conditional that the suppliers would pay for the cost of warranty work when their parts failed, the problem was soon solved. This was a big step forward in restoring Jaguar’s reputation

The company and had survived and was secure once more, John Egan was chief executive. Jaguar was bought by Ford in 1989 paying $2.5 billion a very large investment indeed and in the following year invested many more billions into the two companies they had bought; Jaguar and Land Rover.

The company was renamed in 1982 and once again became Jaguar Cars ltd. The Thatcher government returned Jaguar to a private company in 1984 and it became Jaguar plc.

Ford sold Aston Martin in 2007; they had problems and wanted to get back to basics. This was followed by the sale of land Rover and Jaguar in 2008. The sale price was $2.3 billion, less than Ford had paid for Jaguar some nine years earlier. However both companies had a shortfall in their pension schemes, this had to be made up by Ford at the cost of $600 million. Tata the Indian conglomerate was the purchaser.

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.

Some were dismayed to learn that Jaguar had fallen into foreign hands but wasn’t it already in foreign hands? More important is perhaps that Jaguar now has a long term future. From past experience it seems clear that to succeed Jaguar needs to be left alone and Tata have made it very clear that they do not plan to interfere with the day to day running of Jaguar.

30,000 Germans were polled in 2006, this revealed that the majority of Germans preferred Jaguar to Mercedes, Audi and BMW. The new XF has been an enormous success and contract hire and leasing companies are placing large orders for the car. After all it’s ups and downs Jaguar seems to be as strongly placed as it has ever been.