Jaguar, from motorcycle sidecars to luxury cars

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.

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.

During the late 20’s the company had started to build car bodies. The Swallow Sidecar and Coachbuilding Company became their new name, which they felt was more in keeping with the work they were doing and they built the body for the very popular Austin 7. Soon they moved from their premises in Blackpool to larger premises in Coventry, where many of the motor manufacturers were based. Other manufacturers started to ask them to also build their car bodies and the company was really starting to get off the ground.

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.

As was the case with German Motor manufacturers the company’s production was switched to the war effort. The German manufacturing plants were prime targets for the allied force’s bombing raids and the Germans naturally tried to take out the UK manufacturing plants, Coventry became one of the most heavily targeted cities.

After the war the company had to change it’s name. The name SS with all its association with Nazi Germany was far from ideal; in 1948 the company became Jaguar cars. In the same year the XK120 was introduced. Some say its designers came up with the idea of the XK during their long hours on fire watch duty, all members of staff would normally take their turn doing fire watch duty, even senior management; during the war, if you did not have personnel on fire watch during the night, there was a good chance your factory wouldn’t be there in the morning.

The XK 120 was unveiled at the 1948 Motor Show; it was called 120 because of the car’s top speed, which was very fast in 1948. There was nothing that equalled its road holding and speed. It was its lines however that made it so outstanding, even 60 years on there are few people who would not find the car beautiful. It was a soft-top sport car, it had wire wheels and sometimes the bonnet had a leather strap. Girls dreamed of sitting in the passenger seat with the wind blowing through their hair, perhaps not surprisingly men rather liked the idea of being in the driving seat. It’s image later became a little tarnished when it was rather unfairly seen as a cad’s car; depicted being driven by a Terry Thomas type character, complete with cigarette holder.

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.

When the Mark 11 was launched in 1959 it was a prestige car favoured by successful businessmen but it also became the car driven by the successful criminal. It was also a favourite with car thieves; usually used a few days later as a getaway vehicle for jewellery and bank robberies. In order to keep up the police bought the same model and modified the engine. A Mark 11 Jaguar went under the hammer in an auction in Florida during 2008 for over $75,000 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.

The XJS was produced from 1975 until 1996. The design appeared to fall short of what had become expected of Jaguar it nevertheless was very well received by the motoring press. Jaguar appeared to be back on track when they launched the XK8 in 1997. Its design was sleek and elegant and reminded some of the wonderful E Type launched 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 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.

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.

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.

Jaguar never made money for Ford, Land Rover on the other hand did make a profit. 2001 saw the launch of the X Type, which was pretty much a disaster; it had Ford Mondeo components and a real image problem. It was intended to compete with the BMW three series market but became a favourite amongst retirees; it was not good for Jaguar’s reputation.

Whilst Land Rover did make some profits, Ford never really made money from Jaguar, in spite of the substantial sums it invested into the company. The ill-fated X Type was launched in 2001, designed to rival the 3 Series BMW but it was a break from the traditional Jaguar. With its Ford Mondeo components, it did little for Jaguar’s bottom line or reputation.

Ford had problems of its own and needed to concentrate on their own core business, Jaguar was eventually put up for sale along with Land Rover. Ford had sold most of its stake in Aston Martin in 2007 and in March 2008 both Jaguar and Land Rover were sold to Tata the Indian motor manufacturer for $2.3 billion. It must have been a bitter pill for Ford to swallow, made even more bitter, by having to find a further $600 million to make up the shortfall in the two companies’ pension funds. Furthermore Ford will miss out on the success of the new XF model.

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.

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.

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