Jaguar Cars

Jaguar Cars Limited is a high-end car manufacturer with its headquarters in Coventry, England, now owned by Indian-based Tata Motors and operated as part of Jaguar Land Rover.

The company was founded as the Swallow Sidecar Company in Blackpool in 1922, changing to SS Cars Ltd in 1934 in Coventry, and finally becoming Jaguar Cars Ltd in 1945. Following several subsequent changes of ownership since the 1960s, the company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and became a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, but is now owned by India's Tata Motors, and was acquired together with Land Rover from Ford on 2 June 2008.[1]

Jaguar Cars holds Royal Warrants from HM Queen Elizabeth II and HRH Prince Charles.[2]

History

Founded as the Swallow Sidecar Company in 1922, by two motorcycle enthusiasts, William Lyons and William Walmsley, the SS Jaguar name first appeared on a 2.5 litre saloon in 1935.[3] The Jaguar name was given to the entire company in 1945 when the SS was dropped due to lack of popularity from WWII.[4]

Jaguar made its name in the 1950s with a series of elegantly-styled sports cars and luxury saloons. The company bought the Daimler Motor Company (not to be confused with Daimler-Benz), in 1960 from Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA). From the late 1960s, Daimler was used as a brand name for Jaguar's most luxurious saloons.[5]

Mergers and nationalisation

Jaguar merged with the British Motor Corporation (BMC), the Austin-Morris combine, to form British Motor Holdings (BMH) in 1966. After merging with Leyland, which had already taken over Rover and Standard Triumph, the resultant company then became the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC) in 1968. Financial difficulties and the publication of the Ryder Report led to effective nationalisation in 1975 and the company became British Leyland Ltd (later simply BL plc).[6]

In the 1970s the Jaguar and Daimler marques formed part of BL's specialist car division or Jaguar Rover Triumph Ltd until a restructure in the early 1980s saw most of the BL volume car manufacturing side becoming the Austin Rover Group within which Jaguar was not included.