Jaguar


The History of Jaguar

   

Jaguar Cars Ltd., better known simply as Jaguar is a British luxury car manufacturer, with headquarters in Coventry, England. It has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Indian company Tata Motors Ltd. since March 2008 and is operated as part of the Jaguar Land Rover business.
Jaguar was founded as the Swallow Sidecar Company by Sir William Lyons in 1922, originally making motorcycle sidecars before switching to passenger cars. The name was changed to Jaguar after World War II due to the unfavourable connotations of the SS initials. Following several changes of ownership since the 1960s, Jaguar was listed on the London Stock Exchange and became a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it was acquired by Ford in 1989. Jaguar also holds Royal Warrants from HM Queen Elizabeth II and HRH Prince Charles.
The distinctive "leaping Jaguar" mascot made its name in the 1950s with a series of elegantly-styled sports cars and luxury saloons. In 1951 the company leased what would quickly become its principal plant from the Daimler Motor Company (not to be confused with Daimler-Benz), and in 1960 purchased Daimler from its parent company, the Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA). From the late 1960s, Daimler was used as a brand name for Jaguar's most luxurious saloons.
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).
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. In 1984, Jaguar was floated off as a separate company on the stock market.
The Ford Motor Company made offers to the US and UK Jaguar shareholders to buy their shares in November 1989; Jaguar's listing on the London Stock Exchange was removed on 28 February 1990.  In 1999 it became part of Ford's new Premier Automotive Group along with Aston Martin, Volvo Cars and, from 2000, Land Rover. Aston Martin was subsequently sold off in 2007. Between Ford purchasing Jaguar in 1989 and selling it in 2008 it did not earn any profit for the Dearborn-based auto manufacturer.
Since Land Rover's May 2000 purchase by Ford, it has been closely associated with Jaguar. In many countries they share a common sales and distribution network (including shared dealerships), and some models now share components, although the only shared production facility is Halewood, for the X-Type and the Freelander 2. However operationally the two companies were effectively integrated under a common management structure within Ford's PAG.
On 26 March 2008, Ford announced that it had agreed to sell its Jaguar and Land Rover operations to Tata Motors of India, and that the sale was expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2008. Included in the deal were the rights to three other British brands, Jaguar's own Daimler, as well as two dormant brands Lanchester and Rover. On 2 June 2008, the sale to Tata was completed at a cost of £1.7 billion.
The Swallow Sidecar company (SSC) was originally located in Blackpool but moved to Holbrook Lane, Coventry in 1928 when demand for the Austin Swallow became too great for the factory's capacity.  In 1951, having outgrown the original Coventry site they moved again to Browns Lane which had been a wartime "shadow factory" run by the Daimler Motor Company. Today, Jaguars are assembled at Castle Bromwich in Birmingham and Halewood in Liverpool. The historic Browns Lane plant ceased trim and final operations in 2005, the X350 XJ having already moved to Castle Bromwich two years prior, leaving the XK and S-Type production to Castle Bromwich and the X-Type at Halewood, alongside the new Land Rover Freelander 2, from 2007. A reduced Browns Lane site still operates today producing veneers for Jaguar Land Rover and others, as well as some engineering facilities.

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