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History of Jaguar

Founded as the Swallow Sidecar Company in September 1922 by young motorcycle enthusiast Bill Lyons and William Walmsley, Jaguar originally focused their efforts on producing motorcycle sidecars. In late 1926, the company began to diversify by taking existing cars and updating them with a more contemporary exterior, followed by the production of affordable cars with a luxurious look. It was not until 1935 that the SS Jaguar name appeared, with the company later dropping the 'SS' to avoid association with the German SS organisation.

After World War II, Jaguar made their name with a number of elegant, reliable and powerful luxury saloons and sports cars. The Jaguar MK I, introduced at the 1955 Motor Show, appealed to the fashionable home market and the following model, the MK II proved to be extremely successful and even influenced later models such as the Jaguar S-Type.

In 1951, the business leased space at Brown's Lane plant from The Daimler Motor Company Ltd, which would later become its main plant. The company would go on to purchase Daimler in 1960.

In 1966, Jaguar merged with the British Motor Corporation to form British Motor Holdings, which would two years later merge with Leyland to create the British Leyland Motor Corporation. This created the largest car complex in Britain. However, in 1984 Jaguar was made a separate company on the stock market as part of the government's privatisation schemes.

The Ford Motor Company made a number of offers to purchase shares of Jaguar in 1989 and in 1999 Jaguar became part of Ford's new Primer Automotive Group, alongside Volvo, Land Rover and Aston Martin. Under this new ownership, the company created the massively popular model, the Jaguar S-Type. On the 26th March 2008, Ford sold its Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) operations to Tata Motors of India for £1.7 billion who have recently seen a significant turnaround and increased profit margin.