The automobile nameplate “Jaguar” evokes it all. In your mind’s eye is portrayed the very vision of true elegance and luxury in a vehicle more upscale and luxurious than most people and drivers will ever encounter. Non ordinary. However truthfully ask some pre-Ford Jaguar ownership vehicle owners and drivers and you may hear the other side of Jaguars, their roadworthy reliability and auto service budget and costs. A question remains with auto buffs and car guys as to when the name and nameplate “Jaguar” first came to be and was first introduced to the upscale motorist British sports/ luxury car purchaser?

It was in the month of September 1935 that the Jaguar designation itself was introduced to the automotive marketplace. There is little doubt about it however – it is not a question of when the brand name itself and the firm’s name officially changed from “S.S. Cars” it is the impact that Jaguar and Jaguars have had on the world automotive scene and marketplace.

To fully appreciate and understand the success of the original Jaguars one must appreciate exactly what was happening in the automotive world of that time period. S.S.Cars (the 2nd incarnation of the later to be Jaguar Car Company. The initial company was named the Swallow Side Car Company which was reinvented around the company’s flagship product the S.S.1 Tourer and from there into the Jaguar Car Company itself).

During the 1930’s specialist car manufacturers Rolls-Royce (and it subsidiary Bentley), Sunbeam, Daimler and Lanchester, Lagonda and Alvis, were all coming under pressure from rising costs and the increasing unwillingness (or inability due to the financial specter of the great depression of the 1930’s) of their traditional customers to pay what were now considered “vast sums” for their automobiles, superbly crafted as they might be indeed. Equally important these established makes as well as the prestige coachbuilders who worked so closely and even alongside their product lines were being challenged by then upcoming modern manufacturing techniques and huge engineering development programs being taken by the mass production auto companies & their factory output – specifically those in the United States of America.

Before the second world war the number of British vehicles sold in the US was tiny, and so many more American cars found their way to Britain ( despite a punitive) import levy and taxes. Interestingly even though a fairly small volume of American cars were on British roads – yet the American cars had a dedicated and determingly loyal following. British prestige car makers though knew little and cared much less about the American automobiles and the technologies, procedures and systems used for mass production on the American auto factory floor as well as sales systems. Interestingly this short sightedness and tunnel vision of the British premium car builders of “who cares about what goes on far away in the colonies ( and former colonies). These people were after all foreigners to the British not much to be noted, and after all to them England and the British Isles were the “center of the world”.

The powers of the bitter truth of reality came crashing home , was that by the mid 1930’s it was no longer British luxury cars that held the cachet and resale value justified high pricing as well as rich profit margins for the auto factories their owners , workers and shareholders. Of all things the Americans with their automotive industries centered in Detroit Michigan , where huge sums indeed had been expended on the first true scientific investigations into ride handling and refinement . As well with the more than substantial investments into the automotive manufacturing industries factory processes progressed and rode along into new plant and auto manufacturing processes which both cut costs of automobile production and greatly improved quality of the finished product , its parts and components Indeed the new generation ( in the 1930’s) of pressed-steel auto and truck bodies of the American made vehicles were far more rigid, and thus more rattle free and durable than the comparable or perhaps non-comparable in the British automotive product line. Interestingly the same tunnel vision and short sightedness that the British employed against American autos to their peril, could have said to be repeated if not virtually replicated in the experiences of the American auto companies against their Japanese competitors basically in the same lifetime of 50, 60 and 70 years later. How little things change.

It was against this backdrop that what might be considered the first mass production coach building by S.S. , along with cost and costs containment so that the vehicles could be sold prices competitive with the emerging competition in the auto field.

For example a scaled down Jaguar produced vehicle a fast , handsome luxury vehicle that seemed in the face of it to be not far off a real Bentley could be had at 1/3 the price. Ditto for a new 2 1/2 liter, six cylinder ‘Jaguar” could be purchased in the price range of approximately 30 %.

These budget more than competitively priced SS models may not have had the Jaguar name plate yet. Yet they were the forerunners, the foundation and base from which their later progeny – Jaguar Cars with a different name plate evolved and grew from. The die had been cast.

Author Bio: Harold Stoffman Vancouver BC Auto Financing Edmonton Canada Mazda Dealer Alberta Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep dealer Canada’s Biggest Volume Dodge Chrysler Dealer Derrick Dodge High Volume Purchasing Lowest Prices Derrick Dodge -Fort Mcmuray Edmonton

Category: Automotive
Keywords: automotive marketing,Jaguar,British Luxury Sports Cars,Jaguars,dealer,auto service