Jaguar
Jaguar Cars Limited is a British luxury car manufacturer, with headquarters in Browns Lane, Coventry, England. It was founded as SS Cars Ltd in 1922 and changed its name to Jaguar in 1945. The company has been owned by Ford since 1990. Jaguar also has an engineering division in Whitley, Coventry.
Jaguar's main competitors include BMW,Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Lexus, Cadillac, and Infiniti. It's continual nemesis, however, has been reliability, which improved under Ford's stewardship, even as the brand's tradition of classic design was lost in search of increased sales.
Jaguar merged with the British Motor Corporation (BMC), the Austin-Morris combine, to form British Motor Holdings (BMH) in 1966. After merger with Leyland and Rover, the resultant company then became 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 (BL).
In 1984, Jaguar was floated off as a separate company on the stock market - one of the Thatcher government's many privatisations. It took the Vanden Plas name with it. It was then taken over by Ford in 1989-1990. In 1999 it became part of Ford's new Premier Automotive Group along with Aston Martin and Volvo Cars. Land Rover was added to the group in 2001 following its purchase from BMW. Recent reports speculate Ford might sell Jaguar in order to infuse much needed capital into its own operations. Since Ford purchased Jaguar in 1989 it has yet to earn a profit for the Dearborn-based automaker.
