Mind you, they also have a big fleet of Ford Granadas, stretched by Colman Milne into seven-seaters that threatened to end the reign of Britain's only purpose-built limousine other than the E120,000 Rolls-Royce Phanton VI which only pop stars and Heads of State, rich ones at that, can afford. The Daimler, minus optional extras which can double its price, is a sociable snip at f25,994 - or E14,817 for a drive-away chassis (actually a primered mobile monocoque) if you want to turn it into a hearse like those made by Wooilall Nicholson,Startins or Wilcox.
Jaguar's promotional blurb for the Daimler in various august if esoteric journals (which also include The Funeral Director and Local Government News) clearly identify the car's market. They also carry a message. Cut down to basics, it's this: forget the poor quality of the past, give the Old Lady another try. "A totally new manufacturing and inspection procedure has reduced delivery times and improved mechanical reliability ... a new paint process includes five primer coats and five finishing coats ... wax injection treatment of all enclosed metal surfaces and full underbody seal gives maximum durability and corrosion resistance...'"
There's no need to read between the lines to deduce that the big Daimler had gained a reputation for going ragged at the edges, and for questionable dependability. Keith Cambage, manager of the limousine operation that's compressed into a modest, self- contained paint, trim and assembly area at Jaguar's Browns Lane plant, readily admits that quality was "appalling" just three years ago. His brief from John Egan was quite simple: get rid of the old girl or make her pay. He did the latter.'"ln 1981 we were making one car a week with 90 workers. Now we're making over three a week with half the workforce." The Egan edict of improving productivity and quality was not only Jaguar's saviour: it saved the Daimler limousine from extinction, too. At crisis point late in '81, when distributors had lost confidence and the order book was bare, the assembly workforce was trimmed to a nucleus of 30. Since then, things have taken a dramatic turn for the better.
"The funeral business used to account for 60percent of sales," recalls Cambage."Now it's down to 40-45percent, though we'll be selling one rolling chassis a week next year to the hearse specialists. That's a 100percent increase on this year." The shift in sales reflects more aggressive marketing, which included a L 3500 price cut in November, 1981 (the car is still cheaper than it was then) and a search for new customers. Cambage and his team found same of them where the oil gushes. "It took just over four months to convert a funeral vehicle into a high-spec personnel carriage for the Middle East." A major sales attack is also being mounted on the chauffeur- drive hire fleets.
Only one engineer could be spared from the XJ40 programme to help ·with the development work, much of which has been done on the shop floor by the dedicated group-assembly teams responsible for the limousine's construction."We had a terrific response from the hourly-paid workers with our development programme," says Cambage. Decent air conditioning, a bulkhead heatshield to prevent the chauffeur from wiIting, a stainless steel exhaust system and impr6ved engine cooling from the S3 XJ6 were among the mads (to be fitted to all 1984-spec cars) required for desert action. Now work is in hand to resolve legislative problems which at the moment bar the Daimler from other export markets that Cambage intends rapidly to crack with his ever-so-English courtly carriage. Dallas, watch out.
Output is unlikely again to reach the 1969-70 peak of 448, achieved a year after the car's launch in 1968 when funeral directors and wealthy municipalities pensioned off their old Austin times for the new upper-crust Daimler, built at the North London Vanden Plas plant until the Edwardes axe fell in 1980. Cambage expects to sell 170 this year - a 30 percent increase on 1982's tally and more than in any year since 1975, when sales last exceeded 200. Now that the build quality is up to scratch (one in three limousines is subjected to Jaguar's stringent quality audit checks for which Mercedes-Bent provide the judging yardstick), Cambage can press home "the classic limousine" advantage the Daimler has over all its converted rivals.
It's just as well traditional values carry more weight than fashion in the dignified business of conveying top- hatted luminaries and funeral mourners, not to mention wedding revellers and Royals, Middle Eastern potentates.
Jaguar, as you can well imagine, are not a little chuffed at breaking the Rolls- Royce monopoly on chariots for the blue-bloods.
TRADITION, AH YES. THE DAIMLER has barely changed in 15 years - and it was of orthodox stock and therefore no trendsetter in 1968. At least there's no structural timber for the termites to chew, nor any cart springs for that matter to jolt the cosmetic burr walnut, grown in California, sliced in Europe, selected and applied with loving care at Browns Lane. One car, same tree - that's the rule, so all the grain matches.
The limousine's steel monocoque body, welded together without a robot in sight by Park Sheet Metal using bought- in pressings from Pressed Steel and Motor Panels, is carried by all- independent coil-sprung suspension. That atthe back is from the XJ6 with suitably uprated springs and dampers to cope with a massive kerb weight of 2.2tons; that's without armour plating. Up front, there's a jaguar Mark 10 (yes, stiII being made (along with its Adwest recirculating ball steering box) specially for the limousine.
Mark 10 ancestry is also evident in the front subframe, facia, heating and non- existent ventilation endured by the chauffeur, who enjoys little more than second-class citizenship in a cramped driving compartment that apparently gets like a sauna in hot weather. Jaguar are aware of it, too. Cambage has cocked an ear to a group of drivers from Camelot's chauffeur-drive fleet and plans to act upon their criticisms. Raise your caps, chaps. There's a Series Three XJ6 dash on the way, front air conditioning and even an individual seat with a hint of side support, though probably no more room 'twixt backrest and wheel rim. Corpulent chauffeurs should look elsewhere for employment. in Germany, they'd have to, as the Daimler's wheel-to-seat dimensions fall short of legal requirements there.
Not being a beer drinker, I just made it behind the low-set wheel. To be honest, the driving position is not nearly so awful as it first teels when you step inside. There's no need to double-up and feed your limbs through the door. You walk in and perch - as if mounting a typing chair, back upright, legs dangling, the wheel so close to your lap that you have to tuck your elbows back to accommodate them. It's the classic typing position, as any secretary will confirm. From this lofty vantage point you peer down over a long, mirror- finish bonnet divided down the middle by a chrome strip (a mini flagpole is an optional extra) and flanked by wings which clearly indicate where the front corners are. It seems quite fitting that you should look down on lesser beings in ordinary cars.
Ergonomics hadn't been invented when Vanden Plas started making the Daimler 16 years ago, or when Jaguar laid down the Mark 10 for that matter. But that's the chauffeur's problem. In the back, you're all right, jack, as we'll see. Start-up is with a key which threatens to sever your left kneecap in an accident. In the driving compartment, separated from the VIP lounge by an electrically operated glass division, the carburettor-fed XK twin-cam 4.2 that has powered all 3200-odd Limousines yet made, snarls smoothly into life, apparently first ti me every time with the new manual choke Ithe chauffeur lobby were critical of the recalcitrant automatic one on previous cars and the factory's development men took note).
The selector lever for the three-speed GM400 automatic, which supersedes the old Borg Warner box used until three years ago, is beyond arm's length reach on the floor. Not that you need it much. Set in D, the car gathers momentum with about as much dignified verve as you'd expect 164 horsepower to muster under such heavy odds. With a power/weight ratio of only 75bhp/ton (rather less when fully laden) performance is not the Limousine's strongest card, though it will comfortably top 100mph given a long enough straight, despite a drag factor that must rival that of Grimsby town hall. fuel consumption is 13-17mpg, considerably less on a ceremonial crawl, so the twin 1O gallon tanks give a very modest range. What is surprising (well, I found it so) power steering. Anticipating nothing better than mediocre slop, born of experience with the Mark 10, it was encouraging to discover that the Daimler steered a lot better than many big owner-driver cars, particularly American ones. Despite an overall length of nearly 19ft, it was surprisingly easy to manoeuvre as the wheels could be swung from (tight) lock to lock without frantic twirling.
It's perhaps as well that the chauffeur has no more side support than his charges in the back. More securely located, he might be tempted to take roundabouts at cocktail-spilling speed. As it is, there's nothing to hold him in place except a firm grip on the steering wheel. No doubt the car keels like a champagne cork and scrubs its big Dunlops (due to be replaced by 235 low-profile Michelins to fill out the rather vacant-looking wheel arches better). It's hard to tell. Decorum dictates restraint. Besides, the adhesion limit is well beyond the point where discomfort makes you ease off. What's more, Mr Cambage was in the back when I was chauffeuring, and he might have disapproved of tattered tyre walls. The present tyres generally last for no more than 10,000miles, so a change to fatter covers should extend the rubberwear's lease on life.
Series Three all-disc brakes, ventilated at the front, stop the big car securely. The firm, progressive pedal also makes it easy for the chauffeur to feather his halts smoothly. Heat there is aplenty. Lots of air too, blasted into the driving compartment by a fan that sounds like a hovercraft lifting off. Up front, the Daimler is not especially hushed with its hissing old-fashioned cluarterlights, growling engine, whining transmission and whooshing heater fan. In the back, though, you're in another world, what with the walnut and leather.
There is such a thing as a standard Daimter Limousine but Jaguar haven't made very many. The car we were in, belonging to Reeve and Stedeford of the Patrick Motor Group -hence the registration number PMG 1), had rear air conditioning (L2566 extra), cocktail cabinet (normally around L300 though this one was 'customised' for a boss who apparently doesn't drink), chauffeur-to-lounge intercom (L468), lambswool rug (L659), electric division (L840), electric windows front and rear (L815), West of England rear cloth trim (L269) and various other options like a Sony TV, Philips stereo radio/cassette and JVC video player. For all that, it's the legroom, acres of it, that sets the main lounge apart from the cabins of ordinary large cars.
The bolstered bench seat, wide enough to seat three abreast with the central divide up, provides armchair comfort for the VIPs who can put their feet up on folding rests. Accompanying minions travel in lesser style on occasional seats ahead, three of them if there's no central cabinet. With the glass division up, there's little intrusive noise either from the car or the outside world to disturb the peace. The engine and transmission are virtually inaudible, wind noise no more than a whisper, tyre roar a muted murmur, though the big radials do swish on wet roads. Ride quality is exemplary, even better than that of the X36, since there's so much weightto steamroller bumps.
The top seat is evidently on the nearside (by the kerb) as the air- conditioning and heating controls are mounted onthe left armrest. Rocker switches on both sides control the electric windows and central division, toggles the aerial and intercom. Without it, the chauffeur can hear nothing of the conversation in the back.
In an attempt to capture a slice of the tycoon market, Jaguar have developed (with David Earl Associates) a new version of a Limousine, to be announced in January, equipped as an inter-city office. Apart from the Ieisure centre (radio-cassette, TV, video and drinks cabinet) there's also an Epson business micro, a dot matrix printer, a radio telephone and a special intercom link-up with the secretary up front (also equipped with Epson hardware in the glove compartment). If the young lady shown in the promotional video is typical of a tycoon's PA, though, I suspect she'd be encouraged to ride in the leathered rear.
There's life in the Old Lady yet.