Automobile, Daimler, DS420 Limousine

History: The Daimler limousine DS420, popularly known as the Daimler Limousine, is a large limousine produced by The Daimler Company Limited between 1968 and 1992. The model had been popular from the beginning with suppliers of chauffeur services, hotels, funeral services, mayors of larger cities, ministries or other state representatives abroad and ambassadors. But most important the Daimler Limousines until today serve the royal houses of the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark and Luxembourg. No other model of any make had been delivered to more reigning monarchs than the DS 420 Limousine.

The DS420 was announced in June 1968 to replace the DR450 which had been based on the Majestic Major. Unlike its predecessor, it had no Daimler engineering, but was entirely a Jaguar product, using the 4.2 litre version of the Jaguar XK straight-six engine. With Daimler being part of Jaguar since 1960 and Jaguar itself being part of the British Leyland Motor Corporation since 1968 it also replaced the Vanden Plas 4-Litre Princess Limousine, and was initially produced at the Vanden Plas works in Kingsbury, North London. The short designation DS420 was derived from earlier Daimler models which had the first letter D (for Daimler) and the second letter in alphabetic order (with interruptions) over the years while 420 refers to the engine capacity of 4,2litres.

From Wikipedia

Railroad/Company: The Daimler Company Limited, until 1910, the Daimler Motor Company Limited, was an independent British motor vehicle manufacturer founded in London by H. J. Lawson in 1896, which set up its manufacturing base in Coventry. The company bought the right to the use of the Daimler name simultaneously from Gottlieb Daimler and Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft of Cannstatt, Germany. After early financial difficulty and a reorganisation of the company in 1904, the Daimler Motor Company was purchased by Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) in 1910, which also made cars under its own name before World War II. In 1933, BSA bought the Lanchester Motor Company and made it a subsidiary of Daimler.

Daimler was awarded a Royal Warrant to provide cars to the British Monarch in 1902; it lost this privilege in the 1950s after being supplanted by Rolls-Royce. Daimler occasionally used alternative technology: the Knight engine which it further developed in the early twentieth century and used from 1909 to 1935, worm gear final drive fitted from 1909 until after the Second World War, and their patented fluid flywheel used in conjunction with a Wilson preselector gearbox from 1930 to the mid-1950s.

In the 1950s, Daimler tried to widen its appeal with a line of smaller cars at one end and opulent show cars at the other, stopped making Lanchesters, had a highly publicised removal of their chairman from the board, and developed and sold a sports car and a high-performance luxury saloon and limousine.

In 1960, BSA sold Daimler to Jaguar Cars, which continued Daimler's line and added a Daimler variant of its Mark II sports saloon. Jaguar was then merged into the British Motor Corporation in 1966 and British Leyland in 1968. Under these companies, Daimler became an upscale trim level for Jaguar cars except for the 1968–1992 Daimler DS420 limousine, which had no Jaguar equivalent despite being fully Jaguar-based. When Jaguar Cars was split off from British Leyland in 1984 it retained the Daimler company and brand.

In 1990 Ford Motor Company bought Jaguar Cars and under Ford it stopped using the Daimler marque in 2007. Jaguar Cars remained in their ownership, and from 2000 accompanied by Land Rover, until they sold both Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata Motors in 2008, who created Jaguar Land Rover as a subsidiary holding company for them. In 2013, Jaguar Cars was merged with Land Rover to form Jaguar Land Rover Limited, and the rights to the Daimler car brand were transferred to the newly formed British multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover.From Wikipedia