Daimler DS420 1984 Office Car

In January 1984 the marketing department had limo A601KDV equipped with a load of electronic office equipment and audio, in an attempt to attract more captains of industry as customers for the limousine. A brochure leaflet was printed, a press release was sent out, and publicity was raised. The car, fully equipped, would cost twice as much as an "ordinary" limo would cost at that time. Although the marketing department consistently called the car the Executive Limousine, it soon was nicknamed the office car.

The Daimler press release consisted of three texts, and two photographs: 321563 and 321574. These photos are shown in the magazine articles below, and in higher resolution on the press photographs page of this site. More photographs exist, but were not widely distributed. An example is the photo at the bottom of this page, with the TV screen and the telephone handset visible. First we show the -extremely rare- brochure leaflet:

In October 1984 the German magazine Auto Motor Klassik ran an article on this car. This article, shown on our webpage with non-English magazine articles (view it here), has a very clear overview photograph of the car's interior, in colour. On our page with various sales illustrations we have another beautiful coulour photograph of the car. A 1984 magazine article mentions the existence of a video presentation on this Office Car. Has anybody ever seen it? More magazine articles on this car were published, which proves that it did quite a good job as a publicity generator. View articles here (English) and here (German). Some of these show the car with a different license number: A930KHP. Now let's look at the press release text. It consists of three sets. The front pages are shown here. Clicking on one of them shows that page in an enlarged form, with further click-points to step through all three sets sequentially.

The first set (3 pages) is an announcement for the new car. Second (2 pages) is a general story, hailing the fact that up till now more than 3330 limousines have been produced (a number that, in reality, would only be reached two years later). Third (3 pages) is a "technical specification", including this list of the electronic equipment fitted: Does anybody, computer professional or not, still remember what a 1984 Epson HX20 computer was like? And a radio-telephone was, at that time, a gadget that cost at least a handful of thousands of pounds, and brought you some 5 kilos of hardware.

All three texts were A4 format sheets, stapled together. Note the wide line spacing, to facilitate the scribbling and editing that any editor would want to do with these handouts.

Text and photographs of the press release (except the technical part) were reprinted almost entirely in the Jaguar Journal of Spring 1984. But because this journal addressed the American market, the last phrases needed a subtle change. Where the office car text ends with The fully equipped version with all features listed above is priced at £49,000 including car tax of £3,277.59 and VAT £6,391.30, the article tells us: The fully equipped version with all features listed above is priced at $69,000 in the UK. And the general text has as an extra phrase at the end: The new Executive Limousine is not currently offered in the U.S. The rest is a verbatim copy.

In October 1984, a satyrical article on the office car was published by the Punch magazine (who else...). It depicts a business tycoon, about to start "just another day at the office", but "the office" won't start. Koff-koff-koff...

According to the book Daimler and Lanchester by Brian Long, the car was "gutted" after it had served its promotional purpose, and rebuilt and sold as a standard vehicle.

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