Daimler DS420 production, prices and options


Daimler DS420 Production, prices and options

Every publication about the DS420 lists slightly different production/sales figures, but the most comprehensive list comes from the book "Jaguar, a living legend", by Anders D. Clausager. At the time of publication, Mr. Clausager was an archivist to the British Motor Heritage Trust. In the table below, the column Production is taken from Mr. Clausager's book. Since the book was published in 1990, it does not have figures for 1989-1992. They were deduced from various other sources.

Left: very early cars at the VandenPlas works in Kingsbury (click to enlarge)

The DS420 was well known for its extensive list of optional accessories, which could increment the basic price of the car by 50%. This web page, and its attached sub-pages, show price information and option lists for each individual year. Also of interest are the prices for the Chassis only car, to be sold to hearse building companies.

The following table lists the basic price of the limousine, including taxes, in GB£ for the UK market. Some rows have two prices, if the given year had price increases (that I know of). The source of the information is given for every year where applicable. Where an entry says Show ... price list you can click through to a page showing the original price and option list (often multiple lists) for the given year. Every price list shows the available options, with their individual price figures. Please note that a given year may have had more price lists, and thus multiple price figures, than shown here.

Year	Prices		Price info source	Production		Cumulative			Year
Year	Prices		Price info source	limo	chassis	limo	chassis	total	Year
1968	£ 4424.9.5	£ 4520.16.5	Show 1968 price lists	18	6	18	6	24	1968
1969	£ 4520.16.5	£ 4874.12.6	Show 1969 price lists	291	33	309	39	348	1969
1970	£ 4994.14.9	£ 5445.3.1	Show 1970 price lists	428	61	737	100	837	1970
1971	£ 5500.62		Show 1971 price list	236	50	973	150	1123	1971
1972	£ 5665.63	£ 5922.40	Show 1972 price lists	244	43	1217	193	1410	1972
1973	£ 5839.16	£ 6401.64	Show 1973 price lists	263	31	1480	224	1704	1973
1974	£ 6899.75	£ 7643.61	Show 1974 price lists	243	46	1723	270	1993	1974
1975	£ 8393.58	£ 9210.24	Show 1975 price lists	235	64	1958	334	2292	1975
1976	£ 9767.16	£ 11451.96	Show 1976 price lists	145	40	2103	374	2477	1976
1977	£ 12597.39	£ 13572.-	Show 1977 price lists	123	51	2226	425	2651	1977
1978	£ 14929.20	£ 17640.09	Show 1978 price lists	139	48	2365	473	2838	1978
1979	£ 17640.09	£ 23546.25	Show 1979 price lists	129	44	2494	517	3011	1979
1980	£ 24723.56	£ 25712.76	Show 1980 price lists	103	40	2597	557	3154	1980
1981	£ 26998.46		Show 1981 price lists	169	22	2766	579	3345	1981
1982	£ 23588.60	£ 24768.41	Show 1982 price lists	102	16	2868	595	3463	1982
1983	£ 25994.31		Show 1983 price lists	146	22	3014	617	3631	1983
1984	£ 25994.31	£ 27995.-	Show 1984 price lists	145	24	3159	641	3800	1984
1985	£ 27995.-	£ 29995.-	Show 1985 price lists	170	44	3329	685	4014	1985
1986	£ 31950.-		Show 1986 price lists	132	43	3461	728	4189	1986
1987	£ 31950.-	£ 36400.-	Show 1987 price lists	139	37	3600	765	4365	1987
1988	-		none published	121	33	3721	798	4519	1988
1989	£ 40000.-		Show 1989 price list	161	33	3882	831	4713	1989
1990	£ 43000.-		Show 1990 price list	141	28	4023	859	4882	1990
1991	£ 46500.-	£ 47520.-	Show 1991 price lists	96	30	4119	889	5008	1991
1992	£ 45692.32		Wilcox Limousines	22	14	4141	903	5044	1992
Year	Prices		Show all price lists together	limo	chassis	limo	chassis	total	Year
Year	Prices		Show all price lists together	Production		Cumulative			Year

Over the 25 year life span of the model, the price slowly climbed to a tenfold of the introduction price. This is equivalent to a sustained inflation rate of almost 10% every year. Note how the price doubled from 1973 to 1976 (four years), and again doubled from then to 1979 (three years).

The 1992 price is taken from a set of hand written price quotations by Wilcox Limousines; they will be shown if you click on that table entry.

Around 1981 the limousine was again hit by the soaring inflation, because of its labour intensive production. A magazine article (shown on the page with English language articles) touches upon this subject and talks about price cuts together with reorganisations to fight the rising costs. The resulting 12.5% price cut was massive. However, the sales volume before the price cut went up 50% already.

Assembly at Vanden Plas in Kingsbury.
First half of the seventies.
Photos from the archive of the Vanden Plas Owners' Club.

Below: 1985 body shells at Browns Lane (click to enlarge).
More photos taken at this location were published in a 2008 magazine article.

The best way to deduce the year of construction from the chassis number is with the PDF-file that is available on the web site of the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust.

The following scheme roughly applies (see below for more details):

1968-1978	RHD: 1M1001-1M3616;	LHD: 1M20001-1M20151
1978-1979	all models: 10001-10209
1979-1992	limo: 200001-201631;	hearse: 400001-400425

In 1979 the automobile industry adopted the international VIN number format, which had a 6-digit number field. Jaguar followed in March 1981. A detailed explanation of this VIN number format is on my webpage with various technical illustrations.

A very interesting series of nine photos was made in February 1981 by photographer Edward Eves in the Limousine Department at Jaguar's Browns Lane plant. They are now in the portfolio of the Revs Institute in Naples, Florida, U.S.A. and can not be shown here for copyright reasons. But they can be viewed on the website of the copyright holder, who erroneously (?) describes them as "Daimler Jaguar at Park Ward". On their pages click on each photo to view a large, albeit watermarked version: photo 282456, photo 284200, photo 299467, photo 304478, photo 305400, photo 307577, photo 312058, photo 320131, and photo 322526.

To find the Vehicle Identification Number on the DS420 the bonnet must be opened. An identification plaque is riveted in the engine bay, for early cars on the right side wheel well, later cars above the left side wheel well. It shows car number (a.k.a. vehicle number, chassis number), and body, engine and gearbox numbers. Note that car number and body number are not the same (body numbers all start with 4M). But this plaque is damaged easily, and the rivets can be removed. Therefore authorities often want to see a "stamped in" number. Initially (1968-1970) the DS420 did not have this at all, but starting somewhere around August 1970 - September 1970 the vehicle/car number was then stamped on the horizontal surface above the radiator, where the bonnet catch/lock drops in (see photo). The vehicle numbers on these early cars always have the format 1M followed by a four-digit number (starting at 1001) for RHD cars, or five digits (starting at 20001) for LHD. From 1978 on, both the location and the format of the number changed. Cars now got the number in front of the rightmost screen wiper: lift the bonnet and look in the small 'trench' where the upper edge of the bonnet drops in.

From 1968 until 1978, the vehicle number started with 1M.
For RHD cars this 1M was followed by a 4-digit number, starting with 1001, and running up to and including 3616 (April 1978). LHD cars had 5-digit numbers, from 20001 up to and including 20151 (March 1978). Behind the number, hearses usually had an H attached. Around 1974, the letters BW were often attached; these stood for 'Borg Warner' automatic gearbox. But all cars before July 1980 had a Borg Warner gearbox. Examples of this format are: 1M2060, 1M1629H, and 1M20125.
From March 1978, a new format was introduced consisting of a 9-position code followed by a 5-digit number. Until May 1978 the BW was still attached behind the number. However, in April 1978 two cars were still finished with the old format numbers 1M3609BW and 1M3616BW.
The 9-position code for RHD limos was DWATL3AXL, left-hand-drive limos had code DWATL4AXL, the format for hearses was DWAZL3AXL. The 5-digit numbers made no distinction for RHD/LHD anymore, but limos and hearses used their own sequence, both starting at 10001, and ending at 10209 for limos and 10152 for hearses. Examples of this are DWATL3AXL10015BW, DWAZL3AXL10028 and DWATL4AXL10104.
The introduction of the 5-digit number must have caused some confusion, because the factory records mention cars 10001 (March 1978), 10002 and 10003 (April 1978) as plain numbers without the DWATL... prefix, whereas those same numbers also appear with that prefix on different cars. The confusion did not spread beyond these three numbers.
In November 1979 there was a slight change in the prefix, and the number was expanded to 6 digits. This must have been near the start of the limo production in Coventry. The AXL at the end of the prefix changed to AC. The numbers started with 200001 for limousines, and 400001 for hearses. Examples of this are DWATL3AC200002 and DWAZL3AC400015. However, again this change must have caused some confusion because in February 1980 the very first car 200001 (6-digits) still got the old prefix DWATL3AXL. A few dozen higher 6-digit numbers had already been used by then.
Finally, in February 1981, the prefix SAD was added, to comply with the international standard VIN-number format. The D was for Daimler, but in February 1987 this was then changed to SAJ, J for Jaguar, even on Daimler cars. The lay out of this standard format was as follows:

SAD (or SAJ)

The first three characters indicate the manufacturer: SAD is Daimler, SAJ is Jaguar.

D
Marque of the car: D for Daimler; omitted on USA-spec cars

W
Model range: W was for the DS420

A
Class: A was the baseline specification; USA spec cars had V

T or Z
Body type: T for limo, Z for hearse chassis. USA-spec cars had 2

L
Engine: L is for the 4.2 litre XK-engine; USA-spec cars had 3

3 or 4
3 for RHS steering, 4 for LHS steering, Both these codes imply automatic transmission.

A
Model range (again): A for DS420; USA-spec cars differed

C
Produced at the Browns Lane plant. From October/November 1987 this position became 'A'.

6 digits serial number

The 6-digit format that was already in use, and which had started from 200001 for limos and from 400001 for hearses, continued as part of the VIN-coding. The maximum reached (in 1992) with these numbers was 201631 for limos, and 400425 for hearses.

Examples of this would be: SADDWATL4AC200423 and SAJDWATL3AA201334.
Of the 4141 limousines 232 were LHD. There were no LHD chassis sales. Only two USA-spec cars were manufactured.

Until the end of 1979 the DS420 was assembled at the VandenPlas works in Kingsbury, London. Vanden Plas gave each car a Job Number and the book Vanden Plas Coach Builders by Brian Smith gives more details about these numbers. They started at 12000 and eventually climbed up to around 14500. This number is on a plate attached to the chassis behind the bottom of the grille (facing forward). It should not be confused with the chassis/VIN number.

From the above table it can be deduced that the majority of the DS420 production (3011/5044) has come from VandenPlas. Over the total production period, the average production was less than one car per day.

The Engine Number: apart from the identification plate in the engine bay (on the right wheel well for old version, left side above wheel well later), the engine numbers are also located (engraved) at a second location.

In August 1969 this location of the engine number changed; see this Service Bulletin B34 (August 1969). This was quite early in the life span of the DS420, so most cars have the number as described in this bulletin and shown on the photos below. Engine 7M1216 (mentioned in the bulletin) corresponds with car 1M1246, manufactured in September 1969. The nearest LHD car number is 1M20002 (also September 1969). However, the numbered engines were not used consecutively, and some higher numbered engines were already used from the preceding August on. Note that car numbers started at 1M1001, so there were approximately 250 earlier cars. The location of their engine number is explained in this Owners' Handbook (1017-1, pg, i07).

The following photos (lick to enlarge) all cover the "new" engine number location, which is on the head end of the flange which connects the engine to the gearbox., First we have an engine "in situ"; this photo is taken from the left side of the engine bay: engine with exhaust downpipes to the left, gearbox and firewall to the right. The engine oil dipstick and the exhaust downpipes are clearly visible, as is the vacuum unit that controls the water flow to the heater.

Unfortunately, the engine number is not easily distinguishable on that first photo. Therefore we have another photo, taken from an engine on an engine stand: engine block to the left, stand construction to the right. For clarity sake we even have a third photo with the number in isolation, cut-out from that previous photo. The number is visible as 7L12914-8. Since DS420 engine numbers all started with 7M, the 7L on this picture identifies the engine on the stand as a Sovereign 4.2 Litre one. But the location of the engine number is the same.

The numbers started in 1968 with 7M1001. In March 1983 the number was expanded from 4 positions to 6 by prefixing two zeroes. The last engine number issued (in 1992) was 7M006298-L. The -8 suffix on the Sovereign example above is the "old" format to identify a 1:8 compression ratio, which also was the standard value for DS420. This suffix changed in December 1970, as this Service Bulletin B54 explains. Almost all DS420 cars from then on got the -L version. No suffix present also means 'L'.

Right: Late eighties body shells being assembled at Park Sheet Metal (click to enlarge)
Click here for an extensive Park Sheet Metal brochure.

Some confusion is caused by the fact that the first edition of the Parts Catalogue (publ. No. JC53) states that chassis numbers for LHD vehicles start from 1M2001 onward; so a 0 digit is missing here. The next edition (publ.No. RTC9183A) corrects this mistake.

Editions thereafter (publ. No. RTC9887CC and RTC9887CD) explicitly state "actual commencing date of manufacture 4.7.80" for numbers from 200038 (hearse 400041) on.

Parts Catalogues give information about certain changes on the car, and often give both a RHD-number and a LHD-number where the change started. This suggests that these pairs can be used as rough synchronisation points between RHD and LHD numbers. Some of these pairs are: 1M1154/1M20003, 1M1663/1M20028, 1M1833/1M20034, 1M1938/1M20047, 1M1941/1M20046, 1M2181/1M20072, 1M2366/1M20082, 1M2408/1M20087, 1M2566/1M20093, 1M2662/1M20096, 1M2669/1M20099, 1M2744/1M20103, 1M2828/1M20110, 1M2951/1M20115, 1M3082/1M20120, 1M3217/1M20132, 1M3382/1M20139, 1M3455/1M20145, 1M3469/1M20147. But keep in mind that the car with the LHD-number may have been built quite long after the corresponding RHD-one.

The very last batch of limos built (Oct/Nov. 1992) was for the Royal family, and (the very last one) for the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust. This is the JDHT car, L420YAC, VIN SAJDWATL3AA201631.

You may notice that, although manufactured in 1992, this car has an "L" registration, which is from 1994.

The 1996 Jaguar/Daimler calendar had an airbrush drawing of this car.

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