Jaguar does not build many cars like the Jaguar Mark IV with gasoline engine, built from 1936 to 1949 when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together.
How it came about
The Jaguar Mark IV (pronounced mark four) is a range of automobiles built by Jaguar Cars from 1945 to 1949. The cars were marketed as the Jaguar 1½ litre, Jaguar 2½ litre and Jaguar 3½ litre with the Mark IV name later applied retrospectively to distinguish this model from the succeeding Mark V range. The range was a return to production of the SS Jaguar 1½ litre, 2½ litre and 3½ litre models produced by SS Cars from 1936 to 1940.
Before World War II the model name Jaguar was given to all cars in the range built by SS Cars Ltd with the saloons titled SS Jaguar 1½ litre, 2½ litre or 3½ litre and the two-seater sports cars the SS Jaguar 100 2½ litre or 3½ litre. In March 1945 the company name SS Cars Ltd was changed to Jaguar Cars Ltd. All the Mark IVs were built on a separate chassis frame with suspension by semi-elliptic leaf springs on rigid axles front and rear.
The hardware
Under the skin sits gasoline engine. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 112.5 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
Where it sits in Jaguar's history is not in doubt: the SS Cars Ltd SS1 came before it; the Jaguar Mark V followed it; it was built at Coventry, England, United Kingdom. On a showroom list of its day it stood against the Volkswagen Beetle, the Chevrolet Suburban, the Bugatti Type 57. Its Jaguar stablemates include the F-Type and the Vanden Plas.
The money
There is no federal ownership record for the Jaguar Mark IV — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.