City of Bulawayo mayoral car - Photo

The car is an old Daimler DS420. Daimler AG is a German multinational automotive corporation. Daimler AG is headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. By unit sales, it is the thirteenth-largest car manufacturer and second-largest truck manufacturer in the world.


References Dino Androuliakos

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 vehicles are used extensively as official state cars in several countries, including by the British, Danish and Swedish royal houses.

The Limousine was based on the floorpan of Jaguar's 420G flagship (not to be confused with the smaller Jaguar 420), but with a wheelbase extended an extra 21 in (533.4 mm). The frontal styling was similar to the original Daimler Sovereign, with the Jaguar four-headlight treatment first seen on the 420G's predecessor, the Mark X, mated to a Daimler radiator grill bearing the traditional fluting.

Originally the cars were built at the Vanden Plas works in Kingsbury Lane, London from bodyshells made by Park Sheet Metals Company assembling panels supplied by Motor Panels of Coventry and by Pressed Steel Fisher. Early limousines bore the 'Daimler Vanden Plas' designation on treadplates and workshop manuals. Production moved to Jaguar in Coventry in 1979, where it continued until 1992.

The British Royal Mews is now in possession of three Daimler DS420s available for Royal use on state occasions and for visiting dignitaries. The late Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother had four DS420 models over the years, including one of the last three models to be produced in 1992 (the other two going to Queen Elizabeth II, although rarely used, and the other retained by Jaguar for use in Coventry, now in the possession of the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust).