Robert “Bobby” Jones set up Carbodies in West Orchard, Coventry, in 1919. Rather than bespoke coachwork, it built bodies to standard designs for car makers without their own body shops, first for MG and Alvis, then Rover, Invicta, Railton and, above all, the Rootes Group. A contract for the MG M-Type Midget took it to larger premises on Holyhead Road in 1928, where it stayed.
After the Second World War Carbodies built the bodies for the Austin FX3 taxi and finished and delivered the complete cabs, more than 7,000 of them, and converted saloons such as the Ford Zephyr and Hillman Minx into convertibles. BSA bought the company in 1954 and placed it under Daimler. From 1958 Carbodies built the body of the Austin FX4, the most important vehicle in its history, and in 1971 it took over the FX4 chassis line from British Leyland. By 1982 it was responsible for the whole cab, which it developed into the LTI Fairway.
Manganese Bronze bought Carbodies in 1973, and in 1992 the business became London Taxis International. Its TX1 of 1997 was followed by the TXII, with a built-in wheelchair ramp, and in 2007 the TX4. Renamed The London Taxi Company in 2010, it went into administration in 2012 after a steering fault, and in 2013 Geely bought its assets, the business that became today’s LEVC.
