Jeep
Brief History
World War 1 started the age of mechanization of the US Army. The Army bought many vehicles from many vendors to move men and materials from location to location. By the middle 1930’s the Army realized the logistical nightmare causing maintenance and supply issues caused by having so many vendors and vehicle types. The desire to standardize on a smaller group of vehicles led to the search for smaller, faster easier to maintain vehicle.
Only three companies, of 135 invited to bid, responded to the contest, Ford Motor Company, Willys-Overland (pronounced Willis-Overland), and American Bantam Car Company and of these, the Bantam Car Company was the most aggressive. They had their blueprints of their vehicle into Washington in 5 days. Bantam delivered a prototype by the September 23, 1940 deadline. With war breaking out in Europe, both Ford and Willys were allowed to submit vehicles for testing. Both of these competitors were also given access to the Bantam plans, explaining the look-alike similarities of the three prototypes. The Army ordered a total of 1500 of each vehicle for further testing and early 1941 saw these vehicles entered into Army inventory. Willys and Ford received the contracts to actually build the vehicles based on Bantam’s designs, as Bantam didn’t have suitable manufacturing facilities. Bantam did get the contract to build the trailers needed for the vehicles. Both the Willys and Ford parts were interchangeable.
The name Jeep is said to derive from several sources. Some say the name came from the GP (General Purpose) designation, others say it came from the cartoon character “Eugene, the Magical Jeep”from the Popeye cartoons. Eugene had the ability to go anywhere (by magic of course), as did the Willys vehicle.
The Jeep became the vehicle of choice for the Army and it was said that the little vehicle could move faster than a tank and go places that tanks couldn’t go. The Jeep (both the Willys MB and Ford GPW) proved to be a reliable, well made vehicle, impressing soldiers who both drove and maintained the vehicles. It was said at the time that Jeep won the war.
After the War, as soldier were returning home, many wanted a Jeep of their own. Willys seeing a demand for the Jeep trademarked the name, for it’s line of vehicles based on the venerable vehicle.
The Jeep CJ2A (Civilian Jeep 2A) was introduced in late 1945, and was mechanically identical to the MB that was produced for the Army, but with a few differences, such as chrome trim and larger headlamps. The fuel tank intake was on the left side panel, and the spare tire was moved to the rear tailgate. The rear panel also became a flip down tailgate. The first year saw only 1824 units made, but the end of production in 1949 produced a total of nearly 137,000 units.
The postwar years were good to Willys and they built other vehicles on the Jeep name and toughness, including the Willys Jeep Wagon (1946 to 1963), the Willys Jeep truck (1947 to 1963), and the Willys Jeepster (1948 to 1950). The wagon and truck were available in 2-wheel and 4-wheel drive models. These models were intended to bring the Jeep brand to younger, trendier owners, expanding the market for Jeep.
1953 brought the buyout of the Willys-Overland by Kaiser. Kaiser kept the Willys name on the Jeep until 1963 when it became the Kaiser–Jeep Corporation. Production of the Willys wagons and trucks continued until 1965, when the Willys name was dropped and Jeep was added.
In 1966, Kaiser reintroduced the Jeepster line of vehicles, (while still producing both a military and civilian versions of the WWII Jeep), which included a wagon, pickup and a convertible. These vehicles were intended to compete with the Ford Bronco and the Land Cruisers (which surprisingly the Land Cruiser and the British Land Rover, both got their start by copying the Jeep MB). Jeep also made the boxy Wagoneer models, and the Jeepster was a cross between the usefulness of the truck and the CJ. These models were produced by Kaiser-Jeep until American Motors Corporation (AMC started as a merger of the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and the Hudson Motor Car Company in 1954), bought the Kaiser-Jeep Corporation in 1970 for $75 Million dollars. AMC continued production of the Jeepster, as well as the other models. And in 1972, changed the Jeep styling.
AMC being the smaller of the US automakers produced the Jeep line and other vehicles to the early 80’s when financial troubles caught up to the corporation. Chrysler bought AMC at fire sale prices in 1987. Production lines at AMC were so slow, that Chrysler outsourced some of its production to AMC, and Chrysler’s production of the Omni\Horizon and the M-body were produced in AMC’s Kenosha Wisconsin plant. Chrysler underhandedly bought out Renault’s ownership of AMC, wanting the production facilities and the Jeep lineup. The Jeep-Eagle division became part of Chrysler officially in 1989,and after the merger\takeover of Chrysler in 1998 by Daimler\Benz; the Eagle was discontinued as a duplicate line in 1998. Jeep became it’s own division at that time.
