DriveTimes Five
Cars inspired by the Willys Jeep
Regardless of your opinion of it, no one can deny that the original Willys Jeep has had a strong influence on what we consider to be a proper off-road vehicle today. But it’s had an even more direct influence over the five vehicles featured here. Some you will know why immediately, but others may surprise.
Jeep Wrangler
The obvious one. The direct descendant (even though, rather bizarrely the factory denies this) of the original Willys Jeep, the Wrangler has grown considerably in dimensions and weight, but the family resemblance is clear. The fact that the original is an icon is the reason that Wrangler is still recognisable as a pseudo-Willys today. Multiple changes of brand ownership, including Fiat Chrysler Automobiles today, haven’t diluted it. The single attempt to change it – the poorly received shift to square headlights – only lasted a single generation.
Hummer
Yeah, this one was pretty obvious too, despite the fact that the Hummer was massive and looked nothing like a Jeep. Except, if you take a close look at the Hummer’s grille, you get a clue about its origins. The original Humvee (or HMMWV, which stands for High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle) became the civilian Hummer and was developed by none other than AM General. Many years earlier, it was known as Willys-Overland Motors, which happens to be the company that developed a vehicle in the 1940s for the US military that became known as the ‘Jeep’.
Mitsubishi Pajero
Back in the couple of decades of its existence, Willys was rather keen on the idea of licensing the Jeep to be built by other manufacturers in other countries. The Mitsubishi Jeep (a version of the CJ-3) appeared in Japan in 1953. By the 1980s Mitsubishi was well into making its own cars and, despite still building the J3, decided it needed an off-roader of its own. When the first Pajero appeared in 1982 it was a three-door SWB 4WD with a basic canvas or metal roof, but featured a turbo-diesel engine, MacPherson strut suspension and power steering.
SsangYong Korando
Thirty years after the CJ-3-licensed versions appeared in overseas markets, AMC licensed a version of the later CJ-7 to Korean manufacturer SsangYong. Launched in 1983, SsangYong called it the Korando, which (rather ridiculously) was a contraction of ‘‘KORea cAN DO’’ and built it for 13 years. During this time SsangYong developed a nine-seat version (called the Korando K9) and even exported it to Japan and Europe. In 1996 SsangYong replaced the licensed version of the Korando with its own utterly awful knock-off, which offended everyone who drove it.
Every Mahindra
Before the 1990s every Mahindra was a variant of the licensed version of the AMC CJ-5 Jeep. From the 1950s Mahindra built the CJ-5 before developing its own version called the MM540. From this, the Commander and Marshal series of LWB five-door saloons were spun off, while the Armada was the ‘‘upscale’’ version. Without the CJ-5, Mahindra’s carbuilding arm probably wouldn’t exist today. As either a nice tribute to that, or an exercise in cashing in on low buyer expectations, the company still builds a version of the CJ-5 today, called the Thar.