CLASSIC CARS
Willys Jeep turns 80
Gen. George Marshall called it “America’s greatest contribution to modern warfare.”
GIs called it the Jeep, a nickname of obscure origin that may have come from a Popeye cartoon or a light tractor Minneapolis-Moline sold to the Army before World
War II. The Jeep put the American military and its allies on wheels.
After WWII, the Jeep settled into civilian life and morphed into the first sport utility vehicle, the Wagoneer. But the mission that inspired its creation in 1941—to take you anywhere you want to go—lives on. Today, Jeep is Fiat Chrysler’s most popular brand in the U.S., with more than 900,000 sold in 2019. •
The original concept came from American Bantam, a manufacturer of small vehicles that occasionally served as props in movies (Donald Duck’s cartoon roadster was a Bantam). Its Bantam Reconnaissance Car won the War Department contract, but the plant couldn’t meet demand. The government sought more makers to roll out the vehicle in large numbers.
Willys-Overland and Ford were the main Jeep makers in WWII. Ford called its prototype GP. Some speculate the Jeep name is a sounding out of those initials. The two companies produced about 650,000 Willys MBs and Ford GPWs, their respective labels for what were essentially similar vehicles.
Willys trademarked Jeep after the war and hired designer Brooks Stevens to adapt it to civilian use. Stevens, the man behind Oscar Mayer’s iconic Wienermobile, created Jeepster and later Wagoneer, which was produced without fundamental changes from 1963 to ’91.
Before the Jeepster, Willys was sold in 1953 to industrialist Henry J. Kaiser, who entered the car business after building Liberty ships for the war effort. He dropped production of his unprofitable Henry J and other cars, and concentrated on marketing Jeeps. Kaiser Jeep was sold to American Motors Corp. in 1970; Chrysler acquired the brand when it absorbed AMC in 1987.