75 Years of Jeep

The Jeep just turned 75, first produced in 1941 by Willys-Overland, it has a history that dates back to the 1930s. The original design came from the American Bantam, a company formed from the bankrupt remains of the American Austin Car Company, who made British Austin cars under license.
When America realized it was going to have to join the war they put out a request for a multipurpose utility vehicle. American Bantam submitted a design by Karl Probst, and won the bid, but were not believed to have the needed production capacity. The US military instead passed the design onto Ford and Willys who both started producing the first Jeep.

It was a huge success during WWII, serving everywhere and being used by all of the Allied counties, including Russia.
At the end of the war, the Jeep Trademark was awarded to Willys, who went straight into production of the first CJ, the first civilian model of the Jeep.
The CJ in various forms stayed in production until 1985, and what we know now as the Wrangler started life in 1987 as the YJ, followed by the TJ and is now the JK.

While the Jeep itself has had a great and long history, the company, or companies behind it have not.
Willys was sold to Kaiser Motors in 1953, this became Kaiser-Jeep in 1963, which was in turn gathered up by AMC in 1970. Renault got involved with AMC in 1979, but had pulled out by 1987 when Chrysler purchased AMC out right. Chrysler was then absorbed by Daimler Benz in 1998, a relationship that failed in 2007 leaving Chrysler, and the Jeep brand in the hands of a private equity company. Then in 2009 the company fell over, with ownership passing to the United Auto Workers Pension Fund and Fiat, and in 2014 Fiat bought the remaining shares, making it the total owner.

This long and complex history of financial failures never seem to have changed the basic Jeep very much. Even the latest Wrangler still uses live axles front and rear, and is mechanically very simple. The lack of RnD funding needed to bring it into the modern world has helped keep it current and bring things full circle. The Jeep has always been popular with off road enthusiasts because of simplicity and off road ability, but the rise of the hipster gave it a new life as a fashion accessory for those who claim to love the simpler things in life, like man buns and groomed beards.

There have been several concepts over the years, all trying to modernize the basic Jeep, and all of them failing to gain popular support and never seeing production.
Fiat may change that, but I suspect they won’t need to. Keeping the Jeep rough and simple makes them the most diverse car maker on the planet. Between Ferrari and Jeep, Fiat own and control the maker of the worlds most sophisticated and modern Hyper Car, and through Jeep, the maker of the worlds simplest and most basic 4WD. Through their other brands, that include whats left of Chrysler, they can also make everything in between.

The Jeep brand has of course been applied to a wide range of other vehicles over years, the most well known being the Cherokee. Fiat are now using the brand on some of their own Italian designs, boosting their popularity in over seas markets.

 

Over 75 years the Jeep has been through a lot, it helped win a war, defined the modern 4WD, has seen numerous changes of ownership through varied financial success, and yet it has not changed all that much. The modern Wrangler shares more in common with it’s first model than any other car I can think of. It has out lived the Land Rover, and the Land Cruiser has become properly modern along with Pajero.
That is quite an impressive feat, one that I bet no one would have suspected back in 1940.

-Moppie

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