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1908 |
John North Willys buys the Overland Automotive
Division of Standard Wheel Company and in 1912 renames it Willys-Overland Motor Company. |
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1936 |
Coming out of bankruptcy following the Great Depression,
the company is reorganized as Willys-Overland Motors, Inc. |
|
1940 |
Working from a Bantam Car Company design,
Willys contracts to build military Jeeps for the war and produces about 360,000 vehicles by 1945. |
|
1945 |
Willys-Overland begins producing the Civilian
Jeep (CJ) line, with the introduction of the CJ2A model. |
|
1946 |
Production begins on the Willys Jeep Wagon.
Over 300,000 are manufactured between 1946 and 1965. The CJ3A is introduced, and more than 132,000 are made before production
ends in 1953. |
|
1947 |
Production begins on the Willys Jeep Truck.
From 1947 to 1965, more than 200,000 are manufactured. |
|
1948 |
Production begins on the Willys Jeepster.
Only 19,000 vehicles are manufactured between 1948 and 1950. |
|
1952 |
Willys CJ3B Jeeps go into production. By
1968, over 155,000 are sold. |
|
1953 |
Kaiser buys Willys-Overland and changes
its name to Willys Motor Company. |
1954
|
The CJ5 debuts at the start
of its three-decade run. |
|
1963 |
Company changes name to Kaiser-Jeep Corporation.
|
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1965 |
Kaiser-Jeep discontinues production of
Willys wagons and trucks, retiring the Willys name along with the line. |
|
1970 |
American Motors Corporation takes over
Kaiser-Jeep. |
|
1975 |
The CJ5 model is updated for the 1970s.
|
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1975 |
Willys-Overland is resurrected as a wholesale/retail
parts business. |
|
1976 |
Offering an optional automatic transmission,
the CJ7 starts its 10-year run. |
|
1983 |
By the time the last CJ5 rolls off the
line in 1983, more than 610,000 of them have hit the highways in the U.S. and around the world. |
|
1984 |
The XJ series Cherokee is introduced to
compete in the growing compact SUV market. |
|
1987 |
American Motors is purchased by Chrysler
Corporation. |
|
1993 |
Chrysler introduces the ZJ series Grand
Cherokee to replace the discontinued Wagoneer. |
|
1997 |
The Redesigned TJ series Wrangler is introduced.
|
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1998 |
Daimler-Benz merges with Chrysler Corporation
to form DaimlerChrysler, the fifth largest auto maker in the world. |
|
1999 |
The Grand Cherokee is redesigned.
|
 |
The Birth of the JeepAs
the war in Europe spread in the late '30s, the U.S. Military wanted a new light-weight four-wheel-drive reconnaissance vehicle.
They solicited bids for a command/reconnaissance car with an 80" wheelbase and weighing 1300 lbs in June of 1940. Three companies
responded: Bantam, Ford and Willys. The Bantam Car Company had the leading contender based on overall design, but Willys had
the wonderful "Go Devil" flat-head, four cylinder engine. Ford had some good ideas too and there was a pooling of ideas that
surely violated the spirit, if not the letter, of intellectual property, trade-mark, and other laws, but served the government's
needs. The final winner after a few resubmittals was the GPW. "G" for government, "P" for pigmy (a Ford term) and "W" for
Willys.
One story has it that uninformed GI's thought "GP" stood for general purpose,
and pronounced it "jeep". Other people say that the word "jeep" was slang for any wonderfully multipurpose thing. In 1936,
the Popeye cartoon had a character, named "Eugene the Jeep", who had all
kinds of amazing powers. Anyway, the source of the name "Jeep" has been veiled by the passage of time... but on with the story.
The government selected a vehicle based mostly on the design by the Bantam Car
Company. Bantam didn't have the mass production facilities needed to supply the government, and the military wanted multiple
suppliers. Willys got a contract to build "jeeps" in late 1940. Ford was also awarded a contract a week later. Many parts
were interchangeable between the Willys and Ford jeeps. Of the roughly half million jeeps produced for WW2, Willys-Overland
made about 360,000 between 1941 and 1945. The jeeps proved to be rugged and dependable in the war, and by the time the soldiers
came home, jeeps were well known and loved for their durability and unstoppability.
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