Jeep History

Jeep is a Division of American Chrysler concern that produces cars of advanced passability of Jeep brand. Their headquarters are located in Detroit (state Michigan). Harrington, an American engineer and industrialist Harrington is considered the inventor of Jeep-type car. After the end of World War he worked in France constructing high-passable vehicles and experimenting with 4- and 6-wheeled trucks in cooperation with Marmon Motor Company of Indianapolis (state Indiana). The car he constructed got the title of jeep (the titles originates from GP, General Purpose car). The car was widely used by the Allies armies during World War II. It gained recognition through its passability, manoeuvrability and easy construction.

In 1940 American Willys Company brought the real popularity to jeep. Exactly this military model of war time allows Willys to be considered a great car enterprise of the past. Among other 135 American car companies Willys participated a contest in construction of a scout all-terrain vehicle for US Army. Finally they chose the versions Willys and Ford designed. Each company got an order for production of 1500 units, the release of which was to be started at the beginning of 1941.

Since 1941 US government decided to keep using only Willys MA car for army purposes, however it was modernized taking into consideration its field test results and the necessity of unification of models produced by different manufacturers.

Since 1942 the batch production of cars of Willys MB and Ford GPW trademarks started. These 2 models constructed by different companies were almost identical. They were equipped with a standard Willys 77 motor and 3-stage gearbox. This all-terrain had a room for 4 persons, weighted slightly more than 1 ton and made up to 105 km/h. Altogether these years Willys released over 360 thousand jeeps, the majority of which were used by Red Army. Ford managed to produce less, only about 270 thousand cars.

At the end of 40ies and beginning of 50ies all Wyllis products followed the course of popularity of military jeep that brought the company unprecedented success and world fame. The demand for AWD cars decreased, yet the company couldn’t stop its production and come up with something brand new. Its numerous post-war dual-purpose vehicles and promenade cars bearing the index of CJ (civilian jeep) were only considered civic because they weren’t khaki-colored.

By the beginning of 60ies Willys ceased production of jeeps; however other companies continued producing it.

In 1963 American Motors started releasing high-passability cars in USA, which were also titled Jeeps. Military Wyllis and Ford cars released during World War II served as prototypes of these new models.

In 1970 Kaiser Jeep Company, being the heir of Wyllis, became a division of American Motors concern.

In 1987 American Motors Company joined Chrysler concern together with its famous Jeep ...