The History of Jeep

est. read time: 3 mins

If you’re reading this, this means you’re part of an elite community of overlanders and offroaders who all share one major love:

A love for Jeeps.

But where did this beautiful gift sent from the gods even come from? What makes it so popular? And what’s being done to them nowadays?

The Origin Story

Whenever I think about the origins of the Jeep, I like to think that it was sent down in a bolt of lightning that carved the hills of Moab – the motherland.

But no, it actually started in small town America – Butler, Pennsylvania.

Back in WW2, the U.S. Military desperately needed a small, rugged, and capable rig and called for American automotive manufacturers to design something. Ultimately, three manufacturers submitted their own designs:

The Ford Motor Company, Willy’s-Overlanding Company, and the American Bantam Car Company.

Willys-Overlanding Company ended up designing the best rig and won the bid.

Fun Fact: Did you know that the term “Jeep” actually dates back to WW1 and is simply a car with:

• An 80-inch wheelbase
• 1/4-ton capacity
• Has 4WD
• Is used by the U.S. Military.

Anyways, Willys-Overlanding Company produced a metric a$$ton of Jeeps during WW2 but that was only for 6 years.

All of their factories were tooled for producing these Jeeps, but without a military contract to get them to make more, they needed to pivot.

So, they started producing civilian Jeeps, and released the Jeep CJ-2A in 1945.

And it was a complete flop.

They had marketed and built this Jeep to be a tough workhorse but the American people wanted something more comfortable and the CJ-2A wasn’t enough to get the people HYPED.

Unfortunately, Willys-Overlanding wasn’t doing too hot because they tried releasing several renditions of the military Jeep but all of them flopped.

Until Henry J. Kaiser came along.

A Breath of Fresh Air for the Jeep?

As the founder of Kaiser Permanente Hospitals, he wanted to branch out and start his own automotive company but found it a pain in the a$$ to stand out with the big guys like Ford and AMC.

So what did he do?

Bought Willys-Overlanding Company in 1953, rebranded it to the Willys Motor Company, selling Jeeps.

They didn’t waste any time and in 1955, they released the Jeep CJ5 and it. absolutely. CRUSHED.

It was the perfect balance between form and function and people LOVED it. After the release of the CJ5 and CJ6, as all automotive companies, Willys wasn’t doing too hot.

Enter the American Motor Company.

Another day, another corporate acquisition

Willys, for the longest time, was using AMC motors in their Jeeps, so when the time came or AMC to buy Willys, it made the more sense. So in 1970, AMC ended up buying Willys Motor Company and began cranking out the next gen. of Jeeps.

And thus, the CJ7 was born and did a really good job for one reason – the amount of trims you can get were out of this world. The most popular one? The CJ7 Jamboree Edition.

At this point, the love for Jeeps took off because with so many trims, there was a Jeep for every walk of life.

As the years went on, Jeep continued to push new models, then was bought by Chrysler, then Fiat bought 20% of Chrysler, and now we have models like the Trackhawk and the Grand Wagoneer.

Jeeps are going to continue to evolve and will always have a special spot in all of the overlanding communities hearts.