Jeep: The History of America's Greatest Vehicle

195 Pages·2020·44.467 MB·English

by  Patrick R. Foster

E I G H T D E C A D E S F R O M
WILLYS TO WRANGLER
PAT R I C K R . F O S T E R
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank everyone who helped me with this and other books I’ve written, especially Cruse Moss, Jack Wildman,
Bob Nixon, Vince Geraci, Frank Pascoe, Roy Lunn, Phil Payne, Jim Pappas, Ron Konopka, Denise Barton, Tom Hale,
Dan Kunz, Phil Lundy, George Maddox, R. William McNealy, Gerry Meyers, Bill and Amy Tilden, and the late Roy D.
Chapin Jr. If I’ve missed anyone, it was not intentional and I apologize in advance.
This book is dedicated to my parents, Wilfred and Liane Foster.
© 2014, 2020 Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc. Library of Congress has cataloged the previous edition as follows:
Text © 2014, 2020 Patrick R. Foster
Foster, Patrick R.
Jeep : the history of America's greatest vehicle / Patrick R. Foster.
All photographs are from the author’s collection
pages cm
unless noted otherwise.
Summary: "Jeep chronicles the history of this uniquely American
brand, starting with its wartime inception and moving through the
First published in 2014 by Motorbooks, an imprint of The Quarto
20th century, fully illustrated throughout and loaded with facts and
Group, 100 Cummings Center, Suite 265-D, Beverly, MA 01915, USA.
sidebars"-- Provided by publisher.
T [phone] F [phone] QuartoKnows.com
ISBN 978-0-7603-4585-6 (hardback)
1. Jeep automobile--History. 2. Sport utility vehicles--United
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any
States--History. I. Title.
form without written permission of the copyright owners. All images
TL215.J44F6495 2014
in this book have been reproduced with the knowledge and prior
629.222'2--dc23
consent of the artists concerned, and no responsibility is accepted
2014006473
by producer, publisher, or printer for any infringement of copyright
or otherwise, arising from the contents of this publication. Every
effort has been made to ensure that credits accurately comply with
Editor: Darwin Holmstrom
information supplied. We apologize for any inaccuracies that may
Art Director: James Kegley
have occurred and will resolve inaccurate or missing information in
Interior Design: Kim Winscher
a subsequent reprinting of the book.
Additional Layout: Rebecca Pagel
Motorbooks titles are also available at discount for retail, wholesale,
On the front cover: 2020 JeepGladiator. Chris Collard
promotional, and bulk purchase. For details, contact the Special
Sales Manager by email at [email protected] or by mail at The
Printed in China
Quarto Group, Attn: Special Sales Manager, 100 Cummings Center,
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Suite 265-D, Beverly, MA 01915, USA.
This publication has not been prepared, approved,
or licensed by Jeep.
ISBN: 978-0-7603-6655-4
Digital edition: 978-0-76036-6-561
Sofftcover edition: 978-0-76036-6-554
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION: Forged in War. Tales of wartime Jeep adventures, where the trusty Jeep saved lives
and won the day........................................................ 4

CHAPTER ONE: A Legend Is Born, 1940–1941. The history of Willys-Overland and Bantam Motors and
their roles in developing the wartime Jeep ................................... 20
CHAPTER TWO: The Willys-Overland and Willys Motors Years, 1946–1963. Peacetime and military Jeeps
produced by Willys-Overland and its successor, Willys Motors..................... 42
CHAPTER THREE: Mr. Kaiser’s Jeep, 1964–1969. In 1963, Kaiser Industries changed the name of the
company to Kaiser-Jeep Corporation, tried to grow the corporation in America, and laid
the groundwork for Jeep’s amazing popularity overseas ......................... 74
CHAPTER FOUR: American Motors Takes the Wheel, 1970–1987. Jeep ownership transfers to AMC and
Jeep’s U.S. business grows nearly 700 percent................................ 92
CHAPTER FIVE: Chrysler in Command, 1988–1998. The Iacocca years and how his Chrysler
Corporation built a whole new Jeep organization, one that could take the company to
the next level........................................................ 132
CHAPTER SIX: The DaimlerChrysler Fiasco, 1999–2007. The Daimler-Chrysler merger and how the
German company caused Jeep to lose its way................................ 152

CHAPTER SEVEN: The Road to the Top, 2008–2020. Jeep’s comeback was temporarily derailed by
Chrysler’s bankruptcy, but the division has since been able to pull itself out of the
basement and on to record-breaking years.................................. 172
INDEX: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
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I N T RO D U C T I O N
America’s greatest vehicle is the Jeep. Created out of intense prewar competition, the Willys Jeep served in World War
II as a reconnaissance car, weapons carrier, supply truck, front-line ambulance, attack vehicle, ammunition hauler, and
many, many other jobs. It became indispensable to American GIs and their allies around the world.
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Forged in War
It was utter InsanIty, like being locked in a coffin: suffocating, dark, and hellish. It was the most
frightening place on Earth. Lost in a dense green jungle so thick you could barely see 10 feet ahead,
with bullets whizzing past, men getting hit, strange voices shouting, and shells exploding all around,
it was the crazy, senseless madness of war in all its terrifying reality.
This was Guadalcanal, August 1942. The United States, which had been having the worst of the
war in the Pacific, was finally getting a chance to fight back. Taking this steaming, blood-soaked
island from the Japanese would be a major victory, but it would not be without cost. The Japanese
were fighting back savagely.
Way out on the front lines of this impenetrable green hell, Corporal Jamie O. Sarver was suddenly
shot down. Seriously wounded and losing blood fast, he realized that this might be the last day he’d
ever see. He was too far forward to be carried out by his buddies, even if they could get through the
storm of bullets that were flying all around. And if, by some chance, they did manage to reach him
and get him to safety, he would probably bleed to death long before he got to the distant field hospital.
Things were grim.
Then, suddenly, he heard the roar of an engine being pressed for all it was worth. He looked up
to see a stubby, grimy Jeep charging hell-for-leather through the jungle, dodging bullets, bouncing
through shell holes and chewing up the undergrowth as it stubbornly clawed its way along, its driver’s
face set in grim determination. Call it a miracle. The driver, who somehow wasn’t hit, lifted Sarver
into the Jeep and drove him to the aid station. A life was saved.
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the Jeep MB was the
original go-anywhere,
do-anything vehicle,
a workhorse for the
military and a friend to
the soldier.
across the world, at El Alamein, Egypt, frantic pace, the Jeeps weaved in and out of the
in World War II’s desert theater, Jeeps were German column, bringing a hellish destruction
engaged in many other spectacular feats. with them. Within seconds, the German force
Perhaps the most daring was when a fleet of was reduced to nothing more than a line of
heavily armed Jeeps left British general Bernard blazing trucks and dead Nazi soldiers. The Jeeps
Montgomery’s headquarters to stage a raid on then slipped away into the darkness and made it
General Erwin Rommel’s supply line. Traveling safely back to their own lines.
by night and hiding during the day, they moved Wartime Jeep adventures weren’t always
in a wide arc that eventually brought them grim. One amusing tale is the story of two
far behind German lines. There, they arrayed newspaper correspondents who slogged
themselves on a hilltop overlooking a dusty through the impenetrable jungles of Burma and
road: Rommel’s supply route. Within hours, a India’s Manipur Hills, arriving at last in Imphal
convoy of tanker trucks appeared, hauling badly with their Jeep covered in thick mud. An officer
needed fuel for Rommel’s tanks. At a word, the who spoke with them told them their sense of
Jeeps fired up their engines and came swooping geography must have been mixed up, because,
down from their hiding place. Driving flat out, as he said, “There isn’t a single road across those
their heavy machine guns spitting bullets at a jungles and hills.”
6 iNtrOduCtiON
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For many a wounded
soldier, the best sight
in the world was that
of a Jeep coming to
the rescue. The Jeep
MB could claw its way
through just about any
kind of terrain, and
the vehicles helped
save the lives of many
wounded soldiers by
carrying them back
from the front lines to
forward aid stations.
“Shh,” replied one of the newsmen. “Our
Jeep hasn’t found out about roads yet and we
don’t want to spoil it.”
A more poignant tale came from the
battlefield in Holland. Soon after a British
Army column had been strafed by German
warplanes, a correspondent came across a lone
private crying his eyes out while sitting next
to his bomb-blasted Jeep. The correspondent
understood the situation immediately and
offered that the solider would soon get another
Jeep. Inconsolable, the private looked up with
tears streaming down his face. “It ain’t that, sir,”
War in the South
he said. “You see, I loved this one.”
Pacific was often a
nightmare, but the Is it any wonder that GIs around the world
Jeeps helped make came to love the Jeep? It was the ultimate do-it-
life just a bit easier.
all machine for the armed forces of the United
Here a Jeep leads
troops across a blasted States and her allies, and it was a faithful friend.
island landscape. If a GI needed hot food, he could place his
FORGED IN WAR 7
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C-ration cans on the manifold of his Jeep’s engine top: this Jeep MB was
one of the casualties
and in no time flat, he would have a steaming
of the invasion of
hot dinner. If he wanted a hot shave, he could Guadalcanal and a
simply drain a little water from the Jeep radiator grim depiction of the
horrors of war. whether
and lather up. By attaching a belt to one wheel, a
it got stuck in the
soldier could use his Jeep to power a sawmill for gooey sand and had
providing firewood or to cut boards for flooring to be abandoned or its
troops themselves were
his tent. The mighty Jeep carried men and supplies
casualties is not known.
to the front lines and carried the wounded
back to hospitals and aid stations. Equipped with
a .50-caliber machine gun, it could be a terrifying Bottom: One valiant
weapon; equipped with a standard chaplain’s use of the Jeep was
as a combat assault
pack, its hood served as the altar at field church
vehicle. Here we see
services. In areas where the existing railroad soldiers swinging into
stock had been destroyed, GIs fitted their Jeeps action in their early-
series Jeep MB.
with special railroad wheels, turning them into
Note that the Jeep
locomotives capable of hauling a trainload of carries a crew of three
supplies. Special wide wheel additions allowed a and mounts a machine
gun. Note, too, the rifle
Jeep to power its way through the deepest snow.
standing upright in its
With a radio set, it became a forward artillery leather carrier.
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