Jeep. A SUV with a war-time past
Jeep is a well-known car brand, produced by the Italian-American Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. concern, the eight great car producer. ‘Live a life of adventure!’ This simple slogan perfectly describes this car. Now, the name of this legendary car became a common noun. Very often, we say ‘Jeep’ instead of ‘SUV’. The off-road performance is associated with the Jeep brand. For Americans, ‘Jeep’ means the military SUV which helped win the Second World War. Jeep cars are sold in 120+ countries all over the world, and the total number of the sold cars is over 9M (according to the data from 2011-2019). Jeep is a well-known car brand, produced by the Italian-American Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. concern, the eight great car producer. The company sells about 4.84M cars a year, which is about 5.6% of all world sales. FCA owns not only the Jeep brand but also Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Maserati, Ferrari, Lancia, RAM. The Jeep brand resulted in a global sales growth of the company.
FCA owns not only the Jeep brand but also Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Maserati, Ferrari, Lancia, RAM. The Jeep brand resulted in a global sales growth of the company. American Motors owned the Jeep brand before Daimler Chrysler Corp. took over this brand; Kaiser Jeep Corporation owned the brand earlier. And the first owner was Willys-Overland. Do you remember those famous military ‘jeeps’? Though they were not the first who came up with the word ‘jeep’. So, who was the first? Let’s find out.
Now, the name of this legendary car became a common noun. Very often, we say ‘Jeep’ instead of ‘SUV’. The off-road performance is associated with the Jeep brand. For Americans, ‘Jeep’ means the military SUV which helped win the Second World War.
How did the word ‘Jeep’ appear?
There are 4 versions.
The most common one is that the word appeared from the abbreviation GPW, which was used at American military cars during the Second World War. ‘G’ means ‘for government use’, ‘P’ means a car with a wheelbase up to 80 inches, ‘W’ stands for ‘Willys’. Ford Motor produced these cars according to the technical documentation of Willys.
According to another version, ‘Jeep’ originated from the cartoon about the sailor Popeye because of the famous cartoon character Eugene the Jeep. People called a lot of things with this name. Military drivers had a great sense of humor and called their off-road vehicle in honor of the funny quirky Eugene the Jeep.
There is also another version of the origin of the word. The name evolved from the ¾-ton commander’s vehicle “Peep”. Later it became “Jeep” during military training in 1940.
And the forth option is that according to the classification of the US Army ‘Willys BM’ belongs to the category of ‘General Purpose’, abbreviated as ‘gp’ or even ‘jp’, so the word ‘Jeep’ appeared.
Who came up with the first Jeep?
The first car called Jeep was designed not by Ford and Willis, but by the unknown car company American Bantam. This company assembled and promoted the sports version British Austin Seven to the American market, later renamed as ‘Bantam-60’. And when in 1940 American Army sent an order to develop a four-wheel-drive car of the ‘one-quarter ton’ class, Bantam tried to do this project. After 5 days, breaking the speed record, Karl Probst, chief engineer of the company, presented the design of a future military vehicle, which was known as a ‘jeep’. After testing, Bantam made major design changes and received a contract for producing 1 500 cars, most of which went to the UK, and then by lend-lease to the USSR. Even famous Soviet marshal Zhukov drove an American Jeep.
The first car called Jeep was designed not by Ford and Willis, but by the unknown car company American Bantam.
US military officers appreciated the design of Jeep and gave drawings to Willys and Ford, who received contracts for production, without any permission of American Bantam. This is how front-line cars Willys MB and Ford GPW appeared. Bantam left the scene, forever remaining in history as the founder of Jeep.
The informal name ‘Jeep’ became official during the demonstration of the new Bantam car. In early 1941 at Congress, one of the military test drivers told the army name ‘Jeep’ to a Washington Post correspondent. The next day Americans and the whole world gave this name to the car. In 1945, it became the Willys- Overland trademark and an official Jeep brand in 1950.
Post-WWII history of Jeep. Legendary offroaders
After the war ended, Willys decided to adapt the military jeeps so beloved by the Army for civilian purposes. Externally, all ‘civility’ consisted in the presence of folding tailgate, wipers and gas tank lid on the rear fender. Well, in 1949, there was a seven-seat all-wheel drive car, which, in fact, was the ‘grandfather’ of the modern Jeep Grand Cherokee, perhaps the most popular car in the history of Jeep.
Then the Station Wagon appeared. It was the predecessor of the Jeep Wagoneer. By the way, Wagoneer was the first car with automatic transmission, combining design and comfort with off-road performance. The combination of 4WD with automatic transmission was used for the first time. The Wagoneer’s Tornado engine was the only motor with the overhead camshaft.
The first Cherokee appeared in 1974. It had two doors and was presented for a younger audience than Wagoneer. Although, in fact, it was the same Wagoneer! It only had two doors, other wheels, and another body color as well as adjustable seats, sporty helm, and body lines, which became the symbols of the ‘70s. Cherokee SJ was born to be a legend. After the 4-door Cherokee car appeared, this model became the only car with four doors and two AWD systems (CommandTrac and SelectTrac) in its class. By the way, one of the pickup models of Cherokee with removable cabin – JEEP CJ-8 SCRAMBLER was one of the favorite cars of the US President Ronald Reagan.
JEEP CJ-8 SCRAMBLER was one of the favorite cars of the US President Ronald Reagan.
In 1990 the millionth XJ SUV was built. It was Cherokee Limited of provocative bright red color. Cherokee became the most popular model of Chrysler corporation in Europe during 7 years of production. Grand Cherokee appeared afterward. It was connected with the 50th Jeep anniversary, in honor of which Chrysler released a new Cherokee model with a 190-hp 4-L PowerTechSix engine. Jeep Grand Cherokee was an SUV that surpassed all the car standards for outdoor activities of its time. In the late 90-th, Grand Cherokee reached the new dimensions in style and luxury. The high level of technical solutions, such as switching between two- and four-wheel-drive models, made Grand Cherokee the leader of the compact SUV market.
Jeep design team which successfully finished Grand Cherokee took on the Wrangler - descendant of Willys that began the company’s history. The second generation of Jeep Wrangler was launched in 1996. Wrangler continued SUV tradition to combine great off-road performance, safety, speed, and comfort at high American quality standards.
Nowadays, you can buy Jeep models in 120 countries, and the total quantity of the sold cars is over 9M (according to the data from 2011-2019).
Nowadays, you can buy Jeep models in 120 countries, and the total quantity of sold cars is over 9M. Reliable and unpretentious, Jeep has always been a hero throughout its 70-year history - not only at war, but also in agriculture, in the fields, in rescue operations, and during natural disasters.
Past decades were full of pilot projects; producing cars capable of setting the fashion, from the wartime Willys MB to modern models. While developing a sport-utility class for the first time, Jeep continues to be the leader in the SUV segment.
