The Vehicle:

Jeep® is the oldest off-road/sport utility vehicle brand. In 1940 the US Army put out specifications to the automobile industry for a vehicle they wanted for the future. The Army knew that they needed a vehicle that could withstand many different terrains and conditions. The first prototype delivered to the Army was from the American Bantam Car Company which had just brought Karl Probst on board for the project. Two other prototypes were produced by Ford and Willys-Overland. The Army felt that the American Bantam Car Company was too small to supply the number of vehicles needed and it then allowed Ford and Willys-Overland to make attempts on their designs after seeing Bantam's vehicle in working order. Willys-Overland offered the lowest bid and won the initial contract. Willys-Overland now had what would become the standardized jeep design. In early 1941 the company showed the off-road performance by driving it up the steps to the US Capital Building in Washington, DC. They started work building the new MB military vehicles at their plant in Toledo, Ohio.

The Army was concerned because Willys-Overland only had one manufacturing facility for producing the vehicle and also worried about their ability to produce large quantities of the vehicle. The Government then allowed the Ford Motor Company to start building jeeps. These would be the Model GPW (G was for governmental vehicle or governmental use, P for the wheelbase, and the W for the Willys design).

Every division of the US Military used jeeps. The jeep was widely copied in countries other than the United States. Jeeps were supplied to the Soviet Red Army during World War II as a part of war efforts. Now the military has substituted many other vehicles for the jeep. One of the most recent is the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (Humvee) which combines features of a jeep and a light truck.

Targeting the farming community at first, Willys-Overland made efforts to introduce the Jeep into the civilian population by experimenting with the civilian jeep (CJ) in 1944. Then started manufacturing them for the public in 1945.

The Name:

There are several explanations of where the word "jeep" actually comes from. One widely believed theory is that the vehicle was first introduced as "GP". This was an acronym for "General Purpose" for the army. GP would eventually be slurred into the word "jeep". Many people dispute this, saying that the vehicle was designed for specific duties, and that the vehicle was never called "General Purpose".

Another widely accepted theory is that soldiers were so impressed with the new vehicles that they informally named it after Eugene the Jeep, a character in the Popeye comic strip. Eugene the Jeep was Popeye's jungle pet. It was small, able to move between dimensions, fly, solve impossible problems, and pretty much go anywhere it wanted.

During World War I soldiers would use a slang word for new recruits as well as new vehicles. This slang word was "jeep".

Words of the Fighting Forces by Clinton A. Sanders, a dictionary of military slang, published in 1942, in the library at The Pentagon gives this definition:

Jeep: A four-wheel drive vehicle of one-half- to one-and-one-half-ton capacity for reconnaissance or other army duty. A term applied to the bantam-cars, and occasionally to other motor vehicles (U.S.A.) in the Air Corps, the Link Trainer; in the armored forces, the 1/2-ton command vehicle. Also referred to as "any small plane, helicopter, or gadget."

The Ownership:

In the 1940s the first Civilian Jeep (CJ) was produced by Willy's-Overland. In 1953 Willys was sold to Kaiser, which became Kaiser-Jeep in 1963. In 1970 American Motors bought the company. In 1987 The Chrysler Corporation bought out AMC. Chrysler then merged with Daimler-Benz in 1998 to form DaimlerChrysler. Jeep® and the Jeep Grille design logo are registered trademarks of Chrysler Group LLC. Jeep vehicles are also produced in Beijing, China, by Beijing Jeep Corporation, Ltd. which is a joint venture between Beijing Automobile Industry Corporation, DaimlerChrysler and DaimlerChrysler China Invest Corporation, established in 1984.