Willys 1916-1970 - Legendary and military-proven
Summary
There were around 10,000 car brands and designers - most of them have disappeared. One of these vanished brands is Willys, which built vehicles from 1916 to 1970. Of course, the indestructible Jeep, the archetype of the off-road vehicle, is still best known today. In 1963, the brand name changed to Kaiser.
Estimated reading time: 3min
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In the post-war period, Willy's jeep was as much a household name for soldiers as the Swiss Army knife is today. The Jeep, the archetype of all off-road vehicles, replaced the equally off-road cavalry horse, and consequently the military department called their specially trained Jeep drivers Motordragoners. The sales genius John North Willys steered the fortunes of one of those early car companies that experienced alternating phases of growth and adaptation. He owned the brands Overland, Willys-Overland (from 1909), Willys-Knight (from 1915, by far the most widely built brand with slide valve engines), Willys (from 1916, with valve engines) and Whippet (from 1926). During the Great Depression, the Willys-Overland Company (Toledo, Ohio) went bankrupt in 1933, survived and, during the Second World War, joined forces with Ford to produce the Jeep, the ingeniously simple off-road vehicle that became the symbol of the US Army.
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