Difference

This site contains affiliate links for which LandyZone may be compensated if you make a purchase.
Willys-Overland trademarked the word jeep after World War II and it passed to the Kaiser corporation in 1953 when Kaiser Motors bought out Willys-Overland and changed the name to Willys Motor Company. Willys changed name again in 1963 to Kaiser-jeep Corporation.

The Willys name was dropped altogether in 1965 by Kaisers who went on to become the American Motors Corporation in 1970. In 1987 the jeep trademark passed to the Chrysler Corporation and finally to DaimlerChrysler AG following the buyout of Chryslers by the Stuttgart, Germany based outfit in 1998. Jeep® is now a registered trademark of Chrysler.
 
I hesitate to add anything to the brill history given by The Mad Hat Man, so, anyway, here goes......

I heard that the original vehicle was known as a general purpose vehicle. This was shortned to GP which became..........

I bet someone knows different!

Ian
 
I hesitate to add anything to the brill history given by The Mad Hat Man, so, anyway, here goes......

I heard that the original vehicle was known as a general purpose vehicle. This was shortned to GP which became..........

I bet someone knows different!

Ian
That's what I heard as well Ian...when I was in the Merchant Navy in the late 70's - early 80's we had crew, who in the Royal Navy would have been Able Seamen, but in the merch were GPs or General Purpose, but never Jeeps
 
The origins of the name jeep have been argued about pretty much since the vehicle appeared and are happilly still as obscure as ever. The top theories in no particular order are:

A contraction of the initials 'GP' from General Purpose although Ford say that 'G' stood for Government and 'P' for the wheelbase.

Derived from the ubiquitous character in the popular Popeye cartoons, Eugene the jeep was a happy little character from the cartoons of E C Segar.

Eugene was given to Popeye's goilfriend Olive Oyl by her Uncle Ben in 1936. He could appear and disappear at will, tell the future and travel in the fourth dimension...

Willys is pronounced as ' willis - not ' willies' !
 
Willys-Overland trademarked the word jeep after World War II and it passed to the Kaiser corporation in 1953 when Kaiser Motors bought out Willys-Overland and changed the name to Willys Motor Company. Willys changed name again in 1963 to Kaiser-jeep Corporation.

The Willys name was dropped altogether in 1965 by Kaisers who went on to become the American Motors Corporation in 1970. In 1987 the jeep trademark passed to the Chrysler Corporation and finally to DaimlerChrysler AG following the buyout of Chryslers by the Stuttgart, Germany based outfit in 1998. Jeep® is now a registered trademark of Chrysler.

I'm trying to make my mind up if you is a geek, anorak or google slut?:confused::p
 
i think yu iz thunking Willys jeeps.

The jeep was produced in response to a 1940 tender request for an initial 70 vehicles by the US Army Quartermaster corps. The companies tendering were required to produce a prototype four wheel drive quarter ton payload vehicle weighing less than 1300 pounds within an incredible 49 days. The American Bantam Car and Willys Overland Inc were the only two of the 135 invited companies to respond and 47 days after tendering, Bantam delivered their prototype to the army for testing. Willys in the meantime had requested an extension to 120 days due to delivery issues with axle parts and thus, along with observers from Ford, had a golden opportunity to view the early testing of the Bantam.

The Bantam tested out reasonably well, but reservations were expressed about its power as well as the ability of the Bantam Co to supply the number of vehicles that would be required by the army following the initial small batches.

The test Bantam was followed in late 1940 with the delivery of the first Willys Quad on 13th November and ten days later with the prototype Ford Pygmy. The Willys was some 500lbs heavier than the Bantam but outperformed it thanks to the Quads powerful 'Go Devil' 60 horsepower engine. Performance on the Ford model was good as well so the army decided to order 500 of each model for field testing...the rest is history..

shirley all of the above is history :rolleyes:
 
Back
Top