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Jeep vehicles have been the transportation of choice for liberators and adventurers for over 50 years. Here you'll find a history of the Jeep vehicle from the beginning to the Wrangler (YJ), and the evolution of the 1946 Willys Utility Vehicle to the modern day Cherokee and Grand Cherokee.
To most people, the name "Jeep" brings to mind a short wheelbase utility vehicle, topless and doorless; from the original military workhorse of W.W.II, to the early civilian flatfenders, the venerable CJ's , and today's stylish Wranglers. But in addition to the typical "Jeep", there are numerous other vehicles that have carried the Jeep name over the past 60 years. These vehicles include the early station wagons, panel delivery trucks, pickup trucks, and Jeepsters. And the later Commando, Comanche, Cherokee, and Wagoneer models. The attached pages contain lists of practically every Jeep ever produced since that famous U.S. Army contract was awarded to American Bantam back in the summer of 1940. The various models are categorized by vehicle type, such as military Jeeps, civilian Jeeps, wagons, pickups, etc.
In July 1941 the War Department decided to adopt one single model; Willys was selected because it bid lower than the others but the MA had to be redesigned in view of the experience gained with the tests. The redesigned model was named MB by Willys but the contracts to manufacture the vehicle went both to Willys and Ford, where it was named GPW (the W was added to refer to the Willys motor). Meanwhile, about 1000 Bantam 40 BRCs were built for the Russian Army.
I believe the word Jeep, is from the military. The government has always been known for acronyms. When the military ordered the vehicle, it was named a General Purpose vehicle. The military personnel when ordering the vehicle soon shortened this to GP, and some who just pronounced the letters, hence G'P', became, Jeep.
I don't think anyone really knows where the name Jeep came from, but one of the more popular theories claims that our favorite vehicle was named after Eugene the Jeep. Who the heck is Eugene, you ask? Eugene was a character out of the comic strip Popeye, created by Elzie Crisler Segar. Eugene was a small, impish, 4 dimensional character that lived in a 3 dimensional world. As such, he was not constrained to the world we know - he could do wonderous things like walk through walls, walk on ceilings, appear out of nowhere. In short, he could go pretty much anywhere he wanted. Eugene the Jeep appeared in Popeye in 1936 - about 4 years before the US Army started testing its new 1/4 ton utility vehicle - which would eventually be called the Jeep. No one really knows WHY this new vehicle was called a Jeep, but one theory has it that Popeye was an extremely popular comic strip at the time and the soldiers were so impressed with the new vehicle's go-anywhere, do-anything capabilities, they were reminded of Eugene's character; and so dubbed the new vehicle a "Jeep".
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