page_title: Willys MB
section_title: Post-war
hierarchical_section_title: Willys MB / Post-war
caption_attribution_description: Willys CJ-2A 1946
context_page_description: The Willys MB and the Ford GPW, both formally called the U.S. Army Truck, ​¹⁄₄-ton, 4×4, Command Reconnaissance, commonly known as Jeep or jeep, and sometimes referred to as G503, were highly successful off-road capable, light, military utility vehicles, built in large numbers to a standardized design, from 1941 to 1945, for the Allied forces in World War II.
  The jeep became the primary light wheeled transport vehicle of the United States Military and its Allies in World War II, as well as the postwar period, with President Eisenhower once calling it, "one of three decisive weapons the U.S. had during WWII." It was also the world's first mass-produced four-wheel drive car, manufactured in six-figure numbers. About 650,000 units were built, constituting a quarter of the total U.S. non-combat motor vehicles produced during the war, and almost two-thirds of the 988,000 light vehicle class produced, together with the Dodge WC series.
context_section_description: Willys-Overland filed to trademark the "Jeep" name in 1943. From 1945 onwards, Willys marketed its four-wheel drive vehicle to the public with its CJ (Civilian Jeep) versions, making these the world's first mass-produced 4WD civilian cars. Even before actual civilian purpose jeeps had been created, the Jan 3, 1944 issue of Life magazine featured a story titled: 'US Civilians Buy Their First Jeeps'. A mayor from Kansas had bought a Ford GP in Chicago in 1943, and it performed invaluable work on his 2000 acre farm.
  Already in 1942 industrial designer Brooks Stevens came up with an idea on how to make a civilian car called Victory Car on the Jeep chassis. It never went into production but Willys liked the idea and Brook Stevens got more assignments, including the Willys Jeep Station Wagon in 1946.
  In 1948, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission agreed with American Bantam that the idea of creating the Jeep was originated and developed by the American Bantam in collaboration with the U.S. Army as well as Ford and Spicer. The commission forbade Willys from claiming, directly or by implication, that it had created or designed the Jeep, and allowed it only to claim that it contributed to the development of the vehicle. The trademark lawsuit initiated and won by Bantam was a hollow victory: American Bantam went bankrupt by 1950 and Willys was granted the "Jeep" trademark the same year.
  The first CJs were essentially the same as the MB, except for such alterations as vacuum-powered windshield wipers, a tailgate (and therefore a side-mounted spare tire), and civilian lighting. Also, the civilian jeeps had amenities like naugahyde seats, chrome trim, and were available in a variety of colors. Mechanically, a heftier T-90 transmission replaced the Willys MB's T84 in order to appeal to the originally considered rural buyer demographic.
  In Britain, Rover was also inspired to build their own jeep-like vehicle. Their first testing prototype was actually built on the chassis of a battered war-surplus jeep on a Welsh farm, and Land Rover production started after its presentation model was well-received at the 1948 Amsterdam auto show.
  Willys-Overland and its successors, Willys Motors and Kaiser Jeep continued to supply the U.S. military, as well as many allied nations with military jeeps through the late 1960s. In 1950, the first post-war military jeep, the M38 (or MC), was launched, based on the 1949 CJ-3A. In 1953, it was quickly followed by the M38A1 (or MD), featuring an all-new "round-fendered" body in order to clear the also new, taller, Willys Hurricane engine. This jeep was later developed into the civilian CJ-5 launched in 1955. Similarly, its ambulance version, the M170 (or MDA), featuring a 20-inch wheelbase stretch, was later turned into the civilian CJ-6.
  Before the CJ-5, Willys offered the public a cheaper alternative with the taller F-head, overhead-valve engine, in the form of the 1953 CJ-3B, simply using a CJ-3A body with a taller hood. This was quickly turned into the M606 jeep (mostly used for export, through 1968) by equipping it with the available heavy-duty options such as larger tires and springs, and by adding black-out lighting, olive drab paint, and a trailer hitch. After 1968, M606A2 and -A3 versions of the CJ-5 were created in a similar way for friendly foreign governments.
  Licenses to produce jeeps, especially CJ-3Bs, were issued to manufacturers in many different countries, and some, such as Mahindra and Mahindra Limited in India, continue to produce them in some form or another to this day. Chinkara Motors of India produces the Jeepster,  with FRP body. The Jeepster can be delivered a diesel engine or the 1.8L Isuzu petrol.  
  In France, the army used Hotchkiss M201 jeeps – essentially licensed Willys MBs. In Japan, Mitsubishi's first jeeps were versions of the CJ-3B, and in 1950 Toyota Motors was given an order by U.S. forces to build a vehicle to Jeep specifications, resulting in Toyota's BJ and FJ series of utility vehicles, slightly bigger and more powerful jeep-type vehicles.
  The compact military jeep continu
caption: 1946 Willys CJ-2A
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A630", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2014:05:26 23:02:34", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "220", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1062", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "17413", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:05:25 12:19:40", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:05:25 12:19:40", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "223/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "6", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "29/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "2513/200", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3200", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2400", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1632000/143", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1224000/107", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}