When the United States went looking for a company to build general-purpose vehicles for World War II, it actually found a pair of them. Between the two, Willys-Overland and Ford built nearly 640,000 essentially identical "jeeps" for the war effort — based in part on design contributions from yet another U.S. automaker, American Bantam. So you could say the Jeep identity crisis goes all the way back to the beginning.
It starts, of course, with Willys-Overland, which produced a small run of "civilian jeeps" — the CJ-2 — before ramping up production of the enhanced CJ-2A in 1945. From there, Willys was purchased by Kaiser-Frazer in 1955, with the Willys name maintained as a division of Kaiser-Frazer until the whole thing was renamed Kaiser-Jeep in 1963.
Kaiser-Jeep lasted until 1970, when American Motors bought the Jeep brand to bolster its struggling business. No permanent bolstering occurred, however, and Renault took over control of AMC in 1979. Chrysler then bought AMC from Renault in 1987, specifically for the Jeep brand. Chrysler and Jeep have kept their familial ties alive ever since — although Chrysler's own problems led to a series of different ownership groups right up until now: Chrysler the company became DaimlerChrysler, which off-loaded its American brands, including Jeep, to Cerberus Capital Management, which was replaced by FiatChrysler, which merged with Peugot and friends in 2021 to become Stellantis.
That means Willys-Overland was the first company to own Jeep, and it had a history of making other vehicles, too. Overland started the automotive division of the Standard Wheel Company — involved in the carriage business — and John North Willys one of its top salesmen. But the story goes that he was moving the metal faster than Overland could make it, so he bought that company, started expanding the business, renamed it Willys-Overland, and grew it into the second-biggest automaker in the country; Ford was number one.
Willys himself died in 1935 shortly after returning from a stint as Ambassador to Poland and helping the automaker pull through the Great Depression. Willys-Overland's contract to build vehicles for the U.S. armed services was then leveraged into post-War success with not only the Jeep CJ-2A, but also the first Jeep wagon (1946), the first Jeep truck (1947), and even a Jeep-style car, the Jeepster (1948). On the other hand, and even though an 80-year-old Jeep still has the goods today, financial issues forced the sale of Willys-Overland to Kaiser-Frazer in 1953.
The Kaiser-Frazer Corporation was founded in 1945 with a more affordable, mass-market Kaiser brand and the upscale Frazer division for people with fancier tastes. Of course, being an independent automaker was no easy path to success. When Kaiser-Frazer wanted to expand into a new segment of the market in 1953, it purchased Willys-Overland, which was transformed into a Kaiser division known as Willys Motors.
The timing was perfect, as early SUVs were started to gain traction with more and more drivers. Willys responded with the all-new 1955 Jeep CJ-5 and its long-wheelbase version, the CJ-6. These were bigger, roomier, and a bit more civilized than the original CJs thanks to an upgraded suspension, better brakes, and more comfortable seating.
The formula was a winner with customers, who kept the CJ-5 in production globally through 1984. Other highlights included the cab-over Forward Control trucks that premiered in the late 1950s and saw at least one become an out-of-control deal in 2025. A further winner was the 1963 Wagoneer — which experts say evolved into the first luxury SUV in 1965 with the Super Wagoneer trim.
The Kaiser Jeeps continued to grow in popularity, but they faced a major hurdle because of a relatively limited dealer network. American Motors at the time was in the opposite position, with a national dealer base but a lineup lacking in cars and SUVs. As a result, AMC bought Kaiser in 1970 to basically become a successful full-line auto manufacturer. Now, we all know how that panned out — since neither Kaiser nor AMC are around anymore — but the Jeeps produced under AMC did make its mark.
And that was especially the case for models manufactured after Renault gained a controlling interest in AMC with a significant cash injection in 1979. Both one of Jeep's most-hated and one of its best-loved vehicles launched under Renault's watch in the forms of the underappreciated YJ Wrangler and the now-iconic XJ Cherokee. Each rode on the same underpinnings, but some people could never get past the Wrangler's updated looks — with square headlights — even as the larger Cherokee was recognized (by us) as one of the most important vehicles of the last 50 years.
Yes, Chrysler insists it's still a car company. That said, it's hard to take the brand seriously because it only sells a couple versions of a single minivan. Just keep in mind that the Chrysler Corporation, which also owned the Dodge and Plymouth brands in the 1980s, used to be considered one of the Big Three.
Chrysler did have plenty of ups and downs even back then, but it bought AMC — for the Jeep brand — when it was on one of its upswings. The first K-cars came in 1981, helping Chrysler gather momentum and enough profit to successfully acquire American Motors in 1987. Much as with Kaiser Frazer, the idea was to add a recognized off-road brand to the existing stable.
Jeep was an undeniable success for Chrysler, at least at first. The problems began when the Chrysler Corp's success came to the attention of Daimler AG – parent company of Mercedes-Benz — and the outcome was the infamous 1998 Merger of Equals that turned out to be anything but. DaimlerChrysler delivered a few hits, like the first four-door Wrangler, but in the end, it basically had to pay another company, Cerberus Capital Management, to take over the Chrysler part of the operation (including Jeep) in 2007. FiatChrysler was formed in 2009 out of the ashes of the Cerberus years, helping expand Jeep's global reach, and it joined Stellantis when FiatChrysler merged with the PSA Group in 2021. Which is where things stand today.
