Willys Overland

Willys-Knight emblem

Willys 6 1931 Sport Coupe

Willys 90 Silver Streak (1932)

Willys-Jeep MB (G503) built in 1945

Willys-Overland Motors was an American automobile manufacturer that sold its vehicles under the brand names Willys, Aero-Willys, Overland and Jeep .

history

In 1908, John North Willys bought the Overland Automobile Company , which he renamed the Willys-Overland Motor Company in 1912 . From 1912 to 1918 the company was the second largest automobile manufacturer in the United States.

In 1913, Willys acquired a license to manufacture sleeve valve motors according to the Knight system and manufactured vehicles under the name Willys-Knight . In the mid-1920s, he also bought the FB Stearns Company in Cleveland, Ohio, and built luxury cars for the Stearns-Knight brand .

The Electric Auto-Lite Company was added in 1914 and the Russell Motor Car Company in Ontario ( Canada ) in 1915 , and in 1917 John N. Willys founded the Willys Corporation as a holding company. In 1919 he acquired the Duesenberg plant in Elizabeth, New Jersey . Here Willys had a new model developed, the Willys Six-89, independently of other corporate influences . The engineers behind this project were Owen Skelton , Carl Breer and Fred Zeder who had previously worked at Studebaker and later held key positions at Chrysler . In 1918 Willys-Overland acquired the majority of the shares in the Moline Plow Company .

The Elizabeth plant was replaced by a larger one to manufacture the Six-89 . That never happened, the recession brought Willys Corporation to its knees. The Chase National Bank as the main creditor then commissioned Walter P. Chrysler in 1919 to revise the company and model mass. Chrysler was previously President of General Motors ' Buick Division . Walter Chrysler was entrusted with the renovation of Maxwell-Chalmers in 1922 . In the meantime the plant in Elizabeth including the prototype of the Willys Six-89 came under the hammer. Chrysler also bid for Maxwell, but the contract went to his former boss William C. Durant, who had meanwhile had to leave General Motors and was busy building up a new group, the Durant Motor Corporation . Durant's inexpensive Star car was to be built in this plant . Durant wanted to develop a Buick competitor from the Willys prototype. That required a larger and heavier vehicle. In accordance with these specifications, the vehicle was heavily revised, made ready for production and came out as Flint in 1923 . Walter Chrysler brought Skelton , Breer and Zeder to Chalmers and let them refine the original design. After successful restructuring, Walter Chrysler took over the company. Almost four years after the completion of the Willys Six-89, in January 1924, it was introduced to the public in a slightly modified form as the Chrysler Six Model B-70 and was an immediate success.

Production ended in 1926; instead, the Whippet was built. After the 1929 stock market crash was followed by the Great Depression , some Willys car brands were therefore discontinued. Stearns-Knight was liquidated in 1929. Production of the Whippet ended in 1931; it was replaced by the Willys Six and Willys Eight models . The Willys-Knight was discontinued in 1933.

Willys adjusted its model range and decided to produce only two new models, the four-cylinder Willys 77 and the six-cylinder Willys 99. After the company was again on the verge of bankruptcy, only the Willys 77 was built. She had to sell her Canadian office, which was also in poor financial shape, and began a major reorganization. After that, only the main factory in Toledo and a few smaller factories belonged to Willys-Overland. The rest was sold to a newly established real estate company, from which Willys-Overland leased back some properties. So the company was able to survive the difficult times.

In 1936 it was renamed Willys-Overland Motors . In the 1920s and 1930s, Willys-Overland was one of many small automakers in the United States. When the US War Department was looking for an automaker that could quickly set up production for a light commercial vehicle based on the prototype designed by American Bantam , Willys-Overland also applied.

In 1938 Joseph W. Frazer left Chrysler and took over the management of Willys-Overland. He immediately tried to improve the products and expand the activities into other business areas. One of these was the Willys MB all-terrain vehicle , later known as the Jeep . Another task was to improve the four-cylinder engine so that it could withstand the difficult conditions that the Willys MB would be subjected to. Production of the Willys MB began in 1941 with 8,598 units, and by the end of World War II 359,851 units were built, with a similar number licensed from Ford.

After the war, Willys stopped manufacturing pre-war cars and preferred to concentrate on building jeeps and vehicles based on them. The first post-war vehicle was the Jeep CJ-2A , a Willys MB without the typical military details, such as the camouflage lighting, and instead with a rear door.

Willys fought for a market for the unusual vehicle and tried to sell it to the farmers as a tractor . Tractors were not made during wartime and were therefore difficult to obtain. Even so, the Agri-Jeep sold poorly, mainly because the vehicle was too light to provide sufficient traction.

However, the CJ-2A was one of the first civil vehicles to be fitted with all-wheel drive from the factory. It became popular with farmers, ranchers, hunters, and other people who needed a lightweight vehicle for unpaved roads and bad roads.

In 1946, a year after the introduction of the CJ-2A, Willys manufactured the Jeep Wagon , which featured the same drive system and styling influenced by the CJ-2A. Next came the four-wheel drive jeep truck . In 1948 there was also all-wheel drive for the wagon, which made it the forerunner of today's SUVs .

Willys later also produced the Jeep M38 for the US Army and continued the series of Jeep CJs . Another variant of the jeep was the jeepster . A tamer version was available with a four or six cylinder engine and only with rear wheel drive.

From 1951 Willys participated again in the car market with the new "compact car" Willys Aero . At first, this vehicle was only available as a two-door model with a side or counter-steered six-cylinder engine. Abroad, the Aero was also available with the four-cylinder engine (from the Jeep CJ). From 1953 there were also four-door models, a hardtop coupé and taxi versions.

In 1953 the company was bought by Kaiser Motors and changed the company name to Willys Motor Company .

Models

Model year	Models
1915	Knight K-17 , Knight K-19
1916	Knight 4-cyl. , Knight 6-cyl.
1917	Knight 88-4 , Knight 88-6 , Knight 88-8
1918	Knight 88-4 , Knight 88-8 , Model 89
1919	Knight 88-4 , Knight 88-8 , Model 89
1920	Knight 20 , Knight 88-8 , Model 89
1921	Knight 20
1922	Knight 20 , Knight 27
1923	Knight 64 , Knight 67
1924	Knight 64 , Knight 67
1925	Knight 65 , Knight 66
1926	Knight 66 , Knight 70
1927	Knight 66 A , Knight 70 A
1928	Knight 56 , Knight 66 A , Knight 70 A
1929	Knight 56 , Knight 66 A , Knight 70 A , Knight 70 B
1930	Knight 66 B , Knight 70 B , Knight Six-87 , Six-98 B
1931	Knight 66 D , Six-97 , Six-98 D , Eight-80 , Eight-80 D.
1932	Knight 66 D , Knight 95 DeLuxe , Six-90 , Eight-88
1933	Knight 66 E , 77 , Six-90 A , Eight-88 A
1934	77
1935	77
1936	77
1937	37
1938	38
1939	48
1940	Speedway , Jeep MA , Jeep MB
1941	Americar , Jeep MB
1942	Americar , Jeep MB
1943	Jeep MB
1944	Jeep MB , Jeep CJ-2
1945	Jeep MB , Jeep CJ-2
1946	Jeep CJ-2A Station Wagon
1947	Jeep CJ-2A , Station Wagon , Pickup
1948	Jeep CJ-2A , Jeepster VJ , Station Wagon , Pickup
1949	Jeep CJ-2A , Jeep CJ-3A , Jeepster VJ , Station Wagon , Pickup
1950	Jeep CJ-3A , Jeepster VJ , Station Wagon , Pickup
1951	Jeep CJ-3A , Station Wagon , Pickup
1952	Aero Lark , Aero Wing , Aero Ace , Aero Eagle , Jeep CJ-3A , Station Wagon , Pickup
1953	Aero Lark DeLuxe , Aero Heavy Duty , Aero Falcon Super DeLuxe , Aero Ace Custom , Aero Eagle , Jeep CJ-3A , Jeep CJ-3B , Station Wagon , Pickup

Web links

Commons : Willys - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=jbcaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=dUkEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3596%2C1522774

[1] ttps://news.google.com/newspapers?id=jbcaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=dUkEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3596%2C1522774