Intro: What started out as an order by the United States military for a small, 1/4-ton, 4x4 vehicle has turned into one of the most noteworthy four-wheelers ever produced. American Bantam was the first of the 134 companies in 1940 who submitted prototypes to the military for testing and was awarded the first contract for 70 vehicles based on its prototype; Willys and Ford were issued blueprint copies to build similar vehicles. Out of the three company prototypes, the Willys MA was the strongest, and they were awarded a contract for 16,000 revised MAs to be called MBs. Due to the manufacturing capabilities, Ford agreed to build the MBs to Willy's specifications. By war's end, Willys had built 358,489 MB Jeeps, and Ford had produced some 277,896 GPWs, and the term General Purpose and its acronym GP gave way to the nick-name Jeep.
Due to their war work, the Jeeps were extremely popular, and in 1947 Willys introduced the CJ-2A as a civilian form of Jeeping. People looking for the capabilities of the standard Jeep and the roominess of a station wagon were satisfied in 1949, when Willys introduced the world's first 4x4 station wagon. Kaiser Frazer company purchased Willys Overland in 1954, creating Kaiser Jeep, and produced the CJ-5. In 1970 American Motors Corporation (AMC) acquired Kaiser Jeep, and lengthened the CJ-5, and in 1976 the famed CJ7 was introduced. Ten years later, the popular CJ7 was replaced by the YJ-Series Wrangler, featuring an updated look that pleased some, but disgusted others. AMC became Chrysler Corporation property in 1987, subsequently landing the Jeep and Eagle divisions within the Pentagon crested family, and in 1992 the ever-popular Jeep Grand Cherokee was introduced, eliminating the aging flagship Grand Wagoneer. By 1997, the TJ Wrangler retired the YJ series, bringing back the older, more rugged looking Jeep. Currently Jeep holds the status of being one of the foremost four-wheel-drive producers in the world.