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Jeep is an automobile marque of DaimlerChrysler. The term derives from, and is often associated with, an automobile, originally a military vehicle built for the United States Army during World War II, and later produced in a line of consumer models. Although not Jeep-brand vehicles, the term is sometimes used to refer generically to farm or family vehicles such as the Land Rover, International Harvester Scout, Ford Bronco, and Chevrolet Blazer. This category of vehicles was the root of the SUV era in the 1980s.
History
The origin of the term "jeep" is somewhat of a mystery; popular notion has it that the vehicle designation "GP" (for "General Purpose") was phonetically slurred in pronunciation, eventually becoming "jeep"; however, many claim that the more likely origin is a reference to a character from Popeye cartoons known as Eugene the Jeep. The character could walk through walls and ceilings, fly, and just about go anywhere it wanted, and it is thought that soldiers at the time were so impressed with the new vehicle that they informally named it after the character. It is a popular misconception that the designation "GP" stands for "General Purpose"; the Ford Motor Company which produced the vehicles for many years used the letter "G" for "Government", while the "P" was an indicator of the vehicle's wheelbase size.
The original prototypes were built for the Department of the Army by American Bantam. The model MB military Jeep was first built in quantity by Willys-Overland Motor Company in Toledo, Ohio. Due to their inability to produce the vast number of vehicles required, the U.S. government also allowed jeeps to be built by Ford Motor Company. Combined production by Willys and Ford during World War II was more than 500,000.
The Jeep was widely copied in countries other than the United States. There were versions adapted to run on railways. As part of the war effort, Jeeps were supplied to the Soviet Red Army during the World War.
In U.S. military use, the jeep has largely been supplanted by the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle ("Hum-Vee").
The Jeep Marque
DaimlerChrysler, the most recent successor company to Willys, holds trademark status on the word "Jeep" and the distinctive 7-bar front grill design. It is said that the number of people worldwide who can recognize the distinctive Jeep grille is second only to the number who can recognize Mickey Mouse.
The marque has gone through many owners, starting in 1945 with Willys, which produced the first Civilian Jeep (CJ). Willys was sold to Kaiser in 1953, which became Kaiser-Jeep in 1963. American Motors bought the company in 1970, and Renault took over in 1980. Chrysler bought AMC and merged Jeep with the Renault produced into Jeep/Eagle in 1987, shortly after the Jeep CJ was replaced with the Jeep Wrangler. Finally, Chrysler was merged with Daimler-Benz in 1998 to form DaimlerChrysler.
Jeep vehicles are also produced in Beijing, China, by Beijing Jeep Corporation, Ltd. (BJC), a joint venture between Beijing Automobile Industry Corporation, DaimlerChrysler Corporation and DaimlerChrysler China Invest Corporation, established on January 15, 1984.
Models
Jeep produces three models:
- Jeep Wrangler - small successor to the Jeep CJ (called TJ in Canada)
- Jeep Grand Cherokee - large family-oriented SUV
- Jeep Liberty - small SUV (called Cherokee outside North America)
Jeeps also have "model designations." Remember the CJ-5 and CJ-7? Nearly every other civilian Jeep has a similar 'J' designator, though not well-known:
- CJ-2A, -3A, -3B, -4, -5, -6, -7, -8: All similar to the original Willy's body style. Some were stretched versions of earlier vehicles (CJ-6 is a stretched CJ-5, CJ-8 "Scrambler" is a stretched CJ-7). Unlike the other J designators, CJ actually stands for something, "Civilian Jeep."
- CJ-10: A turck-like Jeep
- YJ: The original Wrangler
- TJ: The new Wrangler
- SJ: The full-size Cherokee, Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer
- XJ: The down-sized Cherokee
- ZJ: The "old" Grand Cherokee, '93-'98
- WJ: The "newer" Grand Cherokee, '99-'04
- WK: The newest Grand Cherokee, '05-present ("WK" is the anticipated designator for the new Grand Cherokee, it is one of the few non-J-designated Jeeps).
- KJ: The Liberty
- MJ: The Commanche pickup
- DJ: The "Dispatcher" (USPS)
- VJ: The Jeepster