With
modifications and improvements, the Willys
Quad became the MA, and later the MB. But the Army, and the world, came
to know it as the Jeep®.
Some
claimed that the name came from the slurring of the letters "GP," the
military abbreviation for "General Purpose." Others say the vehicle
was named for a popular character named "Eugene the Jeep" in the
Popeye cartoon strip. Whatever its origin, the name entered into the American
lexicon and, for awhile, served almost as a generic title for off-road
vehicles, while the Jeep itself became an icon of the war.
The
Willys MA featured a gearshift on the steering column, low side body cutouts,
two circular instrument clusters on the dashboard, and a hand brake on the left
side. Willys struggled to reduce the weight to the new Army specification of
2,160 lbs. Items removed in order for the MA to reach that goal were
reinstalled on the next-generation MB resulting in a final weight of
approximately just 400 lbs. above the specifications.
Willys-Overland
would build more than 368,000 vehicles, and Ford, under license, some 277,000,
for the U.S. Army. The rugged, reliable olive-drab vehicle would forever be
known for helping win a world war.
Willys
trademarked the "Jeep" name after the war and planned to turn the
vehicle into an off-road utility vehicle for the farm - the civilian Universal
Jeep. One of Willys' slogans at the time was "The Sun Never Sets on the
Mighty Jeep," and the company set about making sure the world recognized
Willys as the creator of the vehicle.
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