26 Facts About Willys

In 1908, John Willys bought the Overland Automotive Division of Standard Wheel Company and in 1912 renamed it Willys–Overland Motor Company.

From 1912 to 1918, Willys was the second-largest producer of automobiles in the United States after Ford Motor Company.

In 1913, Willys acquired a license to build Charles Knight's sleeve-valve engine which it used in cars bearing the Willys–Knight nameplate.

John Willys acquired the Electric Auto-Lite Company in 1914 and in 1917 formed the Willys Corporation to act as his holding company.

In 1926, Willys–Overland introduced a new line of small cars named Willys–Overland Whippet.

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Willys–Overland was one of two bidders when the United States Army sought an automaker that could begin rapid production of a lightweight reconnaissance car based on a design by American Bantam.

Willys saw a need to improve the firm's 4-cylinder engine to handle the abuse to which the jeep would be subjected.

Willys–Overland ranked 48th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts.

The first postwar Willys product was the CJ-2A, an MB stripped of obviously military features, particularly the blackout lighting, and with the addition of a tailgate.

Willys initially struggled to find a market for the vehicle, first attempting to sell it primarily as an alternative to the farm tractor.

In 1946, a year after the introduction of the CJ-2A, Willys produced the Willys "Jeep" Utility Wagon based on the same engine and transmission, with clear styling influence from the CJ-2A Jeep.

In 1948, under a contract from the U S Army, Willys produced a small one-man four-wheeled utility vehicle called the Jungle Burden Carrier which evolved into the M274 Utility ½-ton vehicle.

Willys later produced the M38 Jeep for the U S Army, and continued the CJ series of civilian Jeeps.

In 1952, Willys re-entered the car market with a new compact car, the Willys Aero.

The bodies for the Willys Aero were supplied by the Murray Body Corporation, which made the bodies for the short-lived Hudson Jet.

Willys–Overland established its Brazilian operations in 1953, just before the Kaiser-Frazer takeover.

Also, an abortive plan was made to create a company called Chrysler-Willys do Brasil SA to build the 1956 Plymouth Savoy and a Dodge truck there, in the hope of taking advantage of Willys' "Brazilian-made" credentials.

Willys went through considerable effort to appear as a Brazilian company, even selling a large portion of their company to Brazilian stockholders to forestall a possible nationalist backlash, and to become eligible for various government incentives.

Willys–Overland was one of the first companies to enter the Brazilian passenger automobile market, and their early entry originally paid off, with sales spiking in 1954 when Willys became the number-one selling car.

Willys entered the Brazilian market in the hope of offsetting their shrinking market and losses at home.

However, unlike in the case of the Argentinian Kaiser operations, which were essentially developed around hand-me-downs, Willys built a very modern plant from the ground up in Brazil.

Willys expanded into Brazil's impoverished northeast in the early 1960s, when they built an assembly plant for the Jeep in the state of Pernambuco.

In 1962, Willys started building the French Alpine A108 as the Willys Interlagos.

Willys designed and showed a larger sports car called the "Capeta" in 1964, powered by the 2.

In 1965, Willys–Overland do Brasil and Renault began collaborating on a new front-wheel drive car, called "Project M" and meant to replace the aging Dauphine.

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In 2014, the Willys trademark was acquired by Italian Carrozzeria Viotti, declaration of Emanuele Bomboi .