Jeep, Goes most anywhere… Does most anything.
We’re really not sure what to think about the intro to this 1960 Jeep commercial. Buster Keaton was no doubt the king of silent film comedy, but we think the ad execs were reaching a bit by wrangling him into doing this commercial.
Regardless, what is awesome about this commercial is that is shows just how hard Kaiser-Jeep tried to make the CJ into a farmer’s dream vehicle. The civilian Jeep CJ was known as the Universal for a reason. Willy’s sought to capitalized on the popularity of the MB by offering farmers a utilitarian vehicle capable of both every day farm work and driving the family to the church on Sunday.
The CJ-3B was also sold in a farm version (priced at $1439 in 1953) and as a fire truck, or a stripped-down chassis for specialty vehicles. Starting in 1948 Willys began offering various farm implements including the following attachment highlighted in the video:
Agricultural options included:
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Other more industrialized options included:
- Grader Blade
- Trencher (At $1975 the trencher was no cheap option, but could dig trenches up to 6′ deep, and included the Jeep!)
- Wrecker Boom
- Snow Plow (Starting from $175.86)
- Back Hoe
- Street Sweeper
- Crane
- Auger
- Bush Hog
- Pulley for center Power Take Off (PTO) ($57.40)
- Monroe Hydraulic Lift Implement ($225.00)
It a dizzying list of options for a vehicle where only the drivers’ seat came standard. The passenger ($46.55), and back seat (starting in 1955) were optional equipment. Buyers had to dish out more for other safety features and common necessitates like turn signals ($26.81), heat and defroster ($83.94), and the canvas soft top ($100.53).
What options would you bring back or leave off the 2016 Jeep Wrangler (JK)? Or has the new Wrangler become less of an implement and more of a tool?
