The Davis Motor Car Company was founded in 1946 in Van Nuys, CA, an industrial city near Los Angeles. While Van Nuys was a long way from the auto-making hub of the Midwest, the area was at the heart of the budding aerospace industry. Southern California was also the birthplace of the Hot Rod culture. Rockets and rods, both would play key roles in the story of this curious little car.

For more than 20 years during the early 20th century, Stutz was a builder of some the finest automobiles in the world. Like so many other of the great marques - Mercer, Marmon, Pierce-Arrow - Stutz was felled by the Great Depression. But Stutz alone experienced resurrrection. After more than three decades of slumber, the venerable name was again spelled out in chrome. For its second coming, however, Stutz automobiles were decidedly less distinguished.

In a strange twist of fate, the booming post-war seller's market dealt Willys-Overland a challenging hand. Four years of pent up automotive demand was screaming to be freed. Carmakers were in a mad scramble to ramp up civilian production and sell every car they could build. The seller’s market extended beyond just the manufacturers. Suppliers of everything from components to steel could pick and choose the highest volume contracts with the fattest profits. After a terrific run with the military Jeep, Willys now wanted badly to put on its civvies back on and start building cars again. But no supplier wanted to produce bodies for a small maker, especially one with a couple of bankruptcies under its belt. Frozen out, Willys was forced into the role of scavenger, looking for automotive opportunities wherever they could be found. Fortunately, what better vehicle was there for probing at the fringes than the go-anywhere Jeep?

What is Jeep doing on a site about makes that didn’t make it? It is one of the most successful and valuable brands in the world. At its core, the Jeep is a bit like the soldiers it transported. It did the grunt work and served its commanders. Willys, Kaiser, AMC, Renault in America, and Chrysler, one by one over the years those commanders would retire or be deposed, while the Jeep soldiered on. It is Willys that usually gets the credit for fathering Jeep. Indeed, Willys built more than a third of a million of them over the course of WWII. It was Willys that thought to secure a patent in 1943 on that not yet storied name. But it was a small firm in Butler PA who was first to produce the nimble light reconnaissance truck that would soon be called a Jeep. 

Willys Overland is best known as maker of the original Jeep. With good reason. That little truck helped win a world war. The parent company, however, predated its famous aspiring by 40 years, holding a memorable place in its own right in the annals of automobile history. The original Overland of 1902 was one of the very first cars to employ the front engine, rear drive layout that would become the industry standard for the next half century. Willys was the second bestselling car in America during the 1910s, still #3 by the late 1920s, and its strong performing compact cars of the 1930s dominated that category decades before anyone thought to give it a name. The Willys brand did not survive the industry’s post-war consolidation. But through the Jeep name, passing though no fewer that 7 owners...and counting, the Willys-Overland soul lives on.

Like the nation it was named after, the 100-year history of American Motors derives its essence from many varied automotive cultures. The story of America’s “last independent” spans the early years of The Thomas Jeffery Co, a nascent General Motors to Nash Motors, later absorbing Hudson, Kaiser and Willys-Jeep, to the French fling with Renault, and finally the Chrysler Corporation, who laid this storied make to rest. This is the first of an occasional series.

In honor of the 60th aniversery of the Edsel, this is the third in a 3-part look at how the Edsel came to be...and then not to be. In Part III we look at Edsel's launch, and the unfortunate aftermath.

In honor of the 60th aniversery of the Edsel, this is the second in a 3-part look at how the Edsel came to be...and then not to be. In Part II we look at how the Edsel was developed, designed and named.

In honor of the 60th aniversery of the Edsel, this is the first of a 3-part look at how the Edsel came to be...and then not to be. Part I looks at the context in which the Edsel was conceived.