Behind the Wrangler Willys Wheeler

When Jeep launched the Wrangler Willys Wheeler, an Allpar reader suggested that they should have made it based on the Rubicon instead of the entry-level Sport; while there was some suggestion that the new special edition was another “decal package.”

A couple of readers suggested it would have been more helpful to swap the fenders and fender flares with narrower ones, to help the vehicle reduce its width and fit on more trails and between more obstacles. Tannon Weber wrote, “The WWII military model, Willys CJ-2a and other early Jeeps didn’t have the plastic flares at all, just the flat fenders the same width as the body behind.  A model ostensibly paying specific homage to these early models needs to reflect some of the characteristics of those models, and replacing bolt-on parts should be a fairly cost-effective way to do so.”

Former Jeep engineer Bob Sheaves, however, pointed out that the Willys may have been more carefully thought out than it seems:

The Willys was a bare bones machine that could do its job with the hard parts and wasn’t a fancy SUV. That is what is being done here….it isn’t a Rubicon, with all the fancy doodads like sway-bar disconnects. This is an honest attempt to build a more off-road ready Jeep without the cost of a Rubicon.

The Rubicon is a better off-road vehicle, but the Willys is better off-road than a basic Sport.

The original “Willys” name was stamped into the hood, and the special edition has a plain black decal to keep common hoods across the models. The 4WD decal was originally done with a stencil to save money. The new decals match the original intent exactly. [Using stencils or stamping the name into the hood would be far more expensive.]

Give credit where credit is due….they done good on this one.

As read on: http://www.allpar.com/news/index.php/2013/11/behind-the-wrangler-willys-wheeler