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It’s one of the most popular vehicles on the American highway today, but it hasn’t been around as long as the classic car and truck varieties. When and where did the sport utility vehicle come into existence? From the early years to a Dallas 2015 Dodge Durango Limited, let’s find out. War Machine World War II saw it necessary to do a great deal of inventing and innovating in order to protect soldiers and better ensure a victorious campaign. Once America realized it was eventually going to have to enter the fight abroad, the US Army contacted 135 companies and asked for working prototypes for a four-wheel-drive reconnaissance car. Of all those companies contacted, only two responded, partly due to the limited 49 days given for the companies to supply their prototype at all. Prototype Pitfalls One of those companies was American Bantam. At the time, Bantam was bankrupt and didn’t have an engineering team on staff, so they asked a gentleman named Karl Probst, a freelance designer from Detroit, to help them with a design. Initially, he turned them down, but then agreed after a direct request from the US Army to get started on a design—without being on salary. It took him two days for Probst to lay out full plans for the Bantam prototype. In the end, the vehicle prototype met all the US Army’s requirements except for torque. Sharing the Manufacturing Ford Motor Company and Willys-Overland, two of the biggest names in the business at the time, were given the prototype designs and told to come up with something. These companies had the equipment to mass-produce vehicles as needed. The actual labor ended up being done by multiple companies in order to meet the quota needs for the US military’s involvement in WWII abroad—but this is how the first Jeep was designed. Word Origin The name “jeep” has an unclear origin, but the design was designated Government Purposes for General Purpose, or GP, and it’s thought that this acronym was slurring in usage by active military into the term jeep. After the Battle Once WWII was over, the SUV took a turn from a military vehicle to a family owned vehicle. The station wagon was swiftly fading out, and the spaciousness of the SUV, as well as it’s hauling abilities and its perceived family safety, made the SUV steadily rise in the market as a vehicle of choice. Some early public SUV models included the Chevrolet Carryall Suburban (1935), GAZ-61 (1938), and the Willys Jeep Station Wagon (1948). The SUV remains an elusive term that incorporates a large number of different vehicles. The size of America and her open roadways, as compared to the compactness of European cities, gives plenty of room for the continual rise of the SUV in popularity and use. If you’re looking in LINK, or just trying to decide what the right family vehicle is for your home, you should check with your local dealer about different models and payment options that are available to you, such as a Dallas 2015 Dodge Durango Limited.
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