May 18, 2022 • 33 mins
The Jeep was created in the 1940s to serve the battlefields of World War II. It glided into France on D-Day, it slogged through the Bulge. Today you can find Jeeps cruising the Jersey shore, or parked in someone’s garage next to a Mercedes-Benz S-class. But it still remains true to its military roots. It’s still—defiantly—the most American vehicle of all time. So why does this anachronistic, out-of-step vehicle still sell so well? The answer may surprise you.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin. Hey Eddie here, before we get started, I wanted
you to know that you can listen to Car Show
ad free by becoming a Pushkin Plus subscriber. You'll also
get access to detours, bonus episodes of Car Show where
we go for extended drives, play outtakes, and more fine
(00:37):
Pushkin Plus on the Car Show page, in Apple Podcasts,
or at pushkin dot Fm. Listen to that. Okay, that's
(00:57):
ninety let's not do that. I'm sorry, but I didn't
even feel us make the acceleration almost It just like
jumped things so softly sprung that it just kind of
rears back up when you accelerate, and all the mass
loads they all shift to the back. They're like, whoa,
(01:20):
my sunglasses just flues to the back of my head.
No joke, that's so good. That just n That was me,
our editor Jan Guera and our producer Sam Dingman going
ninety miles an hour in a fifty five zone, floating
the speed limit and common sense even dumber. We're at
(01:41):
the wheel of a hot rod jeep, the Wrangler Rubicon
three ninety two. It is so named because it comes
stuffed with a huge three ninety two cubic inch hemy
V eight engine making four hundred and seventy horsepower and
a chassis ill equipped to deal with that kind of
brute force. The regular jeep is handful enough on the highway.
(02:02):
This roided up three ninety two. It's enough to pull
the sunglasses right off your head. This is a muscle
car engine in a jeep. Did you see how the
whole thing was rocking up and down. I'm Eddie Alterman,
(02:25):
and this is car show. I've been an automotive journalist
since i was nineteen years old, and I've driven nearly
every car that's been made since then, three decades, driving
some two hundred and fifty new cars a year. The
math is shocking even to me. For this last decade,
(02:47):
I was the editor in chief of Car and Driver,
the world's largest car magazine. I spent my entire life
around cars and the people who make them. I think
all cars are great, even the awful ones. I'm a
fan of the genre, but some cars transcend there for
lack of a better term, carness. Some cars have a
(03:09):
story to tell, which got us thinking, what if we
did a show that focused on what certain cars mean
rather than how quick they are? What if we thought
about what makes certain cars important rather than what makes
them go on Car Show, We're going to look at
(03:30):
the vital cars, the ones that have changed how we
drive and live, whose significance lies outside the scope of
horsepower or mile square gallon. Because some cars are more
than just a pile of metal, glass and rubber. Some
cars are rolling anthropology. This week we're talking about the
(03:54):
Jeep Wrangler. The Wrangler is the direct descendant of the
original jeep, created in the forties to serve the battlefields
of World War Two. It was a tool, a Swiss
army knife of a vehicle that's grown new blades generation.
But this gym r of an SUV, the three ninety two,
(04:14):
that's less of a basic military vehicle than a kaleidoscopic
journey through the asteroid belt of niche marketing. It's an
absurd outgrowth of an insanely popular vehicle line. There are
hard top Wranglers and soft top Wranglers, sport versions and
rubicon trail ready versions. There are two doors and four
door jeeps, even pickups. There are four cylinders, six cylindar,
(04:37):
eight cylinder, and even hybrid powered models. There is it
seems a Jeep for everyone. You know, the jeep contains multitudes.
There's all kinds of ways to play it. There's all
kinds of facets on the original idea. But it's still
a jeep. Yeah, you know, in one sense, it's like
(04:59):
a beach toy beachcomber, and another sense it's the most
serious off rodor of all time. In another sense, it's
a muscle car in another, and it's you know, first
car for a private school kid. Where do you think that?
(05:19):
Because I do associate it with the beach, but a
car for beach driving or like cruising up and down
the boardwalk feels so out of step with the idea
of a military hauler one hundred and eighty degrees away
from it. Where did that come from? Good question, because
(05:40):
Sam isn't talking about the beaches of Normandy. So how
do we get to this point? How did the jeep
go from the Arden forest to planet fitness? What energy
was latent in that first Jeep that allowed it to
thrive over eight decades even as the world seems increasingly
dead set against it. On this episode, we'll talk about
(06:03):
why the Jeep Wrangler is the most American vehicle of
all time and along the way, we'll hear from folks
will tell us what the Jeep means to them. People
love talking about their jeeps. I feel very connected to
the Americana element of jeeps. I've always been a huge
fan of the Jeeps. I just love the way they look,
(06:24):
and I kind of thought that I should have one
before I die. The seatbelt situation was insane. I guess
it was safe in there, like it had a roll bar,
but I did drove that thing like crazy. It's a
really joyful car and there's never a top on it,
and it's sort of cool, but it's not pretentious and
(06:46):
just invokes a sense of fun to me. After the
break the Rise of the Jeep, I'm Eddie Alterman, and
this is Car Show. We'll be right back. The base
(07:18):
version of the Jeep Wrangler is agricultural. It's unrefined. It
likes to veer all over the place on the highway,
putting a hemmy in it, as Jeep did for this
Wrangler three ninety two would appear to tempt fate, and
yet the three ninety two and eighty thousand dollars elephant
on roller skates makes a perverse kind of sense. The
(07:46):
jeep is everything to all people. It's a war hero,
a beach bugget, an army mule, a cultural movement, a
Barbie accessory, a fraternity, a sorority, and now a muscle cover.
You know, the cool thing about this vehicle is that
it's like sort of like nothing else on the road.
(08:07):
You have this really short windshield, it's almost in your
face and totally upright. You have these really square peel
off doors, you have a peel off top. You're sitting
really high off the ground. You can see all four
corners of the vehicle. There's a high hit point. You're
(08:29):
sort of up in the air on this thing. And
in this day and age, very few vehicles have that
sense of uniqueness that there's really nothing else like it
on the road. And I think that's a great part
of its appeal. So how can something so out of
step with a modern automotive environment be so popular, so varied,
(08:51):
and so right for so many people. There really is
a jeep culture. Get a lot of conversations with strangers,
a lot of recognition, and a lot of love. People
people love talking about their jeeps. You know, I guess
you just fall for these machines and you appreciate people
(09:13):
who have also Jeep cells roughly as many Wranglers as
Honda sells accords. Unlike the Honda, though, the Jeep Wrangler
is an anachronism, a bulwark against the endless refinements of
the car industry with its fixations on noise, emissions, fuel economy,
and passenger comfort and safety. In a world where carmakers
(09:34):
are swearing off internal combustion engines for battery powered electric vehicles,
the Jeep says, screw that free trade, farmers market, NPR, tote, bag,
tote and crap. I've got a huge V eight under
the hood. I'm the proud owner of a Jeep CJ seven,
which I think is a car that isn't particularly snobby
or inaccessible. It was something that I felt was part
(09:59):
of a community in a way that you didn't even
really have to intentionally tap into. It just existed. This
sla sided mule designed for the Second World War, thumbs
its nose that sophisticated luxury electric SUVs with their limited
range and utility, and it out sells them by huge margins.
(10:22):
The Wrangler, that rectilinear shape your mind conjures when you
hear the word Jeep is a remarkably durable idea, even
in those eras when the vehicle itself wasn't all that durable.
The Jeep brand has persisted through more than seven decades
without losing its essence. Depending on who's counting, Jeep has
(10:42):
survived nine corporate custodians and emerged stronger for it. Like
an organism that consumes its host, Its sales have steadily
increased to roughly two hundred thousand vehicles a year, and
it has spawned an entire range of vehicles with names
like Gladiator, Patriot, Liberty. This year, a new Grand Wagon
(11:03):
ar Mega Suv emerged, broad of beam and festooned with chrome.
It's sticker price can easily top one hundred thousand dollars.
Think about that. We are at a point now where
Jeeps command Mercedes Benz money. There's really no better brand
than the automotive realm, except perhaps Ferrari. Jeep is to
(11:26):
the suv as kleenex is to facial tissue, as coke
is Takola. As I discussed with my producer Sam, Jeep
is the eponym. It's the icon. When I was a kid,
I wanted an orange, cheap wrangler more than anything, because
I thought it would be so cool to pull into
(11:47):
the parking lot in high school in an orange jeep Wrangler.
You're not alone. And I had this whole image of
myself like taking my friends to the beach on the
weekend in it. Even though I was not like a
beach on the weekend type of kid. I was a
like indie movie theater on the weekend type of kid.
(12:07):
But just there was something about the Wrangler that signified
like ease and freedom to me. This is the freedom machine, right,
you know. Enzo Ferrari called it America's only sports car,
and and he meant that in the pejorative, but it
really is built for a different kind of fun, and
(12:28):
it's built to go anywhere and do anything. It's very
anachronistic and it's highly desirable. I mean, it's, you know,
that toy like quality of it. And also I think
the sense that you're kind of playing army guy has
a ton of appeal. Yeah, you know, I wouldn't have
thought of that, but I think that was somewhere at
the center of probably my misplaced desire for one of
(12:52):
these when I was in high school, was it was
a way of seeming like a cool beach guy. But
I'm also kind of a soldier, you know, right, Like
why do young kids play with army men? Gives them
that sense of power like they're in command, they're in control,
and there's a lot of that wrapt up in this vehicle.
(13:17):
A Jeep Wrangler is meant to be in the mud,
off the highway, climbing steep slick grades with its axles locked.
Almost nobody does this. Only about ten to fifteen percent
of Jeep Wrangler owners ever venture off the pavement. To
most of them, off road means parking lot. Most of
(13:39):
its drivers will never use a fraction of the jeep's capabilities.
Where it shines is off the beaten path, where it's
knobby tires and upright aerodynamically inefficient bodywork are virtues, not vices.
It is to the freeway as a pork sandwich is
to the passover sader. In some respects. It's that off
(14:01):
road capability that makes the Wrangler so alluring. It's also
the essence of the entire Jeep brand and what allows
it to charge eighty thousand dollars for this one and
one hundred thousand for a family holler like the grand
Wagon ear. The off rounning prowess gives the brand meaning
you're buying competence, most of which you'll never use. Car
(14:24):
marketers have a phrase for this concept of unused capacity.
It's called perceived performance. It's why people want the track
ready portion of nine to eleven GT three rs, even
though they'll never take their car to the racetrack. Just
knowing that the car can do all this heroic stuff
is good enough and worth paying a premium for. It
(14:45):
drives unlike any other car you will ever drive in
your life. In retrospect, it is super impractical. I mean
like it now as a father of three, I look back.
It's insane. Like the seatbelt situation was insane. I guess
it was safe in that, like it had a roll bar,
like if we rolled over, there was a bar, But
(15:06):
my dad drove that thing like crazy, and then I
also sort of subsequently driveled like crazy. This Wrangler we're driving,
the three ninety two is also a ridiculous and great
muscle car, probably closer to the chaotic, undrivability and lunacy
(15:26):
of the original muscle cars than today's Dodge Chargers and Challengers.
The Wrangler is the centerpiece of the only car brand
that truly cuts across all market segments and socioeconomic strata.
Everyone wants a Jeep. The Jeep's abstract power lies in
its authentic ties to its military roots. It needs to
(15:48):
feel different than a Chevy Equinox or Toyota Highlander because
it is different. It strikes me as you're describing that
that there's probably a lot of other SUVs in this
class where the interior is trying to make you think,
you know, that you're in a luxury sedan even though
(16:09):
you're actually driving a four wheel drive machine, whereas this
car is going to great lengths to remind you like, no, no,
it's still a Jeap. It's definitely a Jeap, that's right, exactly.
And I think that people want that authentic experience to
the extent that, you know, there is this sort of
counter movement in SUVs right now toward more authentic, more
(16:32):
legitimate off roady sorts of vehicles like the Bronco, like
the land Rover Defender that's just been been relaunched, you know,
And there's this movement away from SUVs as family cars,
back toward a more kind of rugged sensibility. But what's
(16:52):
happened over time is because people have so loved some
of the attributes of the suv, like the high seating position,
the ability to really get anything in the back, that
they become so popular and have made so many concessions
to comfort that people sort of think of them as
(17:13):
family cars now or minivan sur rogans. It's tempting for
me hearing you talk about the authenticity piece of the
off roading roots of this car to also make a
connection between the fact that we as humans are spending
less and less time in the real world and separating
(17:36):
ourselves from the metaphorical bumps in the road more than ever. Yeah, man, Sam,
It's like peboard craving experiences, and this car is an
experience self contained. Deep down, the Jeep needs to feel
like an unrefined war machine. The brand's imagery is powered
(17:58):
by that authenticity, that sense that it can dominate any terrain,
that it is purpose built for its mission, that it
could charge into battle when the bad guys show up
with the case nukes. It's a hero, and to drive
one is to assume that role. After the break, we're
going to war. America prefers all America orders its pattern
(18:37):
of life work to meet the demand for protection industry
is a double step to supply the sinews of safety.
Before it donned at Civis and one on sale as
a passenger vehicle, the jeep was pivotal to American success
in the Second World War, and for all the influence
and reach of this brand now, the peculiar thing is
at its inception cheap wasn't even a brand per se.
(19:01):
It was a type of vehicle, a general purpose GP
light truck to supply the troops, made by various manufacturers.
America's basque resources are harnessed to the job of being
the world arsenal or this and other democracies. Its present
day production of armaments is but a mere fraction of
the great job, but live ahead. In preparation for entering
(19:27):
the conflict, Washington knew that this war would be one
of mechanized combat, and that it needed a mechanical replacement
for World War One's army mules, yes, actual mules. The
army needed something that could go anywhere, carrying men and
weapons on and off the battlefield, something that didn't run
(19:47):
on oats. Based on much failed testing of other white
yet rugged concepts, including a stripped down forward model t
Army engineers settled on the basic specifications. It needed four
wheel drive in a certain minimum level of performance, with
loads of climbing and care capability. At one point, they
(20:11):
even specified four wheel steering so that a rear facing
driver with his own steering wheel could take control of
the vehicle and reverse out of danger in the event
of an ambush. The vehicle had to weigh no more
than thirteen hundred pounds but be capable of hauling six
hundred pounds, and the timeline was super tight, less than
(20:33):
three months to deliver a selection of working models. In
other words, the Army's expectations were totally unrealistic. It sent
the bid out to some one hundred and thirty five
manufacturers and was sure that this massive and literal call
to arms would be answered in force. Only two companies
(20:54):
submitted bids, American Bantam out of Butler, Pennsylvania and Willis
Overland out of Toledo, Ohio. Bantam won their preliminary contract,
but in the end it was the Willis design that prevailed.
Ford started making them too, and used the GP designation
for its version of the model. Some say that the
(21:15):
name jeep came not from a contraction of the GP initials,
but from a character in a comic strip. I couldn't
confirm that. It seems more interesting to entertain the notion
that the first jeep was actually a Ford. Anyway, America
got itself an innovative for the time light transport vehicle
that could do everything and go everywhere. The GP guided
(21:38):
into France during the invasion of Normandy June six d Day.
A great plan is put to the test. American soldiers
hit the beach, It slogged through the bulge, It plied
the North African sands. Because the fighting develops, every means
(21:59):
is used to hasten the removal of the wounded from
the scene of battle. The wearing farm plows, it dug
trenches for telephone lines. And that's to say nothing of
its workaday applications. And you were saying part of the
appeal of the traditional wrangler was the flat flatness of
the hood, right, Yeah, there are stories about the flatness
(22:22):
of the hood being a place where you know, all
sorts of work got done, lunches were eaten. It was
an altar for Chaplains to give mass on. That flatness
of the hood was sort of core to the original design.
The jeep of all trades is pressed into service and
proves itself again, Which brings us to an interesting point.
(22:47):
When we talk about the jeep being authentic and people
buying into that realness, what are we really talking about. Well,
on one level, the notion of authenticity arises from functionality.
The jeep reinforces that functionality and capability at every turn,
at every touch point. They are a little visual military
(23:08):
jeep east or eggs all over these vehicles, tiny graphics
of army jeeps crawling up the windshield glass and lights
in the dash that read since nineteen forty one. That
connection to its origin story is something that jeep carefully curates.
Think about Rolex watches. If you want one of the
(23:28):
more prized models, the Submarner or maybe the sky Dweller,
it's going to cost you ten, twenty, maybe even forty
thousand bucks. But people are tripping over themselves to pay
those prices, and the reason has less to do with
the beauty of the piece or the cost of the
materials than the story. The bottom line is that those
(23:50):
Rolexes were built to do jobs, and they did those
jobs either first or better than any other watch. They
are chunky and clunky, and they don't often keep great time.
They are not the elegant gold wrist watches that used
to define success. What they telegraph is the status of action,
(24:10):
of power, of mastery, and that functional authenticity is worth
a lot to people. So it is with Jeep. Yet
the Jeep has a deeper context than any time piece,
And here, finally is the real essence of the thing,
the ultimate core sample of its meaning. To Americans and
(24:32):
indeed other Western countries, where it's always been sold as
a luxury good. The Jeep represents a connection not just
to war, but to a specific war. The one embedded
in America's consciousness is our last good war, the last
(24:52):
war we could understand a clear cut conflict between right
and wrong, the last war where we were unambiguously the
victors and the heroes. The Jeep represents America's yearning for
the simplicity and moral clarity of World War two. Think
(25:14):
about those jeep naming conventions for a second Gladiator. Patriot
liberty cynics might argue that they are evidenced of some
wild shit about the American psyche, that we have a
warrior complex that we glorify theatrical, large scale conflicts and
the war machines used in them. That may be true,
(25:37):
but I think the impulses around the jeep are a
bit nobler than that. Through the jeep. We're trying to
get back to that brief moment of packs Americana that
existed in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.
Everywhere since then has only made many Americans questioned the
justifications behind the conflicts Korea, Vietnam, Racks one and two, Afghanistan.
(26:04):
They were all opaque, distant and remote, with no clear cause.
As an effect, proxy wars, cold wars, allegedly ideological ones.
Only the attacks of nine to eleven presented a threat
equivalent to or exceeding that of Pearl Harbor, and in
(26:26):
that case we responded with an agenda and false claims
of WMD's in Iraq, there's a concept in the CIA
called blowback. It doesn't mean the unintended consequences of America's
military actions, but rather the unintended consequences of covert operations.
(26:50):
How fed up is that assassinations, regime changes, drone strikes
and sanctions that impel US ever deeper into inscrutable conflicts.
World War Two wasn't like that. It was the first
real buildup of American military might. It made a superpower.
The military industrial complex it spawned, and that President Eisenhower
(27:14):
warned us about in nineteen sixty one on his way
out of office, that was about enforcement. We now stand
ten years past the midpoint of a century that has
witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these
involved our own country. Despite these holocausts, a Maratha is
(27:36):
today the strongest, the most influential, and most productive nation
in the world. The Maratha's leadership and prestige depends not
merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches, and military strength,
but on how we use our power in the years
of world peace and human better World War Two built
(28:01):
our global position. Everything afterward attempted to maintain a profit
from it has messed up. As it sounds, the Second
World War was America's feel good war, uncomplicated and wholly embraced,
a moment of unvarnished glory for our country. Watch any
World War two documentary and you'll hear old veterans talked
(28:24):
proudly about how they killed Nazis at knife point fun stuff.
The jeep is our connection back to that moment. The
jeep isn't just a means of getting from point A
to point B. It is a mobile emblem of freedom
and independence. It's why Jeep has worked so hard to
keep the Ranger the way it has always been, and
(28:45):
it's why that basic jeep can fetch ever higher prices.
The feeling it gives us grows more valuable the further
it recedes. By way of contrast, look at the Hummer,
another military off rotor, but this one has no such
exalted provenance or staying power. It was not the mule
of World War Two, but of the Iraq Wars. General
(29:07):
Motors canceled it as a Sumer brand in twenty ten,
and it is only bringing it back now. But as
an electric pickup truck, it couldn't drive away fast enough
from all it represented. Once Schwartz Coough's war machine now
here to save the earth. The Jeep, however, always, always,
(29:30):
always refers back to the Second World War, from its
color palette with its olive drabs, to its graphics packages
with their stencils and stars. In the Jeep, everyone's a victor.
Everyone shares in the glory whether you take it to
the trails, the beach or the forest. One of the
great things about owning a jeep I might drive around
(29:53):
who brings me a huge amount of joy? In many ways,
it seems to bring enjoyment to almost everyone who sees it.
Everyone wants to talk to me, everyone wants to say hello.
And Wade kids, you know, no matter who they are
and no matter where they come from, always going to
toggling their mums or dad's hands to say that pleased
and we can found look that car team seems to
make everyone so happy. And you know, it's smelly, and
(30:13):
it's awkward, and it's not comfortable, and it's kind of dangerous,
but like it's the best thing to drive in the world.
Isn't that wild? Somehow everybody wants it cheap? Yeah, And
I think it's because it's so interlaced with the idea
of being American. It's so interlaced with that identity that
(30:35):
you'll pay any cost to be part of that story.
You'll put up with this crazy woollie highway driving behavior.
It almost enhances the experience. You'll put up with an
eighty thousand dollars price tag to get it. You just
want to be part of it, and it doesn't matter
who you are. And this is one of those threads
in the American fabric. This is one of those things
(30:58):
that make that ties us together. This vehicle, this thing
like feeds off our conception of ourselves as rugged in individualists,
go anywhere withstand any kind of torture, do anything, and
yet have fun, be having fun the whole time. Like
With's smile out a phrase authenticity, freedom, the pursuit of happiness.
(31:26):
This is America on four wheels with an optional canvas
top car. Show is written and hosted by me Eddie Alterman.
(31:52):
It's produced by Sam Dingman, Jacob Smith, and Amy Gaines.
Our editor is Jen Guera. Original music and mastering by
Ben Tomiday. Our executive producer is Mia lo Bell. Our
show art was designed by Sean Ernie and airbrushed by
Greg Lafeever. Our patron saints are Leetam Malad and Justine Lange.
(32:16):
Sources for this episode included the Story of Jeep by
Patrick R. Foster and the Jeep Owner's Bible by Moses
lou Dell. Special thanks to Stilantis for the insanely fun
ride in the Cheap Wrangler Rubicon three ninety two and
thanks to our cheap owners, John Schnar's, Carrie Brody, Fiona Gorman,
(32:37):
and Ryan Dilley. Car Show is a production of Pushkin Industries.
If you love this show and others from Pushkin Industries,
consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin Plus is a podcast
subscription that offers bonus content and uninterrupted listening for four
ninety nine a month. Look for Pushkin Plus on Apple
(32:58):
Podcasts subscriptions. To find more Pushkin podcasts, listen on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Pushkin. Hey Eddie here, before we get started, I wanted
you to know that you can listen to Car Show
ad free by becoming a Pushkin Plus subscriber. You'll also
get access to detours, bonus episodes of Car Show where
we go for extended drives, play outtakes, and more fine
(00:37):
Pushkin Plus on the Car Show page, in Apple Podcasts,
or at pushkin dot Fm. Listen to that. Okay, that's
(00:57):
ninety let's not do that. I'm sorry, but I didn't
even feel us make the acceleration almost It just like
jumped things so softly sprung that it just kind of
rears back up when you accelerate, and all the mass
loads they all shift to the back. They're like, whoa,
(01:20):
my sunglasses just flues to the back of my head.
No joke, that's so good. That just n That was me,
our editor Jan Guera and our producer Sam Dingman going
ninety miles an hour in a fifty five zone, floating
the speed limit and common sense even dumber. We're at
(01:41):
the wheel of a hot rod jeep, the Wrangler Rubicon
three ninety two. It is so named because it comes
stuffed with a huge three ninety two cubic inch hemy
V eight engine making four hundred and seventy horsepower and
a chassis ill equipped to deal with that kind of
brute force. The regular jeep is handful enough on the highway.
(02:02):
This roided up three ninety two. It's enough to pull
the sunglasses right off your head. This is a muscle
car engine in a jeep. Did you see how the
whole thing was rocking up and down. I'm Eddie Alterman,
(02:25):
and this is car show. I've been an automotive journalist
since i was nineteen years old, and I've driven nearly
every car that's been made since then, three decades, driving
some two hundred and fifty new cars a year. The
math is shocking even to me. For this last decade,
(02:47):
I was the editor in chief of Car and Driver,
the world's largest car magazine. I spent my entire life
around cars and the people who make them. I think
all cars are great, even the awful ones. I'm a
fan of the genre, but some cars transcend there for
lack of a better term, carness. Some cars have a
(03:09):
story to tell, which got us thinking, what if we
did a show that focused on what certain cars mean
rather than how quick they are? What if we thought
about what makes certain cars important rather than what makes
them go on Car Show, We're going to look at
(03:30):
the vital cars, the ones that have changed how we
drive and live, whose significance lies outside the scope of
horsepower or mile square gallon. Because some cars are more
than just a pile of metal, glass and rubber. Some
cars are rolling anthropology. This week we're talking about the
(03:54):
Jeep Wrangler. The Wrangler is the direct descendant of the
original jeep, created in the forties to serve the battlefields
of World War Two. It was a tool, a Swiss
army knife of a vehicle that's grown new blades generation.
But this gym r of an SUV, the three ninety two,
(04:14):
that's less of a basic military vehicle than a kaleidoscopic
journey through the asteroid belt of niche marketing. It's an
absurd outgrowth of an insanely popular vehicle line. There are
hard top Wranglers and soft top Wranglers, sport versions and
rubicon trail ready versions. There are two doors and four
door jeeps, even pickups. There are four cylinders, six cylindar,
(04:37):
eight cylinder, and even hybrid powered models. There is it
seems a Jeep for everyone. You know, the jeep contains multitudes.
There's all kinds of ways to play it. There's all
kinds of facets on the original idea. But it's still
a jeep. Yeah, you know, in one sense, it's like
(04:59):
a beach toy beachcomber, and another sense it's the most
serious off rodor of all time. In another sense, it's
a muscle car in another, and it's you know, first
car for a private school kid. Where do you think that?
(05:19):
Because I do associate it with the beach, but a
car for beach driving or like cruising up and down
the boardwalk feels so out of step with the idea
of a military hauler one hundred and eighty degrees away
from it. Where did that come from? Good question, because
(05:40):
Sam isn't talking about the beaches of Normandy. So how
do we get to this point? How did the jeep
go from the Arden forest to planet fitness? What energy
was latent in that first Jeep that allowed it to
thrive over eight decades even as the world seems increasingly
dead set against it. On this episode, we'll talk about
(06:03):
why the Jeep Wrangler is the most American vehicle of
all time and along the way, we'll hear from folks
will tell us what the Jeep means to them. People
love talking about their jeeps. I feel very connected to
the Americana element of jeeps. I've always been a huge
fan of the Jeeps. I just love the way they look,
(06:24):
and I kind of thought that I should have one
before I die. The seatbelt situation was insane. I guess
it was safe in there, like it had a roll bar,
but I did drove that thing like crazy. It's a
really joyful car and there's never a top on it,
and it's sort of cool, but it's not pretentious and
(06:46):
just invokes a sense of fun to me. After the
break the Rise of the Jeep, I'm Eddie Alterman, and
this is Car Show. We'll be right back. The base
(07:18):
version of the Jeep Wrangler is agricultural. It's unrefined. It
likes to veer all over the place on the highway,
putting a hemmy in it, as Jeep did for this
Wrangler three ninety two would appear to tempt fate, and
yet the three ninety two and eighty thousand dollars elephant
on roller skates makes a perverse kind of sense. The
(07:46):
jeep is everything to all people. It's a war hero,
a beach bugget, an army mule, a cultural movement, a
Barbie accessory, a fraternity, a sorority, and now a muscle cover.
You know, the cool thing about this vehicle is that
it's like sort of like nothing else on the road.
(08:07):
You have this really short windshield, it's almost in your
face and totally upright. You have these really square peel
off doors, you have a peel off top. You're sitting
really high off the ground. You can see all four
corners of the vehicle. There's a high hit point. You're
(08:29):
sort of up in the air on this thing. And
in this day and age, very few vehicles have that
sense of uniqueness that there's really nothing else like it
on the road. And I think that's a great part
of its appeal. So how can something so out of
step with a modern automotive environment be so popular, so varied,
(08:51):
and so right for so many people. There really is
a jeep culture. Get a lot of conversations with strangers,
a lot of recognition, and a lot of love. People
people love talking about their jeeps. You know, I guess
you just fall for these machines and you appreciate people
(09:13):
who have also Jeep cells roughly as many Wranglers as
Honda sells accords. Unlike the Honda, though, the Jeep Wrangler
is an anachronism, a bulwark against the endless refinements of
the car industry with its fixations on noise, emissions, fuel economy,
and passenger comfort and safety. In a world where carmakers
(09:34):
are swearing off internal combustion engines for battery powered electric vehicles,
the Jeep says, screw that free trade, farmers market, NPR, tote, bag,
tote and crap. I've got a huge V eight under
the hood. I'm the proud owner of a Jeep CJ seven,
which I think is a car that isn't particularly snobby
or inaccessible. It was something that I felt was part
(09:59):
of a community in a way that you didn't even
really have to intentionally tap into. It just existed. This
sla sided mule designed for the Second World War, thumbs
its nose that sophisticated luxury electric SUVs with their limited
range and utility, and it out sells them by huge margins.
(10:22):
The Wrangler, that rectilinear shape your mind conjures when you
hear the word Jeep is a remarkably durable idea, even
in those eras when the vehicle itself wasn't all that durable.
The Jeep brand has persisted through more than seven decades
without losing its essence. Depending on who's counting, Jeep has
(10:42):
survived nine corporate custodians and emerged stronger for it. Like
an organism that consumes its host, Its sales have steadily
increased to roughly two hundred thousand vehicles a year, and
it has spawned an entire range of vehicles with names
like Gladiator, Patriot, Liberty. This year, a new Grand Wagon
(11:03):
ar Mega Suv emerged, broad of beam and festooned with chrome.
It's sticker price can easily top one hundred thousand dollars.
Think about that. We are at a point now where
Jeeps command Mercedes Benz money. There's really no better brand
than the automotive realm, except perhaps Ferrari. Jeep is to
(11:26):
the suv as kleenex is to facial tissue, as coke
is Takola. As I discussed with my producer Sam, Jeep
is the eponym. It's the icon. When I was a kid,
I wanted an orange, cheap wrangler more than anything, because
I thought it would be so cool to pull into
(11:47):
the parking lot in high school in an orange jeep Wrangler.
You're not alone. And I had this whole image of
myself like taking my friends to the beach on the
weekend in it. Even though I was not like a
beach on the weekend type of kid. I was a
like indie movie theater on the weekend type of kid.
(12:07):
But just there was something about the Wrangler that signified
like ease and freedom to me. This is the freedom machine, right,
you know. Enzo Ferrari called it America's only sports car,
and and he meant that in the pejorative, but it
really is built for a different kind of fun, and
(12:28):
it's built to go anywhere and do anything. It's very
anachronistic and it's highly desirable. I mean, it's, you know,
that toy like quality of it. And also I think
the sense that you're kind of playing army guy has
a ton of appeal. Yeah, you know, I wouldn't have
thought of that, but I think that was somewhere at
the center of probably my misplaced desire for one of
(12:52):
these when I was in high school, was it was
a way of seeming like a cool beach guy. But
I'm also kind of a soldier, you know, right, Like
why do young kids play with army men? Gives them
that sense of power like they're in command, they're in control,
and there's a lot of that wrapt up in this vehicle.
(13:17):
A Jeep Wrangler is meant to be in the mud,
off the highway, climbing steep slick grades with its axles locked.
Almost nobody does this. Only about ten to fifteen percent
of Jeep Wrangler owners ever venture off the pavement. To
most of them, off road means parking lot. Most of
(13:39):
its drivers will never use a fraction of the jeep's capabilities.
Where it shines is off the beaten path, where it's
knobby tires and upright aerodynamically inefficient bodywork are virtues, not vices.
It is to the freeway as a pork sandwich is
to the passover sader. In some respects. It's that off
(14:01):
road capability that makes the Wrangler so alluring. It's also
the essence of the entire Jeep brand and what allows
it to charge eighty thousand dollars for this one and
one hundred thousand for a family holler like the grand
Wagon ear. The off rounning prowess gives the brand meaning
you're buying competence, most of which you'll never use. Car
(14:24):
marketers have a phrase for this concept of unused capacity.
It's called perceived performance. It's why people want the track
ready portion of nine to eleven GT three rs, even
though they'll never take their car to the racetrack. Just
knowing that the car can do all this heroic stuff
is good enough and worth paying a premium for. It
(14:45):
drives unlike any other car you will ever drive in
your life. In retrospect, it is super impractical. I mean
like it now as a father of three, I look back.
It's insane. Like the seatbelt situation was insane. I guess
it was safe in that, like it had a roll bar,
like if we rolled over, there was a bar, But
(15:06):
my dad drove that thing like crazy, and then I
also sort of subsequently driveled like crazy. This Wrangler we're driving,
the three ninety two is also a ridiculous and great
muscle car, probably closer to the chaotic, undrivability and lunacy
(15:26):
of the original muscle cars than today's Dodge Chargers and Challengers.
The Wrangler is the centerpiece of the only car brand
that truly cuts across all market segments and socioeconomic strata.
Everyone wants a Jeep. The Jeep's abstract power lies in
its authentic ties to its military roots. It needs to
(15:48):
feel different than a Chevy Equinox or Toyota Highlander because
it is different. It strikes me as you're describing that
that there's probably a lot of other SUVs in this
class where the interior is trying to make you think,
you know, that you're in a luxury sedan even though
(16:09):
you're actually driving a four wheel drive machine, whereas this
car is going to great lengths to remind you like, no, no,
it's still a Jeap. It's definitely a Jeap, that's right, exactly.
And I think that people want that authentic experience to
the extent that, you know, there is this sort of
counter movement in SUVs right now toward more authentic, more
(16:32):
legitimate off roady sorts of vehicles like the Bronco, like
the land Rover Defender that's just been been relaunched, you know,
And there's this movement away from SUVs as family cars,
back toward a more kind of rugged sensibility. But what's
(16:52):
happened over time is because people have so loved some
of the attributes of the suv, like the high seating position,
the ability to really get anything in the back, that
they become so popular and have made so many concessions
to comfort that people sort of think of them as
(17:13):
family cars now or minivan sur rogans. It's tempting for
me hearing you talk about the authenticity piece of the
off roading roots of this car to also make a
connection between the fact that we as humans are spending
less and less time in the real world and separating
(17:36):
ourselves from the metaphorical bumps in the road more than ever. Yeah, man, Sam,
It's like peboard craving experiences, and this car is an
experience self contained. Deep down, the Jeep needs to feel
like an unrefined war machine. The brand's imagery is powered
(17:58):
by that authenticity, that sense that it can dominate any terrain,
that it is purpose built for its mission, that it
could charge into battle when the bad guys show up
with the case nukes. It's a hero, and to drive
one is to assume that role. After the break, we're
going to war. America prefers all America orders its pattern
(18:37):
of life work to meet the demand for protection industry
is a double step to supply the sinews of safety.
Before it donned at Civis and one on sale as
a passenger vehicle, the jeep was pivotal to American success
in the Second World War, and for all the influence
and reach of this brand now, the peculiar thing is
at its inception cheap wasn't even a brand per se.
(19:01):
It was a type of vehicle, a general purpose GP
light truck to supply the troops, made by various manufacturers.
America's basque resources are harnessed to the job of being
the world arsenal or this and other democracies. Its present
day production of armaments is but a mere fraction of
the great job, but live ahead. In preparation for entering
(19:27):
the conflict, Washington knew that this war would be one
of mechanized combat, and that it needed a mechanical replacement
for World War One's army mules, yes, actual mules. The
army needed something that could go anywhere, carrying men and
weapons on and off the battlefield, something that didn't run
(19:47):
on oats. Based on much failed testing of other white
yet rugged concepts, including a stripped down forward model t
Army engineers settled on the basic specifications. It needed four
wheel drive in a certain minimum level of performance, with
loads of climbing and care capability. At one point, they
(20:11):
even specified four wheel steering so that a rear facing
driver with his own steering wheel could take control of
the vehicle and reverse out of danger in the event
of an ambush. The vehicle had to weigh no more
than thirteen hundred pounds but be capable of hauling six
hundred pounds, and the timeline was super tight, less than
(20:33):
three months to deliver a selection of working models. In
other words, the Army's expectations were totally unrealistic. It sent
the bid out to some one hundred and thirty five
manufacturers and was sure that this massive and literal call
to arms would be answered in force. Only two companies
(20:54):
submitted bids, American Bantam out of Butler, Pennsylvania and Willis
Overland out of Toledo, Ohio. Bantam won their preliminary contract,
but in the end it was the Willis design that prevailed.
Ford started making them too, and used the GP designation
for its version of the model. Some say that the
(21:15):
name jeep came not from a contraction of the GP initials,
but from a character in a comic strip. I couldn't
confirm that. It seems more interesting to entertain the notion
that the first jeep was actually a Ford. Anyway, America
got itself an innovative for the time light transport vehicle
that could do everything and go everywhere. The GP guided
(21:38):
into France during the invasion of Normandy June six d Day.
A great plan is put to the test. American soldiers
hit the beach, It slogged through the bulge, It plied
the North African sands. Because the fighting develops, every means
(21:59):
is used to hasten the removal of the wounded from
the scene of battle. The wearing farm plows, it dug
trenches for telephone lines. And that's to say nothing of
its workaday applications. And you were saying part of the
appeal of the traditional wrangler was the flat flatness of
the hood, right, Yeah, there are stories about the flatness
(22:22):
of the hood being a place where you know, all
sorts of work got done, lunches were eaten. It was
an altar for Chaplains to give mass on. That flatness
of the hood was sort of core to the original design.
The jeep of all trades is pressed into service and
proves itself again, Which brings us to an interesting point.
(22:47):
When we talk about the jeep being authentic and people
buying into that realness, what are we really talking about. Well,
on one level, the notion of authenticity arises from functionality.
The jeep reinforces that functionality and capability at every turn,
at every touch point. They are a little visual military
(23:08):
jeep east or eggs all over these vehicles, tiny graphics
of army jeeps crawling up the windshield glass and lights
in the dash that read since nineteen forty one. That
connection to its origin story is something that jeep carefully curates.
Think about Rolex watches. If you want one of the
(23:28):
more prized models, the Submarner or maybe the sky Dweller,
it's going to cost you ten, twenty, maybe even forty
thousand bucks. But people are tripping over themselves to pay
those prices, and the reason has less to do with
the beauty of the piece or the cost of the
materials than the story. The bottom line is that those
(23:50):
Rolexes were built to do jobs, and they did those
jobs either first or better than any other watch. They
are chunky and clunky, and they don't often keep great time.
They are not the elegant gold wrist watches that used
to define success. What they telegraph is the status of action,
(24:10):
of power, of mastery, and that functional authenticity is worth
a lot to people. So it is with Jeep. Yet
the Jeep has a deeper context than any time piece,
And here, finally is the real essence of the thing,
the ultimate core sample of its meaning. To Americans and
(24:32):
indeed other Western countries, where it's always been sold as
a luxury good. The Jeep represents a connection not just
to war, but to a specific war. The one embedded
in America's consciousness is our last good war, the last
(24:52):
war we could understand a clear cut conflict between right
and wrong, the last war where we were unambiguously the
victors and the heroes. The Jeep represents America's yearning for
the simplicity and moral clarity of World War two. Think
(25:14):
about those jeep naming conventions for a second Gladiator. Patriot
liberty cynics might argue that they are evidenced of some
wild shit about the American psyche, that we have a
warrior complex that we glorify theatrical, large scale conflicts and
the war machines used in them. That may be true,
(25:37):
but I think the impulses around the jeep are a
bit nobler than that. Through the jeep. We're trying to
get back to that brief moment of packs Americana that
existed in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.
Everywhere since then has only made many Americans questioned the
justifications behind the conflicts Korea, Vietnam, Racks one and two, Afghanistan.
(26:04):
They were all opaque, distant and remote, with no clear cause.
As an effect, proxy wars, cold wars, allegedly ideological ones.
Only the attacks of nine to eleven presented a threat
equivalent to or exceeding that of Pearl Harbor, and in
(26:26):
that case we responded with an agenda and false claims
of WMD's in Iraq, there's a concept in the CIA
called blowback. It doesn't mean the unintended consequences of America's
military actions, but rather the unintended consequences of covert operations.
(26:50):
How fed up is that assassinations, regime changes, drone strikes
and sanctions that impel US ever deeper into inscrutable conflicts.
World War Two wasn't like that. It was the first
real buildup of American military might. It made a superpower.
The military industrial complex it spawned, and that President Eisenhower
(27:14):
warned us about in nineteen sixty one on his way
out of office, that was about enforcement. We now stand
ten years past the midpoint of a century that has
witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these
involved our own country. Despite these holocausts, a Maratha is
(27:36):
today the strongest, the most influential, and most productive nation
in the world. The Maratha's leadership and prestige depends not
merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches, and military strength,
but on how we use our power in the years
of world peace and human better World War Two built
(28:01):
our global position. Everything afterward attempted to maintain a profit
from it has messed up. As it sounds, the Second
World War was America's feel good war, uncomplicated and wholly embraced,
a moment of unvarnished glory for our country. Watch any
World War two documentary and you'll hear old veterans talked
(28:24):
proudly about how they killed Nazis at knife point fun stuff.
The jeep is our connection back to that moment. The
jeep isn't just a means of getting from point A
to point B. It is a mobile emblem of freedom
and independence. It's why Jeep has worked so hard to
keep the Ranger the way it has always been, and
(28:45):
it's why that basic jeep can fetch ever higher prices.
The feeling it gives us grows more valuable the further
it recedes. By way of contrast, look at the Hummer,
another military off rotor, but this one has no such
exalted provenance or staying power. It was not the mule
of World War Two, but of the Iraq Wars. General
(29:07):
Motors canceled it as a Sumer brand in twenty ten,
and it is only bringing it back now. But as
an electric pickup truck, it couldn't drive away fast enough
from all it represented. Once Schwartz Coough's war machine now
here to save the earth. The Jeep, however, always, always,
(29:30):
always refers back to the Second World War, from its
color palette with its olive drabs, to its graphics packages
with their stencils and stars. In the Jeep, everyone's a victor.
Everyone shares in the glory whether you take it to
the trails, the beach or the forest. One of the
great things about owning a jeep I might drive around
(29:53):
who brings me a huge amount of joy? In many ways,
it seems to bring enjoyment to almost everyone who sees it.
Everyone wants to talk to me, everyone wants to say hello.
And Wade kids, you know, no matter who they are
and no matter where they come from, always going to
toggling their mums or dad's hands to say that pleased
and we can found look that car team seems to
make everyone so happy. And you know, it's smelly, and
(30:13):
it's awkward, and it's not comfortable, and it's kind of dangerous,
but like it's the best thing to drive in the world.
Isn't that wild? Somehow everybody wants it cheap? Yeah, And
I think it's because it's so interlaced with the idea
of being American. It's so interlaced with that identity that
(30:35):
you'll pay any cost to be part of that story.
You'll put up with this crazy woollie highway driving behavior.
It almost enhances the experience. You'll put up with an
eighty thousand dollars price tag to get it. You just
want to be part of it, and it doesn't matter
who you are. And this is one of those threads
in the American fabric. This is one of those things
(30:58):
that make that ties us together. This vehicle, this thing
like feeds off our conception of ourselves as rugged in individualists,
go anywhere withstand any kind of torture, do anything, and
yet have fun, be having fun the whole time. Like
With's smile out a phrase authenticity, freedom, the pursuit of happiness.
(31:26):
This is America on four wheels with an optional canvas
top car. Show is written and hosted by me Eddie Alterman.
(31:52):
It's produced by Sam Dingman, Jacob Smith, and Amy Gaines.
Our editor is Jen Guera. Original music and mastering by
Ben Tomiday. Our executive producer is Mia lo Bell. Our
show art was designed by Sean Ernie and airbrushed by
Greg Lafeever. Our patron saints are Leetam Malad and Justine Lange.
(32:16):
Sources for this episode included the Story of Jeep by
Patrick R. Foster and the Jeep Owner's Bible by Moses
lou Dell. Special thanks to Stilantis for the insanely fun
ride in the Cheap Wrangler Rubicon three ninety two and
thanks to our cheap owners, John Schnar's, Carrie Brody, Fiona Gorman,
(32:37):
and Ryan Dilley. Car Show is a production of Pushkin Industries.
If you love this show and others from Pushkin Industries,
consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin Plus is a podcast
subscription that offers bonus content and uninterrupted listening for four
ninety nine a month. Look for Pushkin Plus on Apple
(32:58):
Podcasts subscriptions. To find more Pushkin podcasts, listen on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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