The Jeep Wrangler: Saving Democracy, Making Bank

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, 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 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. 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, 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, 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 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 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

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, 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, 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 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? 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 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 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, 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 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

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

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. 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 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, 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 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 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 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. 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 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 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 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 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. 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 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 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.

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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

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 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 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 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. 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 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

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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. 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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, 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. 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 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. 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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. This is America on four wheels with an optional canvas top car. Show is written and hosted by me Eddie Alterman. 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. 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, 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 Podcasts subscriptions. To find more Pushkin podcasts, listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.