Jeep History

A look at Overland, Bantam and Ford Jeeps

Overland, Bantam and Ford's Jeep models summed up that they each had their own strengths and weaknesses. Ford was working on a redesigned prototype called the Ford GP and Willys had a new prototype called the MA. After further testing around July 1941, Willys came out on top with a contract for 16,000 revised MA models. The new MA models were known as the MB models. It is ironic because the contract for 16,000 Jeep vehicles almost went to Ford for the simple reason that they had the production capability superior to anybody at the time.