To give you an idea of the credentials of the designer of the 1949-51 Willys-Overland Jeepster, Brooks Stevens designed the 1949 Harley Hydra-Glide, with some of the designs from that bike still used in today’s Harleys. Stevens persuaded the Miller Brewing Company to use clear bottles instead of traditional brown (think of what a big change that was), designed the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, passenger trains with beautiful upper observation decks, the Studebaker Hawk, the Excalibur, and was the originator of the well-used term ”planned obsolescence”.  So why, then, do prices of other cars of the post-WWI era keep soaring while Jeepsters don’t, and why were only 19,131 original Jeepsters made?  Thanks so much to Ikey Heyman for tipping us off to this Jeepster, which you can find here on craigslist in Flat Rock, Michigan with an asking price of $7,000.

After WWII, people loved the Willys-Overland Civilian Jeep (“CJ”), especially farmers, hunters, and others with a need for a tough, all-terrain, utilitarian workhorse.  Willys missed the mark on knowing its market for Jeepster because the 2,468-pound car was under-powered, was decidedly not weatherproof, and did not have 4wd.  Willys decided to end Jeepster production in 1950 and had a pile of inventory leftover so they just branded the leftovers as 1951s—sort of a Phantom Phaeton?  And every Jeepster had a Continental kit for carrying the spare.

Jeepster was originally designed with the Go-Devil 134.2 c.i. 63 hp powerplant based on Willys’ WWI military Jeep engine, feeding a three-speed manual transmission with 4:88 rear end gears.  Even though in the later model year Jeepster offered a “Lightning” six-cylinder engine option at 161 c.i. and 75 hp, our car pictured here is likely powered by the Hurricane F4-134 4-cylinder engine. Over the years, several Jeepster postings have popped up with small block 327 and 350 transplants, among others–plenty of room for shoehorning a V-8 in Jeepster’s engine bay.

Despite the Craigslist ad stating this Jeepster has an “automatic transmission,” from the photos it appears that the standard three-on-the-tree is what comes with this car. Can’t help but marvel at the simplicity of the instrument cluster.  Much to the chagrin of car buyers in the early 50s, Jeepster did not have crank-up windows; rather, plastic curtains were provided that attach to the roof and to snaps on the body.  No one will accuse Jeepster of being a technologically advanced marvel of its time.

Yeah, this is a weird photo of the Jeepster back seat–it’s to make a point: OK, so she’s underpowered, slow on the freeway, can’t do anything off-roading, and is ill-equipped compared to Chevy and Ford offerings of the same time period. Curiously, Willys-Overland’s president at the time had to resort to a manufacturer of appliance sheet metal parts to make Jeepster body panels because no other body makers were interested.  Jeepster’s a bit boxy because the appliance manufacturer wasn’t capable of making complex curves of 1950s car bodies.  All that in mind, what possessed Willys-Overland to green-light this machine, then?  Had to be what this odd seat photo suggests: it wasn’t a work machine or a touring car but wasn’t America due for something a little fun and slightly frivolous after the War?  Jeepster is the metal personification of simplicity and carefree. Jeepster and VW Thing share a common thread: cars designed primarily for sunny, fun-filled beach or lake vacation days. It’s a “fashion-car” of sorts: a fling, a flyer, a holiday, put it away until next year sort of thing.  But American car buyers in the ’50s were apparently not in that much of a good mood to go out and buy a “seasonal” car, so Jeepster as a funster experiment was a flop. The current collector car market precisely reflects that subtle rejection of Jeepster’s theory of a fun-first, utility-not so much kind of car.  With everything so dad-gummed serious these days, though, this funster car is a bargain at thrice the price. Man, what that empty back seat needs is some towels, a picnic lunch, and a map to the nearest white sand beach.