| The Howe's own a 1948
Jeepster that became part of Patty's family when her
dad, Elden Richards, bought it in 1967. The entire
family has enjoyed it ever since. Elden, an employee of
Kaiser-Mead, often drove it to work. In the 1970's
it was used as “Santa's ride”. Elden's family, and their
neighbors Pauline and Floyd Mckee, would stuff Christmas
stockings with oranges, candy and nuts. Then Elden would
put on the Santa suit made by Pauline, jump into the
Jeepster, accompanied by elves, and drive around the
neighborhood of East Hillyard. From Rich Avenue to
Wellesley and from the base of Beacon Hill to Freya, he
would stop at all the houses and hand out stockings to
all the kids. This event went on for many years. The
Jeepster is now the mascot of Howe's Auto Shop on Market
Street in Hillyard. It isn't driven much anymore, but is
still in great shape for its age. On nice days you may
see it out in the parking lot of Howe's Auto enjoying
the fresh air. Stop on in and "Meet the Jeepster".
The History of the
Willys-Overland Jeepster
Prior to WWII
Willys-Overland Motors produced sedans, pickups and the
famous Willys coupes. With the onset of the war, the
U.S. Government contracted with Willys-Overland to
produce military scout vehicles known as the Jeep. This
government contract provided the funds to modernize and
retool the aging Willys plant. They were out of the
passenger car production business and into Jeep
production for wartime.
After the war ended, Ward
Canaday, the chairman of Willys, was anxious to get back
into the passenger car market. However, the factory's
machinery was only tooled to stamp out simple, flat
panels such as it had been producing for the military
Jeep. In 1947 Willys retained a young designer,
Brooks Stevens, to work on designing a line of post-war
vehicles that included the Jeep pick-up, panel truck and
station wagon. As an afterthought, since Stevens had a
passion for sports cars, he included a sketch of a
'sporty’ two-door convertible based on the same chassis.
Ward Canaday approved production of the whole line,
including the "Sportster”, hoping it would help get
Willys-Overland back into mainstream car production,
even though the ‘car’ was produced from truck
components.
 The
Jeepster was powered by the Willys Jeep "Go-Devil"
engine. It was an L-head, 4-cylinder, 3-speed manual
transmission with overdrive. Up to this point they were
all two-wheel drive vehicles as four-wheel drive was
never considered in the Jeepster’s design. The Jeepster
went 0-30 mph in 5.3 seconds; 0-50 in 14.1; and 0-60 in
21.9 seconds. The base price was $1,765. The sales of
the Jeepster never met expectations. In 1948 only 10,326
cars were produced and many of them went unsold. When
the 1949 models debuted the leftover '48s were re-filed
as '49s.
In the four years of production, from 1948 to 1951, only
19,131 Jeepsters were produced. Production ended for the
Jeepster in 1951. In 1967, Kaiser Jeep, the successor of
Willys-Overland, introduced an all new, much different,
‘Jeepster’: the four-wheel drive Jeepster Commando,
which enjoyed success until it was replaced in 1974 by
the Jeep Cherokee.
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