IT WAS on this day 75 years ago that the US Government handed the first contract for a light all-wheel-drive personnel carrier to small Toledo, Ohio-based vehicle maker Willys-Overland Motor Company and since July 16, 1941, millions of Jeep-badged vehicles have been produced.

More than 660,000 were built during the Second World War by Willys and co-producer Ford, evolving into the Willys CJ (Civilian Jeep) of 1945 with Willys ultimately being granted the registered trademark name in 1950.

The 1945 CJ may not be too dissimilar in appearance to today’s Jeep Wrangler, but the company that started the civilian love affair with off-roading is a completely different matter.

Willys-Overland was sold to Kaiser Motors in 1953, which became Kaiser-Jeep in 1963. American Motors Corporation (AMC) then bought Kaiser’s Jeep operations in 1970, allowing AMC to share components with its existing passenger-car range.

Renault bought a share of AMC in 1979 as a pathway to the US market but financial troubles in France led to AMC’s sale to Chrysler Corporation in 1987.

Chrysler struck up its alliance with Daimler AG in 1998 to create DaimlerChrysler. In 2007, the bitter divorce between the Americans and Germans led to a private equity company buying Chrysler in 2007 and operating as Chrysler Group LLC with Jeep as a division.

Chrysler, along with General Motors, sought US government financial assistance during the 2008-2010 Global Financial Crisis.

In 2014, Fiat orchestrated a buy-back and repaid the government loan, absorbing Chrysler to create Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

Meanwhile, the Jeep product line has been more predictable than its corporate lineage. Since the war, all models carry a seven-slot grille which was a Willys trademark, while the Ford Jeeps featured a nine-slot grille.

The Jeep lineage, through to the current Wrangler, has always had the war-born simplicity of a ladder-frame construction, petrol engine (diesel engines were an option much later), a part-time four-wheel-drive system and live rear axle.

The CJ-2A of 1945 was simply the war Jeep with modifications including better headlights, seats and a tailgate.

In 1946, Willys made a Jeep-derived station wagon and then a single-cab ute version in 1947.

It deviated from the original with the forward-control variant in 1957 and in 1963 introduced the world’s first luxury 4WD, the Wagoneer, which preceded the Range Rover by seven years and remained in production for 28 years. Also in 1963 it made the Gladiator ute. Jeep will introduce a seven-seat Wagoneer model in 2017 and a Gladiator-style ute by 2018.

In Toledo, Ohio, this weekend, thousands of Fiat Chrysler workers will gather for a private company picnic to celebrate the birth of the brand in the same town 75 years ago.

By Neil Dowling