Army SUV: 1954 Willys Jeep M38A1
Willys-Overland is mostly known for bringing us the Jeep. It was a versatile, no-frills, utility vehicle that saw more than a half-million copies consumed alone during World War II. This 1954 edition of the M38A1 likely missed seeing any wartime action as the Korean War had ended a few months earlier. It may have undergone a partial recent restoration as the seller (a dealer) says $4,000 in service was done by a “Jeep expert”. Located in West Chester, Pennsylvania, this old-time army vehicle is available here on eBay for $19,500 but the seller will entertain offers. Thanks for the rough-and-ready tip, Russell Glantz!
The Willys MD, formally the M38A1 Truck, was a ¼-ton four-wheel-drive light utility vehicle also known as the G-758 in U.S. Army circles. It was in production from 1952 to 1971, sold mostly to multiple branches of the U.S. Military Service. The MD was the first Willys Jeep to have a significantly restyled body, recognizable by its rounded hood and fenders. It formed the basis for the civilian and commercial Jeep CJ‑5, built during 1954–1983. Overall production just broke the six-figure mark at 101,488 copies.
Vehicles like this were built mostly as means of transportation rather than serving as a rolling arsenal of weapons (like the Jeeps you saw on the 1960 TV show, The Rat Patrol). Perhaps this Jeep was operated by a private or corporal whose job was to shuttle higher-ups around in difficult places as the odometer reading is well under 40,000 miles. If this Jeep has not been restored, then it’s led a relatively easy life compared to many.
Prop open the hood and you’ll find a 134 cubic inch inline-4 engine paired with a 3-speed manual. The seller provides an embedded video of the motor running. The exterior color of the Jeep is described as Olive Drab, which is likely not an official name. The machine looks to be quite tidy overall and would be an interesting vehicle to add to your collection, depending on your vehicle preferences.
Auctions Ending Soon
1965 Ford Falcon Station WagonBid Now2 days$2,300
2002 Jaguar XK8 ConvertibleBid Now3 days$5,250
1979 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28Bid Now4 days$4,500
1960 Dodge D300Bid Now4 days$300
2006 Ford Mustang Saleen S281 SCBid Now6 days$100
Comments
TeN HUT!! At ease, soldier, one of the lucky ones that wasn’t blown to smithereens( with occupants) or dumped at sea on the way home. One of the “mystery” $75 Jeeps packed in cosmoline, maybe? Conflicting stories on that promotion. Some say it was real, others say, the $75 merely got you a list of upcoming govt. auctions. Upon arrival of said auction, crates were stacked to the sky, and you bid on a crate. Whether it had a Jeep, of old uniforms was the gamble. With lawsuits, the government destroyed all Jeeps, so again, this is one of the lucky ones. Not sure what to do with it. Couple years back while on my dual sport in the hills, I came across a group with maybe 20 military Jeeps on a cruise. It was dusty, and rough going, and didn’t look like much fun. Fact is, I can’t think of a practical use for this except a display. Museums are doing okay,,,right?( cough/echo)
Fun fact, the TV show MASH blooper, they featured mostly WW2 Jeeps,( MBs?) when these were the ones that would have been in Korea. I remember, on the show, they even snuck in a CJ to be destroyed, hoping people wouldn’t know. Ah, Hollywood.
We owe a lot to this little guy, and in part, why I’m proud to drive a Jeep today.
BTW, I read, “Olive Drab” is the official color of the Army and has been since Dubja, Dubja 1, dere.
As a 15-year-old kid, looking forward to freedom (behind the wheel of an open jeep) I sent away for “information.” Cost me a dollar, IIRC. That would be about $10 today. What I got back was general information about government auctions – not from the government, but basically from this semi-anon publishing company. A pamphlet with examples of the $75 jeeps – that is, piles of parts or severely damaged. “Jeeps that run or need only minor repairs, will cost $250 to $1000 at auction, and are darned cheap at that, in our opinion!”
A dollar wasted. Meantime a classmate who already had a license, went down to the Post Office garage, bid on a Kaiser Dispatcher (the first run of postal jeeps, without the bugged-out grilles.) and got one. $200.
It kind of soured me on the whole experience. I couldn’t afford a $1000 jeep then and couldn’t later, except for a brief time when my pay rose before the price of Jeeps went to the moon.
The price is certainly in line with the market, but it begs the question: Whatcha gonna DOO with that thing? $20k for a Sunday toy, is too much. You wouldn’t want to hit trails with it – it’s not in a league with modern alternatives.
Basically that leaves only collectors and curators.
Howard, I think the “lawsuits” that caused Uncle Sam to crush all military Jeeps, had nothing to do with rollovers, because they had served the military fine for decades. It think the problem was graft and corruption. GM made a killing selling over the top priced Hummers to them that replaced these functional and paid for tools. Interesting note, back in the 90s when this debacle occurred, even then people scoffed at the price the taxpayers paid for those Hummers. A study was done and it found that one could buy a stock 4×4 pick up off a showroom floor and add like 10 grand in improvements to match the Hummers capabilities and do it at 1/3 the cost. As an engineer, I found out quickly that the surest way to make large amounts of money, was to deal with the government. We need real fiscal oversight. Someone should dig up the late great William Proxmire.
Did they crush the jeeps or the mutts? Or maybe both. There seems to be lots of ex military humvees out there compared to jeeps so maybe they were crushed. Of course that is based on my powers of casual observation and little else.
Andy, anyone who was an adult in the 90s should remember the story of the outrage about crushed jeeps. There were plenty of news stories about it. One because it seemed like a poor fiscal choice, but also, because to help justify the lie that the Jeeps were unsafe, they would not allow them to be sold to the public and instead had to be destroyed. Many of us were salivating on the prospect of acquiring one at a reasonable price, but had our hopes crushed as well.
The “Jeeps” that were destroyed because they tended to roll over were the M-151A1’s. The problem was that the suspension was hinged in the middle of the vehicle, so on a sharp turn at speed, the wheels tended to tuck up under the vehicle. We called them “tuck and roll” suspensions. The problem was corrected on the M-151A2 model.
I agree that the HMMWV was over priced and unnecessary for most roles that the Jeep performed. The Army wanted to move from gasoline to diesel engines, and from manual to automatic transmissions. A Jeep sized vehicle with those modifications would have been much better and cheaper.
GM sold civilian vehicles under the Hummer brand, but did not produce or sell Humvees to the US military. AM General produced the military Humvees (and produced the H1 civilian version that GM sold from 1992-2006).
Also, the development of the Humvee in the 1979-1983 period was an effort to replace multiple outdated vehicles (in the 1/4-ton to 1 1/4-ton range) used by the military with one do-it-all platform. One common vehicle is more efficient than multiple vehicles with different parts, service needs, non-interchangeable components, etc.
The use of WWII MBs and GPWs in M*A*S*H was not a blooper. The M38A1 did not come out until 1952. While some made it to Korea before the war ended in mid-1953, most of the jeeps there were WWII models still in use, or the M38 which launched in 1950.
The jeep-in-a-crate for $50 (or some such price) is a long standing myth that lasted for decades. Surplus jeeps, often in rough condition, were quickly sold off after the war to a public hungry for vehicles as domestic car production had been shut down since February 1942. Typically, veterans got first dibs to purchase a surplus jeep at designated war surplus sales sites. And, these were usually the jeeps that were on US bases. Vehicles overseas were often left there for occupation use or donated to rebuilding allied forces. Shipping space for returning/discharged troops was more important.
I like the story of jeeps in a crate. You always heard about. Somebody always knew somebody else who got one this way but you never actually meet the guy or saw the jeep!
I remember the adds in the back of the comic books about getting one for $75 bucks, I like it if I had the extra cash I would buy it and just drive it and enjoy having it and yes I would take it up in the hills around me and just play
Here’s a great article on them. I remember mostly in the back of Popular Mechanics magazine.
https://www.militarytrader.com/military-vehicles/jeep-in-a-crate
as stated earlier… Olive Drab is for real… i guess you had to have served your country to know that…
” … a classmate who already had a license, went down to the Post Office garage, bid on a Kaiser Dispatcher (the first run of postal jeeps, without the bugged-out grilles.) and got one. $200.”
Don’t feel bad about missing out on a USPS Jeep. By the time they were ready for disposal, the latches on the sliding doors were defunct, the automatic trans wouldn’t stay in gear, the parking brake didn’t work, and there were plenty of leaks. Oh, they were 2WD, not 4WD.
Oh, yeah.
But the DJ5A (the first run, made by Kaiser before AMC) used a Nova four (better and lighter than the 500lb AMC six, later) and PowerGlide (indestructible).
The AMC/AM General subsequent runs, used Borg-Warner automatics…self-destructing. And that leaden six was basically over the center of the front axle…that was why the bugged-out grille. The Post Office would have been better served if they’d stretched the DJ frame the way they did the CJ frame, to make room for the six. Or, better yet, should have made or lined up a four-cylinder, ten years before AMC did, anyway.
Remember my story? Years ago, I knew someone that always wanted a Jeep, so picked up a used DJ somewhere, because they always wanted a 4×4 Jeep. When I told them, it’s a 2 wheel drive, naturally they didn’t believe me. You can imagine their surprise when looking under it and seeing a straight front axle. They thought all Jeeps were 4 wheel drive.
That’s where it pays to know mechanics, or take someone with you who does.
It’s simple and obvious to see, even if you don’t know the history of the Postals. One peek under there…tubular dead axle…and you know.
FWIW, I’ve been told that there were some military two-wheel-drive jeeps sold, also. Not sure if they’d be called DJs, since military jeeps by Jeep/AM General were made in a separate plant, to separate specs; but some of the Stateside gofer rigs sold in the 1960s were rear-axle-drive.
Today, of course, they’d just use whatever SUV they use for officer transport. But back then, they liked to have their equipment tailored to the locale.
My Grandfather actually got a WWII jeep surplus. I don’t remember what it cost, but it was new. We used it for years to pull a set of gang mowers cutting 15 acres of grass at a time. I learned to drive in it when I was 9 years old. For a while it was street legal and we often took it to the local stores and ice cream stand.
This jeep looks newer than the jeeps we had at our airbase in Thailand in ’68’
But, I did not use them or ride in them very often, and that was 54 years ago.
Is this legal to drive on the street with a US Army plate?
Nope.
Any more than it’s legal to drive around with the previous-owner’s plate on it.
But if it’s only used as a show car or display, it doesn’t matter.
IN some states,like California,the plates stay
with the vehicle when it’s sold.
True.
But not personalized plates, “official” plates, or Federal government-agency plates.
The next owner is going to have to buy new tags, even in California. Unless there’s an issued set that are not shown in the photos.