29. Jeep Willys Pickup
Willys was an economy car manufacturer before the Second World War. They produced Jeeps for the U.S. Army from 1941 to 1946. But when the war ended, Willys found it hard to transfer to passenger car production. They were left with a big amount of Jeep engines, chassis, and components. So the logical decision was to produce Jeeps for civilian use, mostly as farm and utility vehicles. Willys thought that ex-military personnel would buy Jeeps as everyday cars after they got to know them on the battlefield. It turned out that Willys was right and civilian Jeeps did, in fact, have a market in post-war America. However, the company wanted to go further, so they introduced a line of pickup trucks with Jeep mechanics, engines, and design but with a twist.

The Willys pickups they introduced in 1947 had four-wheel drive, making them much more capable than any regular pickup truck available at the time. Today, four-wheel-drive trucks are nothing special since most new models come with 4×4 as standard. But back then, the four-wheel-drive was revolutionary. Although those early Willys Jeep truck had small 2.3-liter four-cylinder engines delivering 63 HP, they were tough, capable trucks with great traction, pulling power, and durability. Willys produced a couple of variants including a bare-bones chassis for custom bodywork. Over the years, Willys introduced bigger six-cylinder engines. However, they ceased the production of this original model in 1965 after building more than 200,000.