Butler base of little car that could
In Butler's West End, behind the gates of AK Steel, stands a yellowish-brown brick building that is the birthplace of one of the world's most popular vehicles.
Amazingly in the early 1900s, Butler was home to several car manufacturers including the American Austin Car Co., which opened in 1930.
In 1932, the U.S. Army, looking for vehicles to replace the role of horses in the military, bought two American Austin Convertible pickup trucks. Those trucks are considered by jeep historians to be the ancestor to the original Jeep.
The American Austin Car Co. closed, re-organized and re-opened as the American Bantam Car Co. in 1935, making roadsters, coups and trucks that were so small they were often manually lifted and put on people's porches as a joke.
Retired Naval Commander Charles “Harry” Payne, who worked as a Bantam lobbiest and liaison with the U.S. military, began discussions with the U.S. Infantry about using the small cars as the base for a new combat car, specifically a reconnaissance vehicle.
By October 1940, Bantam had a contract to build 70 of these new vehicles for the Army's Quartermaster Technical Committee, on which the Bantam delivered in 12 weeks.
After extensive testing, American Bantam made some changes to the vehicle, such as squaring off rounded edges and removing the fenders, and delivered the new cars in a month's time.
A month later, the quartermaster and the National Advisory Commission had contacted both the Willys-Overland and Ford car companies, as well as Bantam, asking them to produce 1,500 vehicles based on the Bantam design.
Bantam completed its 1,500 cars by May 1941, but the Army awarded future jeep contracts to Willys-Overland and Ford, a controversial move. Some claim it was because of Bantam's financial straits, others say it was because the company's bid was too high, even though Ford's bid as almost the same. While Willys underbid the other two, it didn't produce those first 1,500 vehicles as asked for by the Army, and it had design problems, specifically their cars were too heavy.
Regardless of the reason, Bantam never had another contract to build the vehicle it had designed.
But Bantam wasn't about to give up, and began making trailers for military vehicles, and by the end of World War II, the company had made a little more than 2,500 jeeps, but more than 70,000 trailers, which it later made for civilian vehicles until Armco Steel bought the company in 1956.
Jeep playersThe designing and building of the original jeep was a joint effort, which included:Harold Crist, an engineer who worked in developing the specifications for the jeep and was the first to test drive the prototype vehicle. He's one of the best known of the jeep inventors;Frank Fenn, president of the American Bantam Car Co., who sought out a military contract to help put the company on solid financial footing, as well as helped to bring the jeep from concept to actual vehicle;Chet Hempfling, a Butler native and chief mechanic, helped to create the gas pedal, throttle, sheet metal parts and wiring for the vehicle. He also helped to service some of the jeeps during Army testing;Karl Probst, an engineer who came to Butler from Toledo and made the initial jeep design drawings in 18 hours, according to historical accounts;Ralph Turner, a Butler native who concentrated on the jeep's transmission and suspension.After BantamAs the war wound down to victory for the Allies, Willys-Overland received permission from the government to start civilian production of the Jeep in 1945, said Brandt Rosenbusch, the head of Chrysler Historical Services. Chrysler now serves as Jeep's parent company.The original price for the CJ-2A was $1,241. There were 1,823 built in 1945 and a total of 214,202 in its five years of production, Rosenbusch said.In 1947, Willys-Overland began production of Jeep pickup trucks and later built the first all-steel body station wagon.“Until that time, station wagons all had some parts of the bodies made out of wood,” Rosenbusch said.Kaiser Motors, formerly Kaiser-Frazer Corp., made automobiles at Willow Run, Mich., from 1945 to 1953, merging with Willys-Overland to form Willys Motors Inc. and moving its production operations to the Willys plant at Toledo, Ohio. The company changed its name to Kaiser Jeep Corp. in 1963.In the 1970s, Kaiser got out of the car business, selling that division to American Motor Co., which continued to manufacture the Jeep brand vehicles.Then in the 1980s, in an effort to stay afloat, AMC partnered with France's Renault car company, which ended up with the majority stock in AMC, and sold out to Chrysler in 1987.The day of President Barack Obama's inauguration, Jan. 20, 2009, Italy-based automobile company Fiat agreed to take a 35-percent stake of Chrysler, which would allow Chrysler use of Fiat's technology and vehicle platforms.Three months later, on April 30, Chrysler became the first Detroit-based automobile company in history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.After the Indiana State Police Pension Trust sued Chrysler, arguing that the agreement with Fiat went against U.S. bankruptcy law because it rewarded unsecured creditors, the U.S. Supreme Court made Fiat an owner of Chrysler. On July 21, 2011, Fiat took over a 53.5-percent stake in Chrysler.Throughout, Jeep remained under the Chrysler umbrella. The Fiat-Chrysler partnership has proven lucrative for Jeep; since the merger, the Jeep has set four global sales records for its brand and surpassed one million global sales twice.In 2012, Jeep sold 701,000 units, while it sold 731,000 in 2013, 1.017 million in 2014 and 1.2 million in 2015.“It really comes down to the positions of the Jeep brand,” said Scott Tallon, Jeep director of product marketing. “The 4-by-4 positions have been positioned differently, (catering to) some proactive lifestyles, also improving on-road driving dynamics and fuel efficiency. Finding that balance has really been a catalyst for that growth in recent years.”The Jeep has kept its off-road capabilities but has improved in gas mileage through its powertrain.“(What) makes us much more relevant is the powertrain, both the engine and the transmission,” Tallon said.This balance has been fleshed out into the three newest models: the Cherokee, the Grand Cherokee, and the Renegade.The Grand Cherokee, which Tallon called “the flagship of the brand” was updated in 2011. What stands out most about this new model is that it gets 30 miles per gallon and has a driving range of more than 700 miles.The Cherokee, which was revived in 2013 for a 2014 model after being discontinued in 2001, has superior on-road handling coupled with fuel efficiency.Tallon called the Renegade, which came out in 2015, “a great addition to the lineup, a great entry point to the brand, and of “iconic Jeep styling, class, and leading capability.”These models of Jeeps, as well as the others, showcase the diversified capabilities of which the brand prides itself.“That is the beauty of being an SUV brand,” Tallon said. “Every Jeep has to live to those standards of capabilities. There are utility vehicles, but none with the utility and capabilities that the Jeep offers. That has uniquely positioned us.”
