The original WWII Willys Jeep was as simple as it gets, no airbags, no seatbelts, no electronics just steel and guts.
It was a light and tough 4x4, easy to work on and you could fix almost anything with basic tools. You could tear the whole Jeep down in less than 5 minutes.
If someone tried to build one today, same size, same style, could it actually pass modern safety and emissions standards?
Or would the rules make a true “modern Willys” impossible?
Curious what engineers, mechanics, and everyone else thinks. It would save people so much money.
It looks like, adjusted for inflation, the original Willy’s MB contract was for about $16k in 1941.
This says that a 2025 Jeep Wrangler starts at $32k, so it’s about twice the price.
https://www.jeep.com/model-compare.wrangler.2025.html
There’s also apparently a “willys” model available that costs $8k more, amusingly, making it less-minimalist and putting it at your $40k.