Jeeps with Non-Jeep Grilles

-
Peter DeLorenzo, an automobile industry observer whose father was a General Motors executive and whose nearby neighbor was GM Design Vice President Bill Mitchell, hosts the must-read AutoExtremist web site.  About once a year DeLorenzo presents his evaluation of the branding strength of many makes of cars.  A consistent standout is Jeep.

From my perspective, one strong factor in Jeep's brand identity is its grille design that dates back to its World War 2 origins as a light military vehicle.  Almost all Jeeps since then have featured variations on that design.  This is akin to the famous long-lasting grille design themes of Rolls-Royce and Packard.

However, there was one exception to this strong Jeep theme.  That was found on Jeep's Wagoneer station wagon line produced from 1963 into 1991.   Early Wagoneers carried a stylized version of the traditional grille, but in 1970 that was abandoned for the rest of the model's production life.  (The Wagoneer model is being revived as an SUV in the near future, and it is likely its grille will be traditional Jeep.)

Why was the grille theme changed?  I suppose there might be an answer someplace on the Internet, and since this happened 50 years ago it's possible that some former American Motors employees are still around who can provide an explanation.  For now, here is my conjecture: Marketers decided that Wagoneer station wagons were the firm's most civilized, non-offroad Jeep-like vehicles.  Therefore, to distinguish them form "real" Jeeps, they needed a non-Jeep grille.

Unless noted, images below are either for-sale photos or photo supplied by factory publicists.

Gallery

A 1944 Willys MB Jeep, Bonhams photo.  The original stamped (simple and cheap to make) grille had nine vertical slots.  Over the years, non-military Jeep grilles tended to have seven slots, a more manageable number for stylists to work with.

2019 Jeep Cherokee featuring the latest SUV version of the grille theme.

Wagoneer for 1963, its first model year.  The grille retains vertical slots, but an even number of them in a V'd format.  Nevertheless, this design proclaims the vehicle brand is Jeep.

Going into the late 1960s the grille shape changed from somewhat vertical to broadly horizontal.  Now there were many vertical, Jeep-like slots.

As mentioned above, Jeep slots were abandoned in 1970.  Here is a mid-1970s Wagoneer whose grille has an egg-crate pattern.

By the early 1980s, this was the Wagoneer grille.  The egg-crate is gone, and now there are thin, horizontal bars -- almost the exact opposite of Jeep vertical slots.

A 1991 Wagoneer.  Fewer horizontal bars, still no vertical slots.  Thus ended the original Wagoneer line.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

N-Channel MOSFET High-Side Drive: When, Why and How?

-
Image
I had previously shown how to drive N-channel MOSFETs in low-side configuration. You can find the tutorial here: http://electel.blogspot.com/2016/12/low-side-mosfet-drive-circuits-and_23.html I’ve been requested to write a tutorial/article regarding high-side MOSFET drive. So, here I’ll talk about N-channel MOSFET high-side drive. Let’s first look at the common low side configuration.  Fig. 1 - N-channel MOSFET configured as low-side switch Now let’s look at a MOSFET configured as a high-side switch. Fig. 2 - N-channel MOSFET configured as high-side switch You can quite easily see the difference between the high-side configuration and the low-side configuration. In the low-side configuration, the load is connected between the drain and +V, while the source is connected to ground. Thus, the gate drive is referenced to ground. So by applying a voltage of >7V (for Power MOSFETs) or >4V (for Logic Level MOSFETs), the MOSFET can be fully turned on. Now let’s talk about the high-si...
Read more

Using the high-low side driver IR2110 - explanation and plenty of example circuits

-
Image
In many situations, we need to use MOSFETs configured as high-side switches. Many a times we need to use MOSFETs configured as high-side and low-side switches. Such as in bridge circuits. In half-bridge circuits, we have 1 high-side MOSFET and 1 low-side MOSFET. In full-bridge circuits we have 2 high-side MOSFETs and 2 low-side MOSFETs. In such situations, there is a need to use high-side drive circuitry alongside low-side drive circuitry. The most common way of driving MOSFETs in such cases is to use high-low side MOSFET drivers. Undoubtedly, the most popular such driver chip is the IR2110. And in this article/tutorial, I will talk about the IR2110. You can download the IR2110 datasheet from the IR website. Here's the download link: www.irf.com/product-info/datasheets/data/ir2110.pdf First let’s take a look at the block diagram and the pin assignments and pin definitions (also called lead assignments and lead definitions): Fig. 1 - IR2110 block diagram (click on image to enlarge)...
Read more

Using the SG3525 PWM Controller - Explanation and Example: Circuit Diagram / Schematic of Push-Pull Converter

-
Image
PWM is used in all sorts of power control and converter circuits. Some common examples include motor control, DC-DC converters, DC-AC inverters and lamp dimmers. There are numerous PWM controllers available that make the use and application of PWM quite easy. One of the most popular of such controllers is the versatile and ubiquitous SG3525 produced by multiple manufacturers – ST Microelectronics, Fairchild Semiconductors, On Semiconductors, to name a few. SG3525 is used extensively in DC-DC converters, DC-AC inverters, home UPS systems, solar inverters, power supplies, battery chargers and numerous other applications. With proper understanding, you can soon start using SG3525 yourself in such applications or any other application really that demands PWM control. Before going on to the description and application, let’s first take a look at the block diagram and the pin layout. Pins 1 (Inverting Input) and 2 (Non Inverting Input) are the inputs to the on-board error amplifier. If you a...
Read more