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CJ-3B Production Figures from AMC, 1977

by Jim Allen
 

Tracking and verifying Jeep production figures is as elusive as the proverbial World War II "jeep-in-a-crate," and flavored with equal amounts of Bovine Scat. With the production organization changing hands so many times, records have been lost, tossed or hidden from easy view. There's no such thing as "one stop shopping" when it comes to Jeep production info, to many Jeep researchers' eternal chagrin.

Composite photoThe big picture of Jeep production history is vague, with material covering certain eras being mixed with material from another era and another source. In some cases, the information conflicts from one source to another. You might get a production figure for a particular Jeep from one list and find the figures are several thousand off from the figures on another list. We're talking production info that comes from what would generally be considered as a primary source.

The problem is likely that many types of figures were kept. Calendar year production would be different than fiscal year production, for example. If the researcher doesn't learn the context of the figures he researches (and this is not always evident from the scraps of paper we often find), then you cannot really know for sure.

Figures Compiled by AMC, 1977

I present you with a recently discovered chart on CJ-3B production that was produced by American Motors Corp. in June of 1977, apparently from Kaiser Jeep records. Its cover pages reference it as "Total Production" for each model listed by year. This does offer, or at least hint at, some context, though one would wonder from which Kaiser Jeep production lists the AMC researcher drew his information on the early models. It's on Model History Cards that were produced for each Jeep model. Unfortunately, some pages are missing, though thankfully not the CJ-3B stuff. The original supplier of this material to my possession wishes to remain anonymous.

What's interesting and potentially useful to followers of CJ-3B history is that the new list shows '3B production all the way to '68 and even lists certain export models. You can make of this information what you may. For comparison, I suggest you look at the '52-61 CJ-3B figures from the Norton Young list of Willys-Overland Production Figures, which is generally acknowledged as the best and most detailed production information yet discovered, but short those tantalizing last years.

The new information does show military M-606 production, but unfortunately only the '68-on CJ-5-based M606A2 version.
 

1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
LHD 2360 32958 35972 12567 10145 5756 6178 5467
RHD               25
Farm Jeep   89            
 
  1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968
LHD 6139 8378 9416 9801 5271 2847 5459 2523 1446
RHD   132 82 232 436        
-- Jim Allen



Significance of the Figures

Thanks to Jim for passing along this information. Most of it supports the AMC figures published in Sessler's Illustrated Jeep Buyer's Guide, and also quoted by Arch Brown in Jeep: The Unstoppable Legend. The confirmation of figures from the mid-1960s is particularly useful as we are starting to receive serial number information from M606 Jeeps in places such as Argentina.

Other details that emerge from these new figures:

See CJ-3B Serial Numbers and Production Figures for an updated side-by-side comparison of the two sources. See also Kaiser CJ-3B Serial Number Questions for a discussion of the discrepancies between the sources.

The Photo

By the way, the photo at the top of this page is another example of "Bovine Scat". As is evident from the later "Jeep" sign on the plant in Toledo, this lineup of shiny new CJ-3Bs in Treebark Brown, blocking the lane for turning into the plant entrance, is a fake. Not too different from what I think the Willys photo retouchers used to do. I used Adam Charnok's side view photo of his 1963 Jeep. -- Derek Redmond


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Last updated 6 February 2001 by Derek Redmond redmond@cj3b.info
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All content not credited and previously copyright, is copyright Derek Redmond