1968 Jeep Super Wagoneer (1414D) / Bring a Trailer
The 1966–1969 Jeep Super Wagoneer and 1968–1971 Wagoneer Custom Special were the earliest regular-production examples of a now-common breed: posh upscale SUVs aimed squarely at monied buyers, with lofty price tags to match. However, neither the Super Wagoneer and Custom Special was a commercial success, and both were short-lived.
1968 Jeep Super Wagoneer (1414D) / Bring a Trailer
The original SJ Wagoneer, launched for the 1963 model year, was a landmark design: a relatively compact truck-based tall station wagon combining truck-like capability and car-like comfort. In a 1965 technical paper, Kaiser Jeep experimental engineer Paul B. Hartman described it as ” an economical, rugged, reliable, all-around, passenger-cargo-utility vehicle for pleasure, fun, and work.” In the ’60s, it was a niche product, still often sold as a working vehicle — there was even a panel delivery version early on — but for just under $200 extra, there was also a plusher Custom Wagoneer, offering what the brochure called “class enough for any dress-up affair.”
Jeep Super Wagoneer prototype at the 1966 Detroit Auto Show, November–December 1965 / The Henry Ford
The great lesson of the postwar automotive scene was that if there’s a market for deluxe, there’s usually also a market for super deluxe, and so Kaiser Jeep soon came up with the idea of an even plusher Wagoneer aimed at the Town & Country set. This emerged for the 1966 model year as the Super Wagoneer, which made the auto show circuit in the fall of 1965. Kaiser didn’t get around to issuing a press release announcing the production version until the following March, although it was apparently on sale by December 1965.
1966 Jeep Super Wagoneer (1414D) with non-stock wheels / 1HD1
Identified by the model number 1414D, the Super Wagoneer was a four-door Wagoneer 4WD with unique exterior and interior trim. Outside, it had anodized side and tailgate trim, a vinyl roof covering (although a few were apparently special-ordered without it), a roof rack, and special mag-style wheel covers.
1966 Jeep Super Wagoneer (1414D) with non-stock wheels / 1HD1
The Super Wagoneer came with mag-style wheel covers with simulated knockoff spinners / Canyon State Classics
Inside, the Super Wagoneer had classy vinyl upholstery, full carpeting, bucket seats, a center console with console shifter, wood trim on the doors and console, chrome ribs on the headliner, and a power rear window (though power side window lifts weren’t available).
1966 Jeep Super Wagoneer (1414D) / 1HD1
1966 Jeep Super Wagoneer (1414D) / 1HD1
1968 Jeep Super Wagoneer (1414D) / Bring a Trailer
The Super Wagoneer was offered only with a 270 hp (gross) four-barrel version of the new Vigilante V-8 (the AMC 327), Turbo Hydra-Matic, Saginaw power steering, and power brakes; a limited-slip differential was optional. I don’t think the 1414D was available in a 2WD version, so the Wagoneer’s short-lived independent front suspension option wasn’t available.
1966 Jeep Super Wagoneer (1414D) / 1HD1
Unusually for this era, air conditioning and tinted windows were standard equipment on the Super Wagoneer, as were an AM radio and a tilt-and-telescope steering wheel. I think the small console-mounted clock was a dealer-installed accessory.
1968 Jeep Super Wagoneer (1414D) / Bring a Trailer
1968 Jeep Super Wagoneer (1414D) / Bring a Trailer
All of this made the Super Wagoneer a genuinely fancy truck, but it also brought the base price in 1966 to $5,978, which was firmly in the luxury car class — that was Cadillac de Ville territory. However, a Super Wagoneer was a vehicle of unique capabilities. It was civilized enough for placid highway cruising in air-conditioned comfort, but with its 4WD and two-speed transfer case, it could venture confidently into places a Cadillac or Lincoln would have to be air-lifted into or out of.
1966 Jeep Super Wagoneer (1414D) / 1HD1
With its upright, boxy shape, the Wagoneer was also roomy and versatile, with up to 91 cu. ft. of cargo space.
1966 Jeep Super Wagoneer (1414D) / 1HD1
Although it leaned a lot in turns, the Wagoneer handled surprisingly well by contemporary domestic standards, and its compact-car-size footprint made it easy to maneuver. The 270 hp V-8 and automatic gave the Super Wagoneer adequate power — 0 to 60 mph in 12.8 seconds and the quarter mile in 18.7 seconds, according to Motor Trend — and on-road fuel economy in 2WD mode was 12 to 15 mpg, reasonable enough for a 4,500 lb tall wagon with a carbureted 5.4-liter V-8.
1966 Jeep Super Wagoneer (1414D) with non-stock wheels / 1HD1
(In mid-1968, the Vigilante 327 was phased out in favor of the new Dauntless 350, a small-block Buick engine with 230 hp.)
Buick Dauntless 350 V-8 in a 1968 Jeep Wagoneer Custom Special (1414X) / Bring a Trailer
Twenty or thirty years later, such a mix of attributes would be a license to print money, but in its day, the Super Wagoneer was a rare sight, and it barely survived three and a half years. Kaiser Jeep didn’t compile model-specific production figures in this period, only calendar-year aggregates, but the most commonly quoted estimate for Super Wagoneer production is just 1,485 units: 657 in 1966, 455 in 1967, and 373 in 1968–1969. The Super Wagoneer was dropped early in the 1969 model year.
1966 Jeep Super Wagoneer (1414D) with non-stock wheels / 1HD1
Kaiser Jeep didn’t immediately give up, introducing the conceptually similar Wagoneer Custom Special during 1968. The Super Wagoneer and Custom Special were available concurrently for a little while, but the Custom Special was essentially a Super Wagoneer successor.
1968 Jeep Wagoneer Custom Special (1414X) / Bring a Trailer
Identified with the chassis code 1414X, the Custom Special kept most of the Super Wagoneer interior trim, but deleted the exterior dress-up and moved some of the Super’s standard features — in particular air conditioning — to the options list.
1968 Jeep Wagoneer Custom Special (1414X) / Bring a Trailer
This brought the list price down to $5,671, $492 cheaper than the 1968 Super Wagoneer, although ordering air conditioning (which this blue Custom Special has) erased most of the difference.
1968 Jeep Wagoneer Custom Special (1414X) / Bring a Trailer
I haven’t been able to find any estimates for Wagoneer Custom Special production, but it doesn’t appear it did any better than the Super Wagoneer, since it didn’t survive any longer: It was offered only through 1971, with 1971 models (built after the acquisition of Jeep by AMC) substituting the AMC 360 V-8 for the Buick Dauntless engine.
1968 Jeep Wagoneer Custom Special (1414X) / Bring a Trailer
In later years, Jeep would again push the Wagoneer upmarket, adding the Wagoneer Limited in 1978 and the Grand Wagoneer for 1984. Lavishly equipped and extravagantly priced, it remained a reliable moneymaker through 1991. However, the Super Wagoneer and Wagoneer Custom Special were commercial flops.
Given how popular this type of vehicle has since become, why didn’t they sell better?
- They were really pricey. A Super Wagoneer cost almost $2,000 more than a Custom Wagoneer, which was already a $4,000 vehicle. The Custom Special was cheaper, but not much, especially if you wanted air conditioning (which was extra on the 1414X). For rich buyers looking for a posh shuttle for the family compound or country estate, it was only money, but I imagine the price tag provoked some sticker shock for middle-class buyers — a Super Wagoneer was not a small step up from the Custom Wagoneer.
- They didn’t hold their value well. Especially with the V-8 engine, the Wagoneer had decent residuals for a truck, but based on Kelley Blue Book values, a Super Wagoneer or Custom Special would shed well over half its value in the first year. The trade-in value of a year-old Custom Special was only about $50 more than that of the much cheaper V-8 Custom Wagoneer, with the air-conditioned Super Wagoneer commanding just $200 more than that. Not an issue for the upper crust, perhaps, but for more financially conscious buyers, a Coupe de Ville was a much better buy in financial terms.
- Kaiser Jeep didn’t have a big retail foothold. The Kaisers had always been more comfortable with government contracts than with the volatility of the retail market, and many of Jeep’s efforts to expand their market in this period had fallen short — until the AMC acquisition in 1970, Jeep just didn’t have the dealer body. I don’t know how many of its ’60s dealers were up to selling $6,000 luxury vehicles either; Jeep in those days still did a lot of business in very utilitarian fleet vehicles, many of them less than half the price of a Super Wagoneer. AMC (and later Chrysler) had the sales and marketing resources to make consumer-oriented Jeep models mainstream hits, but Kaiser really didn’t.
1966 Jeep Super Wagoneer (1414D) with non-stock wheels / 1HD1
- They were awfully small. Viewed from an era in which massive front and rear overhang are no longer the primary signifiers of automotive opulence, the SJ’s proportions and dimensions seem perfectly normal, but in the late ’60s, the Wagoneer was the size of a compact car — 183.7 inches long on a 110-inch wheelbase, over 3 feet shorter than a contemporary Cadillac. If you weren’t old money or a movie star and were worried what the neighbors would think, the Super Wagoneer might seem too dinky for a luxury vehicle.
- If you just wanted a station wagon, there were plenty of other choices. In later years, the minivan and SUV hunted the traditional station wagon to extinction, but the 1960s were still a boom time for wagons. If you wanted passenger and cargo room and weren’t concerned about off-roading, a Ford Country Squire or Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser was a more orthodox choice, and still posh enough for affluent buyers.
- Their styling was an acquired taste. As with a lot of Brooks Stevens efforts, the Wagoneer looked like the product of an industrial designer or architect rather than an automotive stylist — a kind of Mid-Century Modern corrugated shoe box, more Richard Neutra than Bill Mitchell. Being detached from contemporary automotive styling trends made the SJ Wagoneer a durable design, undoubtedly contributing to its long and profitable production life, but a Super Wagoneer or Wagoneer Custom Special was aesthetically out of step with similarly priced contemporary luxury cars, vinyl top or no.
1968 Jeep Wagoneer Custom Special (1414X) / Bring a Trailer
- They were still trucks. The eventual commercial triumph of the SUV was thanks in large part to the Baby Boom generation, many of whom had embraced pickup trucks and smaller SUVs in the ’70s and had fewer prejudices towards them than their parents’ generation had. For a typical affluent 40-something or 50-something buyer of the late 1960s, trucks and vans were for tradesmen, poor people, and greasy kids, not respectable middle-class suburban status seekers.
- They were maybe too nice for trucks. Here was the conundrum that still haunts the fancy truck market: A luxurious truck may be a highly capable vehicle, but the fancier it is, the less likely it is to ever be used for any of the rough or muddy work for which it was theoretically designed. If you were a well-heeled outdoorsy type who intended to make regular expeditions into the muck and mud, the fancy carpeting of the 1414D and 1414X might have been a deterrent, and for a hunting, fishing, or camping trip, the bench seats of the standard model or Custom Wagoneer probably made more sense than the pricier models’ buckets and console.
1968 Jeep Wagoneer Custom Special (1414X) / Bring a Trailer
All this is a reminder that cars and trucks don’t exist in a vacuum. The Super Wagoneer and Custom Special had most of the ingredients that later made SUVs a commercial bonanza, but in the late ’60s, the automotive ecosystem that made luxury SUVs so successful didn’t yet exist, so they were only a minuscule chunk of a small niche. Depending on how different social, economic, and regulatory trends shape up, they might one day be that again.
1968 Jeep Wagoneer Custom Special (1414X) / Bring a Trailer
Related Reading
Curbside Classic: 1968 Jeep Wagoneer – The Most Influential Vehicle Of The Post War Era – Not Just A Passing Fad (by Paul N)
Vintage Review: 1963 Jeep Wagoneer – Jeep’s I.F.S. Road To Nowhere (by Jon Stephenson)
Design Capsule: 1959 Willys Malibu and 1961 J-100 – The First Two Tries at Styling the 1963 Jeep Wagoneer (by Paul N)
Curbside Classics: Jeep Cherokee And Wagoneer SJ – Brief Initiation Into Jeep’s 4×4 Might (by Rich Baron)
Vintage R&T Review: 1978 Jeep Wagoneer Limited – “Can You Imagine An American Manufacturer Building the Same Body For 15 Years?” How About 29 Years! (by Paul N)
Curbside Classic: 1979 Jeep Wagoneer Limited – Unlimited Appeal (by Tatra87)
Curbside Capsule: 1984-91 Jeep XJ Wagoneer Limited – Social Climber (by William Stopford)
I remember one single Wagoneer from my childhood – some neighbors who kept to themselves owned one, probably around 1970. It was an older couple, and their other car was a Mercedes sedan. I know it was not a Super Wagoneer, it was plain white outside. It might have been a Custom Special, but given the production numbers, I doubt it.
These folks were considered oddballs by we kids on the street. They were not outdoors people, but seemed to use it just like people would use a GW by the early 80s. So yes, this was a definite niche vehicle for people who didn’t really care what others thought.
I like these a lot – this is the first I can ever recall seeing one outside of a period advertisement. Although, truth be told, I prefer the extra size of a Travelall.
’68-’70 models should command highest contemporary market prices, simply because B (big block).O.P. engines should be easy drop-ins. Of course, Chevrolet also, only with transmissions cast with matching bolt patterns.
Despite not having been designed in an art studio, I’ve always found them appealing, since childhood. They could’ve done better with an attractive dashboard, though. That would have made a world of difference, for those more demanding types who were ready to fork out more dough for an oddball vehicle of this type
I guess that, in addition to all the elements cited above, the Wagoneers were just too early on the scene. I’m reminded of the 1959 Austin A40, which combined sharp Pininfarina styling with a (split tailgate) hatchback and folding rear bench. In other words, it was a prototype VW Golf, 15 years before the Golf debuted. But customers didn’t know they wanted a hatchback; RWD will have compromised space utilisation, and BMC never really got behind the model, focusing their efforts on the FWD Mini (also 1959) and ADO16 (1962) – neither of which was ever hatchbacked, though both bodies would’ve been ideal for the type.
Owned a couple of those A40 farinas the split tailgate was an option the 59 i had only the bottom gate opened the 64 had a proper wagon split tailgate, BMC was hampered by Issigonis and his mania for gearboxes in engine sumps and Citroen done cheap leaky suspensions.
BMC’s Italian division solved that problem with the Bertone-designed 90L Mini, which was a hatchback. For some strange reason, it was never produced concurrently in Longbridge with British interior content. Ales Issogonis did have the a ‘new and improved’ Mini on the books for 1968, but the Merger From Hell, killed that one. The 9X prototype from 1968 is in the British National Museum, and had BMC not merged with Triumph-Leyland, the 9X, which was a hatchback would have been the up-to-date Mini for the 1970s’ and beat the VW Golf by several years. The 1981 Austin Metro was too late in the market to make headway, as the VW Golf, Renault 5/Le Car, and the Fiat Ritmo/Strada, were already entrenched in the mini-hatchback market and the ‘Hot-Hatch’ era just starting to emerge.
Great write-up – it’s amazing to think about how close this was to the magic ingredients of 20 or 30 years later. I’ve really got to wonder if these vehicles were the result of Jeep guessing that the market was heading in this direction, or whether it was a shot in the dark? I could see it being either.
I can see Wagoneers like this appealing to wealthy families who were looking to take a “trip of a lifetime” driving cross-country towing a trailer and maybe exploring some unpaved roads. But beyond that, like you noted, the market just wasn’t there… yet.
I did not know the Wagoneer was that short. It’s about the length of a Subaru Forester. My daughter’s 2023 Forester has a wheelbase of 105.1 inches and an overall length of 182.7 inches. My 2017 Subaru Outback has a wheelbase of 108.1 inches and an overall length of 189.6 inches. The 2025 Outback is a little longer at 191.9 inches with the same wheelbase.
To put it in perspective, in late 1974, my parents purchased a new Hornet Sportabout from Bill Whitten AMC in Birmingham. It was a compact car-mom wanted a car that had good gas mileage-and the specs listed in the brochure have the wheelbase for Hornet at 108 inches and the overall length at 187 inches and yet today, both the Wagoneer and the Hornet would be competitive size wise.
Just ahead of its time. The original Range Rover was hardly plush inside either. Back then affluent folks were still ok with non-plush utility vehicles.
It’s easy to say in retrospect, but more extensive “wood” might have captured some of the residual attraction that woodie wagons and Chrysler’s T&C had back in the ’20s-40s.
I am not an SUV fan but if someone put a gun to my head and said I needed to own one I would pick this by a mile. I love the interior quite a bit. When I saw the rear cargo shot this thought immediately ran through my mind. I am going to lay down some 4x8s and bags of concrete mix? No, I am not doing that. So there goes that particular use of the vehicle.
Now at the time this came out there were Country Squires all over the place where I lived in Southern California. They were driven by Moms hauling their kids and groceries. Now was a Mom going to drive this? You would think so since that Mom probably learned to drive a car in the 50s with basic brakes and steering. So this should be easy with power but the styling was too close to a truck. Failing that would this be better as a Father vehicle hauling kids around? Can’t say I saw fathers hauling kids around, seven days a week, back then for WWII men.
Given that we know large SUV’s are a significant contributor to climate change, it would not have done any of us any good, for the large SUV popularity trend to have started thirty-years earlier.
Genuine simulated mag wheels broham effect on steroids or just how chintzy can we make it, might make the punter wonder what else they cheaped out on if youre going to charge Cadillac prices use luxury parts.
That was my first thought when I read “classy vinyl upholstery”. While I wasn’t around back then to know if vinyl was considered the classiest new thing, leather was used in other cars with Cadillac price tags.
Well, yes and no. You could get leather upholstery in a Cadillac or Lincoln, but it wasn’t standard, and the higher-end mid-price models leaned very heavily on expanded vinyl. The hierarchy between cloth and vinyl was complicated: Nice vinyl trim was considered a step up from cheap cloth upholstery, but there were fancier cloth interiors that were considered a step up from vinyl.
All good reasons why the Super Wagoneer/Custom Special were flops, but I’d say the big ones were simply Kaiser’s miniscule size relative to the Big 3. Kaiser had neither the dealer network, nor the big marketing machine to push their wares.
But another, more prosaic reason is there wasn’t the minivan ‘soccer mom’ backlash that pushed legions into plush SUVs. The minivan’s stunning success was due in no small part to its practicality, but years later, that would be seen as a negative. Suddenly, consumers no longer wanted to be seen in a dowdy minivan, but still wanted the room and a ‘sporty’, outdoor’s lifestyle ethos, something the Big 3 were more than happy to exploit.
None of that existed back in the Super Wagoneer’s day.
But now, it’s the 3-row crossover driver that faces the same “soccer parent” stereotype that mini-van drivers did in the ’90s and Country Squire drivers did in the ’70s, so where will they go now to pretend they don’t have kids to shuttle around? And why it this treated as a negative stereotype in the first place?
I think that the niche for these cars was pretty small back then. Now we have thousands of “posers” buying big SUVs and trucks because they like the look and image. While I have the real need, and get a lot of use out of my truck, I like big SUVs because they are comfortable and look cool.
4WD was not necessary in the 1960s. A good set of snowtires, plus better plowing practices, would get a rear wheel drive car through a New England winter.
A certain portion of upper midwest curmudgeons agreed. I heard many say that 4wd was only good for getting you stuck in places you shouldn’t have been driving.
I didn’t agree with them then or now. 4wd was very helpful in upper midwestern winters. However the cost & compromises required to get 4wd weren’t widely accepted.
Even for snow plowing, we still used some 2wd pickups. Not because they were good. Because that’s what we had. You could make ’em work with enough weight in the bed and some chains on the rear wheels, but they still weren’t has handy as a real 4wd.
I think what started tipping the passenger car market to 4wd was the 2nd gen Jeep Cherokee (XJ). It was about 20″ shorter than the original Wagoneer and every bit as boxy. If judged like the original Super Wagoneer, it should have been another miserable flop. Luckily buyer perceptions had evolved.
By the XJ’s 1984 introduction, cars like the 186″ Mercedes W123 were well accepted as luxury cars. In 1963, luxury cars buyers expected something more akin to a 223″ Cadillac.
Luxury and high price no longer automatically meant big and long. The XJ wasn’t the 1st 4wd available in luxury trims, but its success and the soundness of its basic design started a market shift that we’re still feeling today.
One oddity is that the A/C system looks fully integrated into the dash, whereas more recent AMC and Chrysler-era Grand Wagoneers look like they have an aftermarket A/C vent appended to the bottom of the dash. From what I understand, appearances are deceiving – the early Jeep A/C system wasn’t really integrated into the rest of the HVAC system; whereas the later GCs did have a effectively integrated flow-through system that was completely integrated, but had underhanging vents that looked like a cheap aftermarket job.
The AC is in the dash in the early Wagoneer, but it’s not integrated — the regular HVAC controls are actually on the left side of the instrument panel — and if you look closely at the pictures in the auction listings, you can see the screws for the bright trim panel they used to cover the edges of the air conditioner installation.
The later Wagoneers didn’t have integrated climate control either, despite the looks. The controls were combined – such that the temp and fan controls are shared – but a dial switches between either heat or A/C, each of which delivers air through its own blower and set of vents.
Also note the “squid” icon knobs left and right of the steering column, which manually opened the cowl vents.
I realize now I was confusing the late Chrysler-era Wagoneers with late Darts and Valiants, which had a under-the-dash A/C vent setup despite it otherwise being a modern integrated HVAC setup – or so I believe. I’m not an expert on these thing, at least on these vehicles.
I still find it odd that Jeep had a nicely integrated (if in appearance only) setup only to scrap it for what looks like an aftermarket unit from Sears, even though it’s anything but.
It’s not hard to see why the Super Wagoneer failed. From its inception, the Wagoneer became the quintessential old-money vehicle; in other words, it generally appealed to people with conservative good taste. The Super Wagoneer was loud and gaudy with its appliques and ugly wheels. On the other hand, the Custom Special is hard to justify. It seems to be just a Grand Wagoneer with a few upscale options. In my opinion, the 1980s produced the best looking and most luxurious Wagoneers.
You pretty well hit on why these flopped – my key thought is they were seen as an agrarian product – one most people at the time wouldn’t have considered even if it wasn’t that much more than a Fairlane station wagon that would have been similar in size. When you’re talking twice the price and into really nice car territory – in a market where off-roading isn’t cool – you’re only interested if you’ve got lots of money and need off-road capability.
I think one big shift that took place by the 90s was that off-road ability came in vogue. Partly because of that, trucks suddenly became cool, and something people would even drive as a commuter where before, only necessity would have driven someone to that in the suburbs. Another factor was CAFE standards killing off the big station wagons. Minivans partly filled in the gap, but before long they became uncool and SUVs were suddenly what buyers with kids (and sometimes without) aspired to. So it’s another case of right product, wrong time: this is basically a smaller predecessor of the Lincoln Navigator that was an instant hit.
And now SUV’s are uncool
I never considered these as a luxury SUV. Not even close.
These failed because they were Kaisers- a company with a small dealer network, iffy build quality, and poor reliability. Factor in a 4WD system that required pushing-pulling-locking-unlocking levers and hubs in the right sequence or risk doing some expensive damage it’s no wonder these didn’t sell to suburbia.
Back in the 1960’s only farmers, utility workers, public safety departments, and the weirdos down the street bought 4WD vehicles and no one bought ‘luxury’ trucks.
I see an awful lot of similarity between the first gen Wagoneer and the ’64 Studebaker Lark, especially the Wagonaire. They were both designed by Brook Stevens at around the same time, so it shouldn’t be too surprising.
Your headline answers the question. The market demand just wasn’t there yet. Growing up in the suburbs, any sort of 4×4 was rare, most people who wanted a family hauler bought station wagons with eccentrics buying VW busses. Wagoneers and SJ Cherokees were rare all the way into the 80s, and I didn’t see lots of SUVs until the XJ Cherokee and the Ford Explorer supplanted station wagons in the 90s.
I do remember seeing Grand Wagoneers, but the late 80s was also when the Range Rover hit the US market, and that was the first globally successful luxury SUV, although 70s Range Rovers are pretty basic and it was only the 4 doors that got really fancy