CC loves the old Wagoneer. Who doesn’t? They have a very keen following in Japan too; I keep seeing them about quite regularly. It was only a matter of time until one could be caught standing still and open to a few quick snaps. Then, the other Sunday, it happened.
Well, truth be told, I have had a somewhat tatty Jeep Grand Wagoneer in my files for a while – a late ’80s Chrysler-era car, I believe. And it will have its day on CC too, at some juncture. But this older “pig nose” Limited, replete with colorful AMC badging and looking a lot better than its younger sibling, appeared before yours truly and made its way to the very top of the pile.
I’m not an expert on these, so I might br getting the MY wrong, but in any case the deluxe “Limited” trim was available on Wagoneers from 1978 to 1983, after which the big Jeep had a bit of a butt lift and changed its name to Grand Wagoneer.
The so-called “pig nose” was grafted onto these starting from MY 1979 and lasted until 1985. On the other hand, these wheels were ditched in 1980, so that kind of limits the Venn diagram to just the one year. Happens to be the one I was born in, so let’s go for it!
Here’s a 1979 Wagoneer Limited advert with an unbeatable view of the interior. Seems like an extremely pleasant place to be, it must be said. Much as I adore the exterior styling (pig nose excepted) of these wagons, the surprisingly tasteful upholstery and dash are this vehicle’s hidden trump card.
Here’s the real-life interior, aging rather gracefully. From 1982, AMC sold these fully loaded with power window and the like, but this one still has the keep-fit cranks. Those are less likely to fail, all things considered. I spied that the keys were still in the ignition, so I hurried up to take a few more photos – the owner was surely going to return to his prized possession very soon…
In case you’re wondering (I know I did) about that sticker on the backlight, “Buddy Auto” is a restoration shop in Yokohama specialized in Wagoneers, as well as all manner of US-made campervans. So this Jeep has been getting proper TLC. The question is, how long has it been here? Because although typically American, the Wagoneer was also an outlier among Malaise-era behemoths in having a dedicated international audience – even back in said era.
What I’m saying is that there is a decent chance that this wagon was delivered new in Japan back in 1979. Jeeps were the original 4×4 and spread across the planet as such, courtesy of Allied armies. Of course, they could not reasonably produce everything from the US, so starting in the late ‘40s, they established JVs in dozens of countries to manufacture both civilian and military AWDs that were quite revolutionary. The JV system meant that there were many local variants, but also that local acceptance was very high.
So whatever the US mother ship decided to produce was met with a host of potential clients abroad. The Wagoneer was not created with anyone but the American consumer in mind, but the world loved Jeeps, knew Jeeps and some wealthier folks around the globe must have figured that a huge, luxurious V8-powered Jeep wagon with faux wood and A/C was just the thing they needed.
Wagoneers were sold in Europe in the ‘70s and ‘80s – I can bear witness to that. They were not exactly common, but compared to other Detroit full-sizers of the era, they were not unknown. AMC also sold Wagoneers in Japan in those years, despite the Mistubishi J36 Wagon still being in production at the same time.
The two vehicles may have been distantly related genetically, but they were quite different in their intended audience: the price, tax band and level of refinement available in the American-made wagon – especially in this thirsty and plush Limited guise – was a world away from the sober and rugged Mitsubishi, with their clattering Diesels and rubber floor mats.
Just like in the US, the Wagoneer was kind of in a niche of its own, which also helped. The Range Rover hadn’t quite landed yet (it was still missing two doors, for starters) and the Toyota FJ Land Cruiser was definitely reaching for the SUV role that later versions ended up having. But the Jeep had the name recognition, over a decade and a half of continuous production and more glitz and Di-noc than its woodless would-be rivals.
That’s why they never could stop making the old SJ Wagoneers, even when they launched the new-fangled unibody XJs in 1984: they had become a true icon. And they made AMC a fair amount of money too, during those leanest of lean times. Even Chrysler kept them in production for about five years – for the same reason, i.e. if you made them, people would come and spend lots of money to buy one. Still the case today, apparently: body-on-frame Wagoneers are known to be worth a nice chunk of change, no matter where you are, nowadays. Limited by name, but unlimited in appreciation.
Related posts:
Vintage Review: 1963 Jeep Wagoneer – Jeep’s I.F.S. Road To Nowhere, by Jon Stephenson
Auction Capsule: 1976 Jeep Wagoneer – Driven to the Auction, by Jim Grey
CC Capsule: 1983-85 Jeep Grand Wagoneer – Chet Ripley Would Approve, by Jason Shafer
CC Capsule: 1983 Jeep Wagoneer Brougham – The Perfect Vintage Ride for a Rock-Ribbed Republican, by Jim Grey
CC Wordless Outtake: Jeep Wagoneer Limited – Still At It!, by Tom Klockau
CC Outtake: 1963 Jeep Wagoneer – Explorer Edition, by PN
CC Outtake: 1977 Jeep Wagoneer – Proto-SUV Baby Hauler, by PN
In Japan, do people commonly leave the keys in the ignition when they leave their cars parked on the street, as this owner did?
Yes.
Even better, I regularly see motorcycles left idling at the curb, as their driver is busy delivering a package or letter in the vicinity.
Theft is that rare here.
A friend left the keys in the ignition of his Yamaha XS 250,the square tank model in a small. English town.Returned 2 hours later and the bike was still there!.
A really charming vehicle really filling its parking bay! No matter how much trim they ladled onto this beast through the years it remained a looker. Would love one on my driveway.
It is interesting the way certain objects are appreciated almost universally, no matter where in the world. The Wagoneer/Grand Wagoneer seems to be one of them. I regret that I never seriously looked for one when they were more common/reasonably priced as used cars.
I dunno about these. It just seems terribly unrefined to me. Maybe it’s the AMC bones. I mean to still have factory A/C as an unintegrated below the dash affair in 1979 is ridiculous. And these weren’t cheap either. They did have a corner of the market to itself for years though.
Count me in as a hater of these. Crude, wildly expensive for what you got (then and now), and homely styling. Hard pass.
> I mean to still have factory A/C as an unintegrated below the dash affair in 1979 is ridiculous.
…especially since early Wagoneers from the 1960s did have the A/C in the dash!
Doesn’t look integrated though. The faceplate looks exactly like a hang-on unit.
Count me in as a lover of these. Jeep was not, by any means the original 4×4. However, they were the first to be mass produced by the thousands (Willis MB)
So what exactly was “the original 4×4”?
Obviously there had been AWD trucks and passenger car conversions, but that’s not exactly the same.
Maybe the Jeffery Quad, a favorite of World War 1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffery_Quad
Wow, I didn’t know about these! Pretty interesting vehicle: https://www.hemmings.com/stories/article/where-none-could-possibly-travel
Not likely to find one of them in the wild – it has solid rubber tires and a top speed of 14mph. It feels more like a proto-ATV than proto-Jeep, designed almost exclusively for off-road use. There are about 20 known survivors.
There were a number of early AWD trucks, going back to the teens. The Quad is just one of hem. But they were all genuine trucks.
1903 Spyker 60HP. Granted, a race car (back then, anyway).
https://www.supercars.net/blog/1903-spyker-60hp/
And no, that’s not a typo. That is how Willys is pronounced.
… but not how it’s spelled, which is what matters when communicating in writing as we are here.
Your point eludes me.
I don’t get why Chrysler just let these die on the vine. The profit margins were huge, and the buyers were in high income brackets. The 1963 design was getting too hard to update for modern safety and fuel efficiency standards, but Jeep left money on the table by not developing a successor – until last year that is. But will the new GW be able to connect with the same sorts of buyers the old GW appealed to, ones who will drop $100K+ for a Jeep?
There’s a big difference between continuing to build a car whose development had been amortized many years earlier, resulting in big profit margins, and developing a completely new platform and body for a replacement. That would have been prohibitively expensive, given the very modest actual annual sales on these.
The buyers of the old GW have long moved on, or died. I have little doubt that the new GW will sell well enough, but I doubt it will be to buyers of that exceptionally high income bracket that the old one sold too. That group of buyers is probably buying more exclusive SUVs, or Suburban/Tahoes/Expeditions.
Eh? These SJs went out of production in June 1991; the ZJ successor went into production in January 1992.
Thats not likely a Japan new example as its LHD they were built RHD for markets requiring that, they were a bit too thirsty for most people so popularity was limited here,
Im seeing fewer American cars lately since fuel prices went crazy, I can now fit over $100 worth of fuel in either of my cars but the diesel one goes much further than the old petrol one per dollar.
RHD is not a requirement in Japan, unlike GB or Thailand. To wit: nearly all M-Bs, BMWs, Jags, Ferraris and US imports are sold as LHD from new here. Snob appeal is the key. Hence Renaults, VWs, Fiats and Volvos are generally RHD.
RHD is not a requirement in GB, either. Most developed countries allow other-hand-drive vehicles as long as they meet applicable safety standards. Even Australia, which used to be very strictly anti-LHD, has loosened those regulations considerably.
Never been a big fan of these, but that will probably not coma as a surprise. Too heavy, thirsty, poor space utilization (essentially little or no more usable space inside than the smaller Cherokee XJ), and of course ponderous handling. It was obsolete in 1979, and chronically so by its end. But obviously the folks that were still buying them didn’t care about those kind of things.
I would have taken a basic (no wood) Custom with the 258 six and a manual transmission, prior to 1984 when the much better Cherokee XJ came out.
Calling this a “pig nose” reminded me of a woman my friend worked for in the ’80s. Her Grand Wagoneer sported a pig hood ornament. The private drive to her estate was called Pig Lane, with a life size bronze pig as gate guardian.
There’s a couple of these parked at a place just a couple miles from me right now. It doesn’t appear that they move much.
What is the significance of the “300kg” decal on the rear bumper to the left?
It’s the load rating, every utility vehicle (including delivery scooters) in Japan has one.
At least in my little American West Coast corner of the world, these were never very popular, nor very well-regarded. I was very surprised in the eighties when they started showing up in movies as the conveyance of wealthy characters in the Hamptons or upscale suburbs of DC or Chicago. Out here, the equivalent vehicle would be a Mercedes S Class and perhaps, at ski resorts, a Suburban, or by the mid-eighties, an XJ Cherokee. The Ford Explorer and Range Rover were the final nails in their coffin.
Actually the final nail in their coffin was Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in August of 1990 which caused gasoline prices to soar and sales of these gas guzzlers to plummet from over 10,000 units in 1989 to just 1,560 in 1991 which is why Chrysler pulled the plug.
I drove them for 25 years and owned two of them, a 1979 and a 1989 and neither one of them ever got more than 12 mpg highway.
Big fan here for no particular reason, this thing is more American than apple pie, baseball, hot dogs and even Mom herself. It could perhaps be the old American car I most enjoy seeing, the particular generation or grille or whatever being completely irrelevant. Driving? Never had the pleasure but should I ever get to I’m sure it’ll be slow, ponderous, non-economical, loud, and completely un-dynamic in every possible respect and yet an absolutely glorious experience never to be bettered. All the better if it has the burgundy interior to envelop me in its warm, loving embrace.
Mrs. Jason drove an orangey ’77 version of this Jeep when she was in high school (along with her parent’s ’83 Seville). It had a 360 if memory serves but it was otherwise pretty basic, so obviously not a GC. She said it was a handful but didn’t bounce too bad after catching a little air. Her soft spot for these is considerable.