I think by now my Amer-o-phile credentials are well established. I married an American once and almost married another one. I’ve been to a NASCAR race, seen my beloved Miami Dolphins (who I’ve supported for about thirty years – the definition of insanity) play twice, and fired a gun. Shit, on one visit another lifetime ago I was even approached by a recruiter for the Marines. Like I would wear blue pants with a red stripe on them. For better or worse, the bald eagle has its talons well and truly around what passes for my soul.
Without lying back on a couch for an hour once a week, my working theory is the genesis of all this can be traced back to cars. Well of course it can, otherwise we wouldn’t be here. By the time I finally got my license aged 22 in 1995 (I did it late because both my best friends could drive and I had discovered beer) hot hatchbacks were dead and uninsurable for anyone under the age of thirty. Moldy old wire wheeled classics were for flat cap geriatrics. American cars with their garish colorways, air conditioning and rumbling V8s felt like cars from another world. Because that’s exactly what they were.
Sometimes when I’ve been hit in the head I entertain the notion of buying another American car. Like an inappropriate crush, one I can’t get out of my mind is the Wrangler. Specifically the lamented YJ Wrangler. The one with the square headlights. I’ve talked before about the importance of a car’s face – the combination of grille and headlights that constitutes what is known as the Down the Road Graphic (DRG). As a designer, the visual epitome of a square peg in a round hole should be making my eye twitch, but I genuinely adore them. This isn’t my usual deliberately contrary for the sake of it stance either. Out of a long and illustrious history of Wranglers, why do the YJ’s square headlights shine right into my pleasure center?
The Heart Wants What It Wants
I would love to look up from today’s Le Monde, push my funky glasses up my nose and give you some intelligent car designer reason for this, but honestly it would be complete horseshit. There is a good car design/historical reason why the YJ has square headlights, which I’ll get to in a bit, but that can’t be why I started liking them, because back when I started seeing them on UK roads I was more concerned with drinking my own body weight in beer and deafening myself to Pantera every Friday night. I think it has more to do with what started my love affair with American cars in the first place – namely their inherent crappiness.
Ok that’s a bit unfair. What I mean is the simplicity of their engineering coupled with their half-assed attempts to be modern. Compared to European and Japanese stuff, American cars at the time were not exactly state of the art, but they always had a heart on the sleeve honesty about what they were.
Giving a four wheel drive system a pseudo-sophisticated name like Quadra Trac (not that the YJ has that, but other Jeeps do) is corny, but tells you exactly what it does. A flaming chicken tattoo elevated the metal flake exoticism of a Firebird into the stratosphere. Try to imagine in 1996 the inherent cool of rolling a red ’83 Trans Am through the mean streets of east London like my best friend did. It might have been crap but surrounded by grotty old Fords it looked and sounded like a jet fighter.
Sure, I had my first Capri but despite them being mechanically robust, body parts and trim were impossible to find back then because those cars were worthless. Anything exotic from the continent like a Fiat or a Citroen and the local parts place would be laughing in your face and pretending they were closed. If you wanted to stand out in McDonald’s car park on Saturday night American cars were the answer. I ended up owning a succession from a ’71 Plymouth Duster, to a Fox body Mustang, a ’79 Thunderbird and then a Z28 Camaro. There was even a specialist down the road from me who gladly emptied my bank account as I tried to give the Duster something resembling the ability to stop and steer.
The Americans Are Coming! Maybe.
European interest in American cars has ebbed and flowed over the years on the vagaries of things like exchange rates and gas prices. According to the March 1988 issue of Car magazine, American exports to the continent reached a height of 50,320 in – get this – 1979. Small beer, but by the late eighties the big three thought conditions were favorable for a proper invasion. The domestic industry was recovering after being knocked on its ass. Key decision makers in Detroit had done their time in Europe and gotten a taste for it. Chrysler’s Bob Lutz had been chairman of Ford of Europe, GMs Bob Stempel ran Opel and Don Petersen of Ford had also been an executive on the continent. The engineering and perceived quality gap between American and European cars was closing because American designers had been posted overseas – GM’s Chuck Jordan and Ford’s Jack Telnack being two notable examples. Detroit had the money, had the knowledge and it thought it had the products. That issue of Car magazine also listed what they thought were the top ten best American cars at the time. Here’s what they said about the Wrangler:
To off-road addicts, The Jeep is what the Beetle used to be to high-school kids. The Wolfsburg Bug died a couple of years ago, but the Jeep is still going strong. Having moved from Willys-Overland (1941) to American Motors (1970) to Chrysler (1987), the Jeep nameplate is currently among the most successful in the US auto business. Our choice, the Wrangler, is not a denim-trimmed special, but the latest variation of the MASH staff car. It now features rectangular instead of round headlamps, plus a new 4.2 litre, six-cylinder engine which provides more poke than the leaf-sprung suspension can handle. We therefore suggest you forget about the silly option packs and go for the canvas top base model fitted with the 123bhp 2.5 litre four, which can still be had for under $10,000 (£5800). It best represents the old-school Jeep concept of a go anywhere utilitarian vehicle.
Despite all this coverage, the full on assault by Detroit never really amounted to much. USDM cars dripped into shark infested Euro waters mostly through specialist importers and never really found much footing. Apart from Jeep. Chrysler was doing things properly, Jeep being helped by AMC getting into the sack with Renault a few years earlier. By 1993 it was possible to walk into a UK Jeep dealer and drive out with a prime slice of genuine star-spangled, square head lamp, off-road cool.
You could also get an XJ Cherokee (oh god, now the model codes are imprinted in my brain, THANKS DAVID) and later a Chrysler Voyager (the export version of the NS minivan) or a Neon. All properly warrantied, keenly priced thanks to the exchange rate and most importantly for snobby Brits, with the steering wheel on the correct side. Apart from the YJ none of those really interested me beyond curiosity. The Neon and Caravan were American versions of something I was already familiar with, but they weren’t what I wanted from an American car. I wanted rubbish ergonomics, interior features and fittings screwed wherever there was space, big decals and a honking motor in a chassis barely able to handle it, which is how the YJ ended up with square headlights.
Square Good. Round Rollover Bad.
Previous versions of the Wrangler – then known as the CJ – had big problems keeping it shiny side up. CJs were increasingly being used as on-road pose-mobiles by people who drove them like cars with little regard to important things like a high center of gravity. NHTSA was aware of the tendency of off-road vehicles to flip over as early as 1973 and wanted to introduce a rollover standard, but automakers pushed back. In 1980 a 60 Minutes piece highlighted a report by the IIHS demonstrating the CJ’s turtle turning tendencies and AMC were well on their way to getting their asses sued to oblivion. By 1981 UPI estimated they had paid out $9 million in settlements with more pending. Lots more.
Legend has it that part of giving the YJ square headlights was to convince the buying public it was a different vehicle to the previous wobbly CJ versions. Along with the bent grille and the name change, according to Hemmings CJ fans were so offended they christened the new model ‘Wrongler’ which considering hardcore fans are a pretty humorless bunch is extremely funny. It wasn’t an entire rethink of the Jeep undercarriage – the YJ stole its axles from the XJ for a slightly wider track and it was half an inch lower. But along with the square headlights this was enough because the rest of the classic look was still present and correct – the exposed front fenders, tapered hood, cut down doors and flat windscreen. It still was unmistakably a Jeep.
Think about any iconic car – I’m talking about the coffee table book classics that stuck around for donkey’s years. The Beetle, Mini, 911, Model T and Defender. All these cars had small detail changes year on year – things like lights, trim, glazing, without breaking the continuity of their original design – the very thing that made them what they are. The YJ is the same, and allowed the Wrangler to continue its unbroken production run (OK, minus 1996) to this day without being killed by lawsuits. Is it too much of a stretch to say if it hadn’t been for the YJ’s square headlights we wouldn’t have the JL Wrangler today? I don’t think so, and thirty years later I still desperately want one. Because they’ve mostly disappeared from the UK, I’ll to make a phone call to 1996 to tell myself to get my financial shit in order and get down the local Jeep dealership to order a 4.0 Sport manual in black.
Alternatively, maybe there’s one in the US in that spec with my name on it. I just need to emigrate after finding another American girl to marry.
All Jeep images courtesy of Stellantis Media
- Did I Overpay For My Completely Rust-Free Jeep Wrangler YJ?
- In Defense Of The Most Controversial Jeep Ever Made: The 2014-2018 Cherokee (KL)
- The Movie Clueless Made A Boneheaded Mistake About Jeeps And I Have To Tell You About It Because I Just Can’t Take It Anymore
- Why The Jurassic Park Jeep Might Be The Most Challenging Jeep Wrangler Or CJ To Drive Off-Road
When I was in high school, CJs and Bronco II’s were the vehicles of choice for the rich parents to get their kids. I remember at least three roll over incidents with people I knew, although luckily none of them involved serious injuries. I guess I should be glad my parents were not wealthy enough to put my life at risk.
Good day Sir. It is refreshing to hear you admit love for our vehicles. Ìt appears I am 2 years older than you so that explains why your references and way of looking at the world resonate. I grew up in Detroit loving Jaguar, Porsche and VW. I was friends in school with a guy whose father worked at VW of America and as a result got exposed to his laboratory of a garage. Later was a service advisor at a Jaguar/Land Rover/Aston Martin dealer in Naples, Florida. I too became a Dolphins fan so feel your pain. Appreciate all of your contributions that I definitely read with a British accent! Cheers!
Did you work with Bill from the “Curious Cars” youtube channel?
In 1996 in the UK couldn’t you still have got a Defender for the price of a Jeep?
You could have kept the lack of ergonomics, and road handling, but gained the ability to find parts easily.
I’m a cowboy not a farmer.
Is Adrian eligible for COTD?
“According to the March 1988 issue of Car magazine, American exports to the continent reached a height of 50,320 in – get this – 1979.”
The exchange rate was in European favour during the late 1970s. Many Europeans flocked to the United States for holidays and discovered how excellent the smaller GM B-Body was. They were also “right” sized for European roads, too. Additionally, General Motors capitalised on this by offering many accessories and features as standard, which would be extra cost options in European vehicles, including automatic gearbox, air conditioning, power windows, locks, seats, and so forth. They were sold through official Opel sales centres with ECE-compliant lighting system, seat belts, external rear view mirrors, etc.
I bet most of the American vehicles sold in 1979 were GM and went to the Switzerland as the Swiss loved those vehicles. My family visited a suburban town outside Zürich in 1982, and I was awestruck to see half of vehicles there was American (all with export lighting system and safety equipments).
However, in the early 1980s, the tide reversed its flow with dollar strengthening against many European currencies, making the American cars expensive and uncompetitive. So, dwindling demand for the American cars in Europe.
Understandably, Chrysler and Ford didn’t make any effort to export their vehicles to Europe in the late 1970s and early 1980s as none of their vehicles were “suitable” for Europe (perhaps Ford Mustang was an exception, but I had never seen the export version of 1979 Mustang—sold as T5 in Germany—in Europe). Chrysler rectified it in the late 1980s with massive export drive, and Ford was late to the game in the early 1990s with Explorer and Probe.
They were more successful on the mainland because there’s a lot more room and continental Europeans are not such badge snobs as the UK are. Also the UK in general has an aversion to LHD. Which makes it all the more remarkable Chrysler/Jeep made a success of it in the UK, although having such a strong brand made it possible.
Did it help or hinder that the Chrysler brand was already known in the UK, due to its takeover and rebranding of Rootes Group products in the late 1970s? What the rest of Europe knew as the Simca 1304, we in the UK knew as the Chrysler Alpine, so introducing the Neon and Voyager wasn’t as difficult as introducing an unknown brand. A history of noisy tappets isn’t the worst reputation to have to build upon.
I suspect all that Rootes Group stuff was mostly forgotten. I remember the XJ having some high profile customers who raved about them.
In 1981 I worked at a local dealer who took a CJ in trade, so of course I had to take that V8 powered manual for a spin. Just going around the block had me convinced the vehicle was inherently dangerous (aka; top heavy, way overpowered and bouncy).
A year later I was unfortunate to witness one swerve, then roll over in front of my car and three of four kids were tossed onto the pavement. Two were knocked senseless and were wandering/staggering off like zombies, the driver was out cold and may have been killed as it appeared his head got between the rollbar and the road. A fourth was road-rashed, bloodied, and screaming loudly over the driver still in the car. I ran about giving them my jacket for warmth and trying to keep them all in one place, while my friend ran to a nearby phone. When the cops and ambulance showed, I ceded immediately to them, collapsed in a nearby planter and barfed my guts out.
Witnessing something like that never goes away.
How Nader overlooked the Jeep to call out the Corvair is beyond me.
Jesus that’s awful.
if you click on the link to the IIHS report it’s very revealing. AMC led the pushback against a rollover standard. Unsafe at Any Speed was published in 1965 so a bit before the rollover problem came to light.
My inclusion of Nader is somewhat misplaced, even though the Jeep preceded his book and to my knowledge wasn’t offered with a V8 until 65. Sadly the only thing most people historically equate with Nader is the Corvair, and in that vein, it’s telling that a decade after Nader’s book came out calling out makers, AMC still saw fit to market it jacked up on balloon tires with a V8 to image conscious kids. As a commuter vehicle it’s far worse than any Corvair ever was and showcases corporate carelessness in the worst way. Renegades indeed.
I do not envy you your experience, but I do commend you for the help you gave.
I think it’s fair to say the Corvair was still a better target for Nader. Criticizing the Wrangler for rollover safety risk is a bit like criticizing a knife as dangerous because it’s sharp. If anything its problem is that it’s too fashionable. It should be bought by those who know what it is and why it is that way, not those that want to look like the girl in Clueless.
I agree. My blonde cousin bought one for exactly that reason. Thankfully her first scare wasn’t her last and she sold it a year later.
GM built about twice as many Corvairs in a 10 year span than AMC built CJ-5’s/CJ-7’s over a 32 year span, and a big part of his issue with the Corvair is that it was meant to be a mainstream product sold by a mainstream brand to mainstream buyers, none of which were that well equipped to deal with the Corvair’s quirks. AMC accidentally stumbled into popularity with the CJ.
As well, obligatory bore point that the Corvair was but a single chapter of Unsafe At Any Speed, and describing its issues were allegorical for Detroit’s indifferent attitude towards safety in general, and if he’d written it 20 or 30 years later, you’d almost definitely get the CJ or early Ford Explorer included as well.
I’m guilty, like so many others, of never having read the whole book, despite seeing many documentaries that cite it. History has unfairly reduced it to a single soundbite about the Corvair. I’ll have to find me a copy.
I haven’t read it in about 20 years, but found it very dry, reasonably level-headed, and at least an important historical snapshot.
… pantera?!
Now I work with a bunch of Cowboys From Hell.
Who publish your vulgar displays of power.
While I respect everyone’s vehicular choices I feel I must comment on my limited experience with the Jeep brand. In the early 90’s a girlfriend bought a new TJ. She had always wanted one and worshiped the thing. It was uncomfortable, cramped, cold in winter and handled like a flyer wagon. It looked good, and so did she, so I tolerated the Jeep. She still had the thing when we split.
Non-enthusiasts buy cars for completely different reasons. The car as a fashion accessory is one of them.
Correction, the Jeep must have been a YJ as this was the early 90’s. She had accessories and clothing to go with the paint scheme and upholstery so your thesis holds up in her case. She was a dynamic and interesting woman, very strong willed and determined. She was studying psychology and criminology and ended up going into the local police force. We used to go camping, skiing, hiking in that Jeep. The 600 mile drives to the Rockies was an endurance test going and returning.
My cool older cousin had a red YJ w/ a stick (I already told you he was cool!) and he let me learn on it…absolutely a defining car moment for me at age 13 or 14 or whatever i was.
Still, regrettably (?), have never owned a Jeep though…
Like most rural Americans my age (I resent the term redneck, but yeah), YJs were all around me during my formative years. A friend of a friend, and later his brother, had a YJ completely covered in Mossy Oak duct tape. It was completely badass I loved it. It also cemented my interest in YJs, though it wasn’t until 2017 til I got one.
And when I did, it was crap. I had a ‘63 CJ-5 prior, and while that one was worse in literally every subjective way, it was charming in its wretchedness. The YJ just wasn’t as enjoyable. It had slightly better (though still bad) driving dynamics vs the CJ I had, and was vastly more reliable, but I just didn’t like it. Maybe I just didn’t get the right YJ, but I didn’t dig it and sold it before the pandemic. Might be time to try another one out.
My suspicion is if you get a good one they’re ok. If you get a bad one they’re terrible.
Thanks for reminding me of the moniker “Jeep Wrongler”. It’s been a very long time since I heard that.
I wanted a YJ, too, but mainly because used CJ prices never came down to where I wanted for a decent one.
I thought for sure that if all the enthusiasts hated them, one would soon be available used for cheap.
I was the Jeep Wrongler in this story because YJs were more than Jeep enough to satisfy their owners and I never wrangeled up a cheap CJ or a YJ.
As a Jeep guy, and multi-time Wrangler owner, I have never understood the hate for the YJ. Sure, it was different than the Jeeps before it, but so was nearly every version of the CJ (especially the CJ-8, and everyone justifiably loves those). The YJ may have some perceived drawbacks, but it also certainly has redeeming qualities, especially when you consider it was the evolutionary step that brought us the excellent TJ. Sure, the square lights absolutely do not look as good as the round lights, but I have always felt the proportions of the YJ were just about perfect. Add in silly eccentricities like the Renegade body kit, and it just has quirky character that I appreciate.
When I was first discovering cars at a young age, the YJ was the current model, so I grew up thinking they looked normal. By the time they went back to round I was reading magazines about it, and I didn’t see what the big deal was. Now I’m completely ambivalent about wranglers, and all are the same regardless of headlights. Except everyone made after the I6 was discontinued, those are all garbage.
It’s a cobalt Arizona sky
It’s a switchback country road
It’s a 30% grade of broken granite
It’s a hill of Louisiana sand
It’s everything that really matters.
Go get yourself that Jeep!
I have to admit this is a better justification than I can provide for my own stateside tendency to accumulate early-’80s British sedans and hatchbacks.
No-one is EVER going to get to the bottom of that fixation… 😉
“That there is Kundalini, and Kundalini wants his glasses back!”
I don’t get the hate for the YJ either, though I am definitely not a Jeep guy. Anyone who has spent more than a day on American roads knows what a Wrangler looks like and their brain will immediately flash “Wrangler” (or at least “Jeep”) when they see a YJ going down the road.
I have a close friend who moved to the US from the UK 10 years ago. His dad lived 30 miles from a US military base and was always buying gigantic Cadillacs and Lincolns from the servicemen there because many didn’t want to bother dealing with getting them back home again or something. And so you can imagine those things- 20 foot land yachts on tiny narrow country roads. So when he moved here he bought himself a big ass 1973 Caddy Eldorado.
Darth Sidious perceives a disturbance in the Force.
“namely their inherent crappiness.”
Ha! That’s the exact reason I love old British cars!
The “old” might be superfluous.
I actually debated adding that descriptor.
Jeeps aren’t worth dealing with American girls for. My high school girlfriend drove an XJ and cheated on me, thus permanently ruining them for me.
Quitter. My TT was the exact same spec one of my psycho-exes drove. Unpack that.
God forbid I ever end up single again, cause there is going to be some WILD vehicular/emotional baggage to unpack and I don’t think any therapist on earth has the automotive knowledge to handle that.
Broken clocks are right twice daily, perhaps? Even if everything else was wrong, you still found the vehicle and spec that resonates with you in that relationship.
And, you got out of that situation in one piece.
From one survivor of psycho-exes to another – glad you made it, Adrian.
The TT is still a damn good-looking car.
You should get that XJ just to prove how much better it is than her.
Oh trust me, karma got her real good????
Good.
… She had to maintain the XJ?
Nah, she then cheated on the girl she cheated on me with, got knocked up and the dude ghosted. So, slightly more painful than XJ maintenance since you aren’t legally required to keep a Jeep for 18 years.
Despite what DT might think…
Whoa
I came oh so close to pulling the trigger on a new, flat metallic blue YJ, but I just couldn’t justify the $13k price tag at the time. Instead I bought a ‘73 CJ5 Renegade with a hot rodded V8. Nearly killed me three times before I sold it. If ever there was a car that should never have had a V8, it was the CJ5. The YJ retained all of the (intended) thrills of the CJ and the scale, with an extra little royal wave to safety. Yes, the headlights were initially off-putting, but after a bit looked just fine. After dumping the CJ5, I, once again, considered replacing it with a YJ, but found a CJ8 I liked better. As to finding an American girl to marry to get you closer to Jeep heaven, I believe that is one of the legally acceptable conditions for US immigration.
Immigration Official: So why do you want marry Miss Cowgirl McGunburger?
Me: She has a sweet black YJ Jeep and supports the Dolphins?
Immigration Offical: Nobody is that stupid. It must genuine. Welcome to the United States sir.
Alternate ending: “Wow, with stupid like that, you’ll fit right in. Here’s your citizenship, sir”
Actual conversation that happened:
Border agent: why are you visiting California?
Me: to see a girl.
Border Agent: I hope she’s worth it because you wouldn’t get me to visit California.
Adrian, I’m sure David can get you one cheap from Michigan. Just make sure you are up on shots.
My idea of good condition and David’s idea of good condition are not even in the same state, let alone zip code.
Even if the state is as big as Texas?
This is true. I honestly picture you driving a black Mk4 Lincoln Continental with blood red interior. Of course you’d have to plan routes out in advance to ensure the ability to make all the turns in town without scratching it.
Or a 1970 Gran Fury.
The YJ simply has the best proportions of all the Wranglers. Also, half doors. Yes, they came on the TJ and can be had on the JK, JL and JT. but the TJ really started the “full door hard top” trend that currently pervades the Jeep line up. What’s the point of a Jeep if you can’t enjoy the wind in your hair? Team soft top half doors all day long.
FWIW- I ride my Gladiator with that configuration April to September. Winter is full doors/soft top.
I love the YJ proportions and it by far has the best looking front end of the Wranglers. The kinked grill is very sharp and I quite dig the square headlights. I wouldn’t turn down a TJ either but the YJ is the better looking one. I’d strongly consider an Islander with the awesome graphics.
Mind you this is the opinion of someone that has owned two MJs, square headlights are awesome.
I know for many people here, it’s either the Clueless or Jurassic Park Jeep, but if you’re just a little bit older, the YJ will always be MacGyver’s ride of choice.
Dark brown with a hardtop and usually mud-streaked, it was the perfect vehicle for the character.
(Though he does briefly drive a soft top CJ early in the show, at one point using its radio and antenna in conjunction with a portable radio and a cactus to triangulate the location of a missile launcher. Damn ’80s tv was cool)
Well, that was a well plotted piece of non-claptrap that didn’t want to make me retch.
Hey now, the Professionals/the Ford Capris were getttin’ pretty creaky at that point, don’t be bitter we got the new stuff!
I understood that reference!
“triangulating position” was the 80s predecessor to “enhance image” in this century’s crime procedurals.
Really missed an opportunity to make the overlay glasses square in the top shot.
Unless Adrian demanded the hearts in which case, carry on.
Ha I did heart emojis in the top shot I made but Peter worked his magic to make it better.