Willys (Willys-Overland) Overland History

The Overland marque was the company's foundation: John North Willys took control of the Overland Automotive Division of the Standard Wheel Company in 1908 and built it into Willys-Overland, which on the strength of affordable Overland models was the second-largest US automaker after Ford from 1912 to 1918.

The cheaper, poppet-valve Overland cars were the company's bread and butter through the 1910s and into the 1920s, sold across a succession of model numbers (such as the four-cylinder Model 90 of the late 1910s and the Model 4/91 series of the early 1920s). The Overland passenger-car nameplate was phased out in favor of the new Whippet small car for 1926 (1908 marks John Willys's acquisition of the Overland division; individual Overland model designations such as the Model 90 span only sub-periods within this range).