American Notes Autos

To War Correspondent Ernie Pyle, it was "as faithful as a dog, as strong as a mule and as agile as a goat." Like Pyle, millions of World War II G.I.s learned to love the general-purpose vehicle, or Jeep, and when it made its civilian debut in 1945, it eventually rolled up the longest run for any model in U.S. automotive history. While it pioneered the booming market in four- wheel-drive vehicles, however, sales of the CJ (for civilian) Jeep dropped from 79,000 in 1978 to an expected 36,000 this year. Next month taps will sound for the basic Jeep: American Motors will replace it with a new, smoother-riding model, the YJ (the letters stand for nothing), geared for the motorist who likes to conquer mountains on weekends but, says an AMC spokesman, also "wants to drive to work in his pinstripe suit."

The Jeep was handed down from Willys-Overland to Kaiser and then, in 1970, to American Motors. It inspired many AMC hot sellers, including the Wagoneer and the Cherokee, which have outsold the ailing carmaker's other models. As the civilian Jeep disappears, so will its military forebear: the Army plans to enlist a more elaborate vehicle, the Hummer.