How this stunning SW once was an embarrassment

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Snow may be a little thin on the ground where you live (all that did fall here has been melted) but not in Finland. Our friends from Automobilisti magazine report about a stunning local Jeep in their latest issue. And the photographs accompanying the article make you feel for a snow fight or a long forest walk with your snow boots on. They write: “Regular Jeep sales started in 1953 when Veho, a Helsinki based company, shipped the first license built Jeeps from Haifa, Israel. As part of a trade agreement Finnish companies would supply prefabricated homes to Israeli kibbutzes in exchange for Kaisers, Jeeps and Wagons. Sales were good, since the only competition came from Land Rover, and the Jeep had already established itself as the leading brand of four wheel driven cars. In 1955 the importer changed to Kansanauto Oy, but the cars still came from Israel.

The Willys Station wagon was marketed as a crossover of a car and a tractor, but most farmers wanted a real tractor to do the work at the field and a civilized sedan for driving on the public roads. In those days even regular station wagons were still regarded as commercial vehicles. For a private owner it was embarrassing to drive one, and they were usually not even accepted as taxis. Most Jeeps and Station Wagons went to government organisations and professionals – fire departments, forest industry, power companies et cetera. The car portrayed in the article was once owned by Uljas Suomalainen, a farmer and blacksmith from Masku, southwestern Finland. In the late fifties he had a two wheel drive Station Wagon. Later he bought two more for spares, or so he thought. The other one, a four wheel drive one, was entirely rust free and in better condition than his old RWD one. Now, after being test driven and photographed for Mobilisti magazine, the car was sold and driven to… The Netherlands.

(Words Jan Enqvist/Matti Ouvinen, pictures Janne Halmkrona)    

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