Why not Willys?

The automotive market can be a strange place. For instance, what seems logical doesn’t always lead to success, a lesson Willys learned in the postwar years.

Willys had grasped the concept of small cars years earlier when it introduced the Whippet in 1926. While very small cars had come and mostly gone among American drivers, the Whippet was small rather than miniature and was promoted with descriptions such as “a new kind of motor car” and “the lowest priced six with 4-wheel brakes.” Willys even called it a “European-type high-speed light car” and “the style authority in its class” before it died after the 1931 model year, but the death didn’t color Willys’ decisions and 1933 brought the Willys 77. Like the original Whippet, it was a four-cylinder, 100-inch-wheelbase car that was not laughably sized.

The 77’s