Have you ever wondered why there are seven slots in a Jeep grill? I used to think it was because there were seven dwarves, but that just isn’t true. Here’s the real reason:
When Willys-Overland of Toledo, Ohio won the contract from the U.S. government in 1941 to produce its design for a “General Purpose” vehicle (GP), or “Jeep,” it was based on the design from Ford Motor Company. It had been submitted as part of a bid for the same contract earlier that year, and Willys-Overland had modified its own design with some of Ford’s ideas. One of these modifications involved the grille.
Willys-Overland modified the grille on its design to distinguish it from the nine-slot grille included on Ford’s design. The new seven-slot grille was chosen to avoid any conflicts over copyright going forward.