Jeep Wrangler Willys Trim?

[FLAirgunner]

Just curious, when did Jeep start offereng the Willys Trim on new Jeeps? Our salesman has said that this year is the first year the Willys has been considered a premium level like the Sahara and Rubicon due to the added offroad equipment. He said the past Willys have only been a Sport with off-road tires and stickers. Since ordering our Willys, my wife has become more in tune to the various models and we are seeing a lot more Willys in our area. They've probably all been here, we just never paid that much attention to the trim level! So, did the Willys just start with the JL or were they offered with the JK, TJ, YJ and CJ? Thanks...

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[JT1]

Just curious, when did Jeep start offereng the Willys Trim on new Jeeps? Our salesman has said that this year is the first year the Willys has been considered a premium level like the Sahara and Rubicon due to the added offroad equipment. He said the past Willys have only been a Sport with off-road tires and stickers. Since ordering our Willys, my wife has become more in tune to the various models and we are seeing a lot more Willys in our area. They've probably all been here, we just never paid that much attention to the trim level! So, did the Willys just start with the JL or were they offered with the JK, TJ, YJ and CJ? Thanks...

They were available in the JK too. Always a subset of the sport. In 2017 and 2018 (and maybe late '16) you could get a factory rear locker in a JK Willys.

 

[FLAirgunner]

They were available in the JK too. Always a subset of the sport. In 2017 and 2018 (and maybe late '16) you could get a factory rear locker in a JK Willys.

Thank you! I'm assuming his comment was because the Willys now comes standard with a lot of the options that probably used to be selected individually. I know when we built a Sport S that included all the options that we ordered on our Willys, it was only $645 less and still did not include the Willys suspension, 4.10 gears, rear e-locker, 33" BFG K2 tires or the Rubicon Fenders. When we built a 2023 Willys with the same options we ordered on our 2024 Willys, the 2024 Willys priced out at $1475 less than the 2023!

 

[JT1]

Thank you! I'm assuming his comment was because the Willys now comes standard with a lot of the options that probably used to be selected individually. I know when we built a Sport S that included all the options that we ordered on our Willys, it was only $645 less and still did not include the Willys suspension, 4.10 gears, rear e-locker, 33" BFG K2 tires or the Rubicon Fenders. When we built a 2023 Willys with the same options we ordered on our 2024 Willys, the 2024 Willys priced out at $1475 less than the 2023!

Yeah, the 2024 is a really nice package. The locker, 4.10s and high fenders get you a rubi-light.

It's in a really good spot in the lineup right now. It was back in the JK days too.

 

[FLAirgunner]

Doing some searching of Willys for sale, the earliest year I found was 2014, but it didn't have the Willys sticker on the hood. Doesn't mean the owner didn't remove it, but since i only found 1 and there were several 2015-2018's it may have been a mistake by the listing party, or was one of the very first and was delivered in 2014 and mistaken as a 2014 model.

It also seems it was not offered in 2019 (I found none for sale) and was brought back in 2020 (based on this article).

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/jeep-wrangler-willys-edition-msrp-price/

This year it looks like it went to the Rubi-lite version!

 

[The Last Cowboy]

Willys is going to be a runaway best seller for 2024 due to the added equipment, and the look with factory 33s.

The first time the Willys name was used since 1970 was in 2004 on the limited edition Willys TJ. It was only offered in Moss Green with camo seats and exterior decals.

It resurfaced again in 2014-2018 on JKs, which had Rubicon shocks, black Rubicon wheels, 32" MTs and a D44 rear e-locker. They all had black grilles, original Willys style font decal on the hood sides, and a retro Willys CJ style 4 Wheel Drive decal on the tailgate.

Willys returned to the JL in 2020 featuring a D44 limited slip, Rubicon shocks, black Rubicon wheels and 32" MTs. The black grille continued as did, hood decals and the retro decal on the tailgate.

Willys has always been a package added to the Sport trim. It is the best selling package (not trim) of the JL series.

It's kind of confusing because when you look at the build and price page on the Jeep website, it makes it look like the Willys is a separate trim level.

 

[FLAirgunner]

Willys is going to be a runaway best seller for 2024 due to the added equipment, and the look with factory 33s.

The first time the Willys name was used since 1970 was in 2004 on the limited edition Willys TJ. It was only offered in Moss Green with camo seats and exterior decals.

It resurfaced again in 2014-2018 on JKs, which had Rubicon shocks, black Rubicon wheels, 32" MTs and a D44 rear e-locker. They all had black grilles, original Willys style font decal on the hood sides, and a retro Willys CJ style 4 Wheel Drive decal on the tailgate.

Willys returned to the JL in 2020 featuring a D44 limited slip, Rubicon shocks, black Rubicon wheels and 32" MTs. The black grille continued as did, hood decals and the retro decal on the tailgate.

Willys has always been a package added to the Sport trim. It is the best selling package (not trim) of the JL series.

It's kind of confusing because when you look at the build and price page on the Jeep website, it makes it look like the Willys is a separate trim level.

Thank you! That clears up a lot of our questions! I'll have to go search for the 2004 version, I owned a 2004 X back in the day, so would be intered to see what the Willys looked like!

 

[Tethmes]

In addition to the above, Willys as a package was always more than stickers and tires. The willys package (at least on the JL, not sure on JK) prior to '24 was standard with:

-wheels/tires
-rubicon shocks
-rock rails
-upgraded brakes
-LSD
-All weather floor mats
-Then the cosmetic stuff. stickers/dash insert color/gloss black grill/etc.

 

[Ang1Sgt]

It’s funny, my 2013 JK I built up just like my 2020 Willys I found last year. Back when I had the JK there were a lot of Rubicon take off parts in my area so I bought and swapped them all in. It had the D44 with the Limited slip, so it was more than capable for “MY” driving.

So when I bought the 2020 Willys it took me back to the JK for sure, but I could feel the differences in the JL, and while everyone seems to complain about the Manual versions, I adapted to it well and have seen no issues. My ONLY complaint is the steps between gears are all over the place and rarely do I use 6th gear for my drives.

Good Luck with your new JEEP!

 

[The Last Cowboy]

In addition to the above, Willys as a package was always more than stickers and tires. The willys package (at least on the JL, not sure on JK) prior to '24 was standard with:

-wheels/tires
-rubicon shocks
-rock rails
-upgraded brakes
-LSD
-All weather floor mats
-Then the cosmetic stuff. stickers/dash insert color/gloss black grill/etc.

Good point about the rock rails and brakes, forgot about those

 

[FLAirgunner]

In addition to the above, Willys as a package was always more than stickers and tires. The willys package (at least on the JL, not sure on JK) prior to '24 was standard with:

-wheels/tires
-rubicon shocks
-rock rails
-upgraded brakes
-LSD
-All weather floor mats
-Then the cosmetic stuff. stickers/dash insert color/gloss black grill/etc.

After researching a bit more, the JK Willys (2014-2018) also had more than just tires and stickers. I think my sales guy was over simplifying things a bit in his explanation. But, as a stand alone trim this year, it does offer a lot more bang for the buck that it did in years past!

I managed to find some pictures of the 2004 TJ Willys Edition. Sharp looking for a TJ!

I also found this website that had a lot more pictures, to include the multiple stickers and interior trim! I really like the Fuel Sticker! Might have to get one of those for ours! LOL!

https://www.reinaintlauto.com/2004-jeep-wrangler-x-willys-edition-c-1996.htm

 

[SouthernJL]

It seems like Jeep has done this strategically with the Willy's because they know they have up priced the Rubicon so much.

They have to offer folks a close alternative to the Rubi that's less expensive because the audience that would previously have gotten a Rubi is now looking at that 70k price tag and saying, 'Nah, I'll pass'.

What they're doing with the Willy's reminds of what they do with cereal. As the price goes up, eventually they just make the box a little smaller or put in less cereal so they can keep the price the same. You get less but you decide it's close enough.

 

[The Last Cowboy]

Thank you! That clears up a lot of our questions! I'll have to go search for the 2004 version, I owned a 2004 X back in the day, so would be intered to see what the Willys looked like!

Here's one in found online, all stock. I was disaapointed that the factory camo seats weren't brought back, but then again, there's only a few colors it would look good with.

Edit; I see you found it too

 

[Traveller128]

We considered a really low mileage 2015 JK Willys when we were shopping fall of 2021. The factory Willys package depended on if it was Sport or Sport S based. In 2015 the S based version was called the Willys Wheeler package, and it had limited slip rear, tinted hardtop windows, 3.73 gear ratio, and 32" tires stock.

Our 2022 had several things in the Willys package, 32" offroad tires, tinted hardtop windows, slightly different bumpers, Rubicon shocks, LED front lighting, black grille, limited slip rear diff, leather wrapped wheel, side rock rails, black trail badging, Willys and "4 wheel drive" old school style gate decal, etc. We ordered the tow/electrical on ours and manual transmission.

The new Willys package, is essentially what I would have ordered, had it been available. If we'd been shopping this year, it's what we'd have ordered, hands down. They put the tow package/electrical group in stock, D44's both ends, 4.10 gears, and a rear locker for traction offroad when you need it. Basically, they added the things to the package that we either ordered or added, and I wouldn't have had to do all the work adding things like 4.10 gearing, etc.

We love ours, but it's a little more capable than the stock Willys having limited slip both ends. I'd rather have a D44 front axle, but feel our 2 door is fine with the Super 30. We're totally not fans of the big screen dash TV. Neither of us like the trend towards running all the interior functions on a touch screen. With the addition of a winch up front and a front e-locker, you'd have the Rubicon capability at the Willys price point, without the electronic gew gaws.

Bottom line, if we were ordering again, the Willys is what we'd order, 3.6/manual trans again.

 

[FLAirgunner]

Here's one in found online, all stock. I was disaapointed that the factory camo seats weren't brought back, but then again, there's only a few colors it would look good with.

Edit; I see you found it too

I like this seats, but your right, that wouldn’t have looked right in anything other than Black, Grey or Sarge!

Plus, my wife is NOT a fan of Camo and that definitely would have been a deal breaker! There was a very well outfitted 2023 2 door Rubicon in Hydro Blue sitting in the showroom that we probably could have gotten at a great deal, but she didn’t like the red dash so that was a no go! Technically, this will be her Jeep, so she got last day in what we ordered!

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