The marriage of Fiat and Chrysler seemed like an unlikely match at first, but like so many odd couples, there was something there that drew the two together. And looking at this old Jeep, we think we might finally get it.
What you’re looking at is a 1960 Willys Surrey Gala, a take on the proto-Wrangler evidently designed for running down to the beach. And it’s going up for auction at the RM Sotheby’s sale in Scottsdale, Arizona, this coming January.
All done up in teal with white-striped upholstery, it has a roof that looks like it was lifted from an ice cream parlor, and place to mount surf boards or bicycles on the front. It’s deliciously retro and anything but subtle.
Does it remind you of anything? If you’re thinking of a Fiat Jolly, we’re on the same page. Italian coachbuilders completed similar conversions on the Fiat 500 and 600 back in the 1950s and ’60s, and as ridiculous as they may seem, they’ve won our hearts over time and time again.
This Willys Jeep strikes us as the Jolly’s American soulmate, created long before Chrysler took over the Jeep brand – and that much longer before Fiat did. But if that tells us anything, it’s that the match was meant to be, even if it took half a century to come together.
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