Willys Overland Model 86-Antique Muscle-1916 images

In 1916, Willys-Overland was Americas second-largest automaker behind only Ford, and this Model 86 was its answer to what a flagship car could be: a seven-passenger, 45-horsepower luxury tourer loaded with then-modern features. It only lasted one model year. Heres why Overland built it, and why it disappeared just as fast.

From 1912 until 1918 Willys was the second largest automobile manufacturer in the States. The 1916 Overland had a MSRP of $1,145.00, or $25,083.00 in 2016 dollars. This “model 86” is powered by a 45 hp 6 cylinder engine that is coupled to a non-sychromesh 3 speed manual transmission. Newly added features for 1916 include the “one man” convertible top, electric control buttons, electric lights and door pockets for storage. The starter is activated by a floor mounted peddle and the carburetor has a dash mounted manual choke to aid starting the engine before it is warmed up. The unit shown is complete and correct in every detail; sportimg wooden spoked wheels, 34×4 Goodrich 4-ply tires with hub caps.

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Long before anyone was arguing over quarter-mile times or horsepower wars, American car buyers were already choosing sides between competing manufacturers, and in 1916 there was really only one company seriously chasing Ford for the top spot. This particular car represents that company at its most ambitious, a seven-passenger flagship built for buyers who wanted size, presence, and every convenience feature the era could offer. Its easy to look at a car like this and assume it was just transportation, but the engineering choices packed into it tell a very different story about where the American auto industry was actually headed in 1916. What made this specific model such a big swing for its maker, and why didnt it last?

Second Place Behind Ford, and Determined to Stay There

By 1912, the Willys-Overland Motor Company had become the second-largest automobile producer in the United States, trailing only Ford, and it held that position all the way through 1918. That scale mattered, because it meant Overland could afford to build genuinely ambitious flagship models like this one instead of sticking purely to economy cars, betting that a slice of Fords massive customer base wanted more size and comfort than the Model T offered.

A Luxury SUV Before That Category Existed

With a 125-inch wheelbase, a 45-horsepower six-cylinder Continental engine, and jump seats that stretched capacity to seven passengers, the Model 86 was effectively Overlands version of a luxury SUV decades before that term existed. New for 1916 were features that felt genuinely modern at the time, including a one-man convertible top, electric control buttons, electric lights, and dedicated door pockets for storage, all wrapped around a body that carried an MSRP of $1,145, roughly $25,000 in todays dollars.

Why the Model Didnt Survive Past 1916

Despite its ambition, the Model 86 lasted just a single model year. Willys-Overlands parent structure was tied to the Willys-Knight brand, and the decision was made to discontinue this flagship after 1916 rather than continue developing it alongside Willys-Knights own lineup. That short production run is exactly why surviving, correct examples like this one, right down to its wooden spoked wheels and period Goodrich tires, are so rarely seen today.

A Six-Cylinder Choice in a Four-Cylinder World

In 1916 most affordable American cars still ran four-cylinder engines, and Willys-Overland’s decision to build its flagship around a six was itself a statement of ambition. Six-cylinder engines ran smoother at speed and were associated with higher-priced makes, so putting one under a mid-priced flagship was Willys’ way of borrowing prestige normally reserved for costlier badges.

The Long Road to the Jeep

Willys-Overland’s name would eventually outlive nearly every rival it fought in the 1910s, not because of cars like the Model 86 but because of what the company built a generation later: the World War II Jeep, developed and mass-produced by Willys starting in 1941. The flagship touring cars of the 1910s and the rugged military Jeeps of the 1940s shared almost nothing mechanically, but both came from the same Toledo, Ohio factory floor, a reminder that the company’s survival ultimately depended on reinvention rather than defending any single product line.

What ‘Correct in Every Detail’ Actually Means

A car like this one, with its wood-spoked wheels, era-correct Goodrich tires, and manually operated dash choke intact, represents the harder half of preservation. Mechanical brass-era parts wear out or get swapped for convenience long before most owners think to document originality, so surviving with every detail traceable back to 1916 takes generations of careful stewardship, not just storage.

Open Touring Cars Were Already on Borrowed Time

By 1916, open touring bodies like this seven-passenger model were still the default body style for American flagships, but closed sedans were quickly gaining ground among buyers who wanted year-round comfort. Within a decade, closed bodies would dominate the market entirely, making surviving open tourers from this transitional period a specific and increasingly rare category within the broader brass-and-nickel-era collector world.

Chasing Ford Meant Chasing Volume, Not Prestige

Ford’s dominance in the mid-1910s came almost entirely from the Model T’s low price and assembly-line output, not from any particular engineering advantage, which put Willys-Overland in an awkward position: it could not out-cheapen Ford, so it competed instead on features, size, and refinement. The Model 86 represents that strategy taken to its logical extreme, a flagship built to make the case that bigger and better-equipped could hold its own against Ford’s relentless volume.

Electric Starters Were Still a Selling Point

Electric starting only became common across the American market in the years immediately before 1916, with Cadillac generally credited for popularizing it in production cars starting in 1912. Willys-Overland’s decision to include electric lights, an electric starter button, and a manually assisted floor pedal starter on the Model 86 put it near the front of that transition, at a time when hand-cranking an engine to life was still a normal part of driving for many buyers.

A Genuinely Rare Survivor Today

Pre-WWI American cars in general survive in far smaller numbers than their 1920s and 1930s counterparts, since most were driven hard, salvaged for scrap metal during two world wars, or simply outlived their usefulness decades before organized car collecting existed. A single-model-year flagship like the Model 86, built for only one year before being discontinued, narrows that surviving population even further, which is exactly why a documented, correctly equipped example draws serious attention today.

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