Where Are Jeep Vehicles Built And Who Makes Them?

The jeep rose to prominence during World War II by providing vehicles to the U.S. military that have since been deemed America's greatest contribution to modern warfare. Those vehicles fronted the name Willys, however, as Jeep — a name with an interesting origin — didn't become the brand's official badge until the early 1960s. The early jeeps were mostly used by servicemen and women during wartime, as the company didn't offer a true civilian build until the conflict's end.

Given that history, Jeep stands as a unique American automaker. Those early Willys were manufactured at a facility in the same city as the company's headquarters, Toledo, Ohio. Jump ahead eight decades, and Toledo is still home to Jeep's headquarters, as well as to a Jeep manufacturing plant, with the Toledo facility cranking out Wranglers and Gladiators these days. Yes, that facility has been known to tag those vehicles with a lovingly local Easter Egg.

Ohio is not the only U.S. facility making vehicles with the Jeep badge, as the brand also produces some of its Grand Cherokees in Detroit, Michigan. Apart from Toledo and Detroit, Jeep also uses U.S. plants in Belvidere, Illinois and Warren, Michigan. Along with those locales, Jeep also sees major production from international facilities based in Italy, Brazil, China, Poland, and India, with some other builds produced in Egypt and Mexico. That, naturally, means that the Jeep brand is not quite as "Made in America" as it used to be.

Now that we know Jeeps are made at facilities located all over the world, we can turn our attention to who owns those plants, and thus who actually makes the brand's vehicles. The answer is that Jeep is the primary maker of Jeep-branded vehicles, and has been since the earliest days of the company's existence as Willys-Overland.

Of course, the answer to that query is also not so cut and dried, because the Jeep brand's ownership history is tricky, to say the least. Though founded as Willys-Overland, by 1953 it had merged with Kaiser Manufacturing, which rebranded as Jeep roughly a decade later. Just a few years after the re-brand, Kaiser was facing financial difficulties, opening the door for a 1970 acquisition by American Motors. By 1979, however, AMC had sold part ownership to Renault, and in 1987 the company was acquired outright by Chrysler.

Additional ownership maneuvering followed. Those changes involved a 1998 merger with Daimler-Benz AG to form DaimlerChrysler AG, bankruptcy issues in 2009 spawned by the financial crisis, and the eventual takeover by Italian brand Fiat that same year that formed FiatChrysler. FiatChrysler then merged with the PSA Group, owners of Peugeot and Citroën, in 2021, with the new company taking the name Stellantis. Stellantis is still the home of the Jeep brand, which makes it the company that makes Jeeps.

Given the range of production facilities cranking out Jeep-branded vehicles, you might be wondering how to figure out exactly where your Jeep was manufactured. There are a couple of ways to determine your Jeep's place of origin. For instance, it's fairly well known that the bulk of production for both the Jeep Wrangler and the Jeep Gladiator is undertaken at the company's Toledo, Ohio facility. That remains true despite recent workforce worries that have dogged the Toledo Assembly Complex.

Perhaps the most surefire way to discern which production facility your Jeep was manufactured in is to check its vehicle identification number, as it helps designate a  precise place of origin. If you're not certain how to find your VIN number, it's typically located in several locations on a vehicle. The most likely place to find it is beneath the lower corner of the windshield on the driver's side. The number is likely also listed on the driver's side door jamb and on the front of the engine block, among other places. 

Once you've located the VIN number, you can figure out your Jeep's origin facility by plugging the number into one of many online databases that track such information. That list includes the free National Highway Traffic Safety Administration VIN Decoder.