MD Juan: Breathing History Into Life

Does this vehicle look familiar? You may have seen this in old war movies such as South Pacific, a Ricardo Montalban war movie, or Marilyn Monroe visiting soldiers during the Korean War.

Although these vehicles were made in the U.S. and invented by The American Bantam Car Company for the U.S. Military in 1941, the production was awarded to the Willy's Company because the Government felt that Bantam Car cannot produce the needed numbers. Ford also built the jeep for the military using Willy's plans and called theirs- the Model GPW. Willy's named their jeep the Model MB. source: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_invented_jeep

And the Philippines saw a lot of these vehicles during World War II. Then in 1967, an enterprising doctor named Maximo D. Juan, saw the need for the use of light weight vehicles. Also, since these vehicles were remnants of the war, it is readily available in surplus markets. He, at first started importing "jeeps" from Japan and Europe and when some parts were not available anymore, the company then began fabricating replacement jeep body parts that was not available locally. reference:  http://www.mdjuan.com.ph/about.php 

Then in 1969, MD Juan built its manufacturing plant in Novaliches, Quezon City. From then onwards, the company started exporting body parts of Japan, Australia/ New Zealand and the U.S.A. And several years after, they started joining trade fairs in Europe thus becoming the distributor.

And today, the company expanded its manufacturing not only with jeep bodies and parts to both civilian and military vehicle but in other transportation products as well.

For more information about MD Juan, please go to this link.
Photo below is my Wazzup Pilipinas Group during our tour at the MD Juan manufacturing plant.