This is a very nice truck, and the original license plate is a nice touch. The asking price on the For Sale sign is $30,000. This seems a bit steep to me. It is not the more desirable 5-window cab. The license plate is the only thing to clue me as to the year this was made. These trucks were identical from 1947 to 1953.
It's not WWII surplus. The Willys script on the hood and the tailgate tell us this is the first civilian Jeep. There's a myth that after the war military Jeeps were available as surplus for as little as $44. It's true that surplus Jeeps were sold to veterans, but in good condition the government demanded $975, almost as much as a brand new Jeep from the factory in Toledo. This Jeep also has an original 1947 license plate.
The government also sold as surplus, "150,000 rubber life rafts, recouping $3 million on an equipment that originally cost $30 million. Each raft was sold as part of a $105 package containing 143 items, which included a bible, 12 signal flares, a bilge pump, a gallon of massage oil, a checkerboard, and back issues of Fortune, Esquire, Reader’s Digest, and The Saturday Evening Post." As Major Kong from Dr. Strangelove would say, "Shoot, a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff."
A common site during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, about 115,000 M37s were built between 1951 and 1968. Hard to kill, many were sold by the government as surplus to public.
