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The Story of the Jeepy Pedal Car

• CATEGORIES: Features, International, toys This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Even contacted me from Norway with a nice bit of history about the Jeepy Pedal Car.  Thanks Even!

He writes, “As world war 2 came to a close a Norwegian engineer name Sigurd W. Ødegaard was looking for products he could produce in his mecanical workshop.  One day during the summer of 1945 he was watching a military parade with a lot of jeeps when he got the idea to produce a small version of a jeep as a pedal car. A year later he produced his first pedal car, manufacturing them from 1946 until 1952.  During this time his company made about 3000 units of this popular car .  I was told they cost almost 100$ back then.

These small Jeeps are popular among collectors here in Norway and since Sigurd made them very solid there are still some around.  The car is 1/3 scale from the GPW and  are all steel with air filled wheels.

I have also heard that Sigurd W. Ødegaard was educated in the US  and worked for Mack International Motor Company. At some point he travelled to the US to start production of this pedalcar over there, but returned to Norway after failing to get production going because the Korean War made it complicated to get enough steel for the pedal cars.”

 

16 Comments on “The Story of the Jeepy Pedal Car

  1. mark

    this is what I love about ewillys (although it speaks to the general power of the world wide web). How would a guy in Texas ever know about an interesting toy in Norway? I’ll never own one and probably never even see one but it not for the site. keep em rolling!

  2. Eirik Holtung

    I had one when I was 3-5 years old
    My grandmother gave it to me and it was red too some 64 years ago
    M.v.h. Eirik

  3. Lon

    I just found one of these “Jeepy’s” at the local scrap yard here in S.E. Texas
    It took me a long time searching on the internet, to figure out the maker of my Jeep pedal car,
    as there are so many different models made by so many companies thru the years.. And a lot of them are very similar.
    I figure mine might be an early version, maybe even some sort of prototype, as the interior parts are all made of solid wood, including the dash and floor bottom, instead of the stamped steel in the later versions, made in Europe.. My headlights aren’t embossed in like the later versions, and my cast iron steering wheel’s hub isn’t as large as the later versions either.

  4. pia

    Hi. We have one of these from 1946 with original parts and has been totally renovated. Does anyone know what it might be worth today? Sincerely Pia Lysell

  5. mmdeilers Post author

    Pia,

    The best way to find out the market value (as opposed to the appraisal value) would be to stick it on eBay with a high reserve. Depending on the accuracy of the renovation, I’d have to guess it could sell between $500-$1000. That’s the pric other pedal cars in very good condition fetch. Maybe it would sell even better in Norway???

    – Dave

  6. Jostein Nedrebø

    I have one like this for sale if anyone is interested. It complete, but not totally original.

  7. David Eilers

    Hi Jostein,

    If you’d like to email me photos (d@ewillys.com) I’d be happy to let readers know it is for sale.

    – Dave

  8. Ola

    I have noe. Got it from my aunt back in 1955. Still original in used condition.
    Planning to restore it and give it to my grandson one day.

  9. Anders Liland

    I also have one that my Dad bought second hand for me in 1965
    I had a workshop completely restore it mechanical and with new green paint 🙂
    My kids never used it and I would sell it for a fair price

  10. Jani

    Hello! Nice car😉 My dad has such an old pedal car in storage. Can anyone tell me more the history of this car and factory? What you think is this price today?

  11. David Eilers

    Hi Jani,

    All the information I have, which isn’t very much, is documented above. As for price, I don’t know of any other Jeepys sold recently, so determining a comparable price is difficult. Some of the more common pedal jeeps are listed from $200 to $1000, depending on condition, but I don’t know what the final sale prices are.

    Sorry I can’t be of more help.

    – Dave

  12. Jani Ylinen

    Thanks Dave!

    I think we don’t sell our Jeepys😊 I cant add foto here but our car wheels and steering wheel is not orginal. If anyone knows, where I can find these, I would be very happy.

  13. David Eilers

    Hi Jani,

    If you email me a pic to d@deilers.com I can post the pic to the page for you (for security purposes, no one but I can post). I couldn’t say if the parts are available from a reseller or not (and am in the middle of moving to a new house, so don’t have the time to search right now).

    Thanks,
    – Dave

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