Willys always had some type of truck based wagon in the postwar years, and because they sold reasonably well, a wagon was sure to be in the mix when Willys was rebranded as Jeep and introduced an all-new truck for 1963. In fact, wagon made up part of its name. The Jeep Wagoneer shared all the styling cues of its new stablemate Gladiator pickups, and Wagoneers featured either a traditional two-door or a new-for-Jeep four-door body style. All of a sudden, the Chevrolet/GMC Suburban and International Travelall had a new rival.

Within a year, the Wagoneers started to take a divergent path from the Gladiators, as the former featured a new horizontally themed grille in 1964 to set them apart from the latter. They went to all four-wheel drive in 1967, then in 1969 the two-door was discontinued. The Wagoneer was becoming more of an upmarket heavy duty station wagon, with four-wheel drive used at most during inclement weather.

By 1979, the Wagoneer was getting a bit long in the tooth, but AMC discovered that not only was the Wagoneer still selling well, it was also taking sales from traditional luxury car brands all over the country, not just in the Snow Belt. To cater more to that market, they introduced the Limited package with full leather interiors, air conditioning with climate control, premium sound systems, and every power feature that would fit on it.