For nearly thirty years, the Jeep CJ-5 was produced with only tiny, minimal changes. The marker lights got bigger, the interiors got a bit more fluffed up than just a cheap cushion on a metal pad, the engines changed depending on who owned the Jeep brand this month, so on and so forth, but for the most part there really wasn’t much to change. Jeeps did exactly what they had needed to do for decades: be an off-road capable machine that could drive on-road when asked to do so. But in 1980, a 60 Minutes story showcased a test performed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety that claimed that the CJ-5 was likely to roll in many situations at low speeds, though there wasn’t much mention of the IIHS pushing to have weights installed in the corners of the Jeeps to push the issue.

In 1976, the CJ-7 was introduced. A 10-inch wheelbase stretch and some chassis differences that aided handling characteristics sharpened up the CJ line and saw Jeep through to the changeover to the YJ Wrangler in 1987. This was the vehicle that my father fell in absolute love with. He owned a Renegade just about similar to the one that Motorweek tested, except change the color to the red/orange combination and give it a black soft top. Outside of the 1968 GTO he had in high school, I never heard my father fawn over an old vehicle more than that Jeep. It isn’t difficult to see why he plunked down a few grand in the early 1980s for a soft-top Renegade…he was in his mid-20s and it suited him to a T.

Basic engines, brutal off-road gear and usually with a third pedal, a CJ-7 always sounds like a good time to us.