Car Spot: 1966 Tuxedo Park Mark IV Jeep

Jeep goes for the younger urban crowd

I’ve been a Jeep guy beginning in the late 70’s when I had a SJ Cherokee Chief as a news car. Went even deeper when my dad was working at American Motors and they bought Jeep in 1970. I thought I knew all the special editions until my buddy Darrel Burnett who runs the Automobile Gallery in Green Bay called me up and told me they had just gotten in this bright red 66 Tuxedo Jeep. I was all over this example which is a time capsule.

In the 60s, Kaiser Jeep specialized in vehicles that were incomparable, inexpensive, and indestructible. What the company really wanted was a vehicle that was “indulgent.” The Tuxedo Park Mark IV is every inch of that! Marketed directly to hip, well-to-do young owners in search of fun with a touch of finesse, the Tuxedo’s mission was to transform Jeep’s image from no-frills to all thrills. Special touches exclusive to the Tuxedo Park Mark IV included chrome bumpers, chrome windshield hinges, special badging, chrome taillights, wheel covers and calf grain vinyl upholstery.

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Jeep gave it ore juice too replacing its traditional sleepy 4-cylinder engine with Buick’s Dauntless 225 Cubic Inch OHV V-6 engine more than doubling the horsepower to 160 HP. Horsepower wasn’t confined to just the engine bay as it came with better seats.

To get the word out, Jeep’s PR department pulled off one of the greatest marketing coups in history. On January 20th, 1965, Jeep Tuxedo Park Mark IVs pulled every float in President Lyndon Johnson’s inaugural parade in Washington D.C. in front of 1.2 million people with millions more watching on television and this was long before cable news. How Jeep was able to pull strings of that magnitude remains a mystery to this day. This was pure PR genius.

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Parades also factored in the life of this Presidential Red 1966 Jeep Tuxedo Park Mark IV. Discovered in restoration worthy condition in Winnipeg, Canada by Jeep aficionado Bumper Bergstrom of Birchwood, WI, this Tuxedo was brought back to life over a period of a year by Bumper and his father before being sold to Kevin Egan of Egg Harbor, WI in 2004. Kevin routinely showed up at parades in his Tuxedo for years before graciously donating his beloved red ride to The Automobile Gallery & Event Center.

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The Mark IV, was produced for four years from 1964 to 1968, making this Jeep one of 1,945 produced in 1966 and 7,419 total Tuxedo Park models ever produced. My usual go to source for pricing, Hagerty didn’t really have any pricing history on this Jeep however, J.D. Power had Average Retail at $17,300 and High Retail at $38,400 whereas a CJ-5 will sell for slightly less. This is such a fun car and I hope Darrel lets me drive it when the snow melts and it gets warmer in Wisconsin.

Thanks for stopping by and reading about this spot. I have lots of other so go check out them while you’re here. Come back next Friday for another spot along with some of it’s history and have a great weekend.