In 1970, American Motors Corporation (AMC) purchased Kaiser's money-losing Jeep operations and established AM General, a wholly owned subsidiary that built the DJ through 1984.

[1] At the time, it was the lowest-priced production car offered in the United States, with a 1956 base price of US$1,284 (equivalent to $14,400 in 2023).

[5] In early 1959, Willys introduced the Jeep Gala to the export markets and users desiring the nimble size and open bodywork, but did not need a four-wheel drive system.

The United States Postal Service used 1953 Willis Jeeps, Cushman Mailmasters, and sit-stand trucks to motorize more than half of the suburban residential routes by 1969.

[10] The Postal Service held a competition in 1968 to select a light delivery vehicle, evaluating the Ford Bronco, International Scout, and the Jeep Dispatcher 100 (DJ-5).

The first units were delivered in the northern U.S., replacing the three-wheeled Mailsters that were too small and weak to maneuver through winter's snow and ice.

[10] The DJ-5 models built for the United States Post Office were rudimentary vehicles for mail carrier needs with an automatic transmission, an enclosed metal cabin with sliding doors, a sorting table that carriers used to help process mail along the route, and a right-hand drive for quickly reaching mailboxes without leaving the vehicle's seat.

[13] The right-hand drive Postal Service DJs came without power steering and were built with a lighter, less durable design than the standard Jeep.

A worn, damaged, or lost retainer would allow the door to swing outward, fail to engage the rubber stop on the rear bumper, and slide entirely off the channel (and the vehicle).

It was equipped with a four-cylinder Chevrolet 153 engine, shared with the contemporary Nova,[16] and two-speed Powerglide automatic transmission, with a T-handle shifter located on the floor next to the driver's seat.

The main body was a single unit, resembling the earlier Jeep equipped with the metal Extreme Cold Weather Enclosure hard top.

One improvement over earlier Jeeps was mounting the rear springs outside of the frame rails, thus providing greater stability for the vehicle with its top-heavy enclosed cargo area, especially at highway speeds.

[19] Similar in appearance and in most of its dimensions, the DJ-5E was powered by a set of 27-volt lead-acid batteries with a 54-volt 30 bhp (22 kW; 30 PS) compound wound DC motor.

[20] The motor was mounted in the location of the conventional transmission with a short driveshaft to the rear differential featuring a 5.89:1 gear ratio.