The M151 had an integrated body design which offered a little more space than prior jeeps, and featured all-around independent suspension with coil springs.

Although the M151 was developed and initially produced by Ford, production contracts for the M151A2 were later also awarded to Kaiser and AM General Corp, a subsidiary of AMC.

While the high pivot rear swing axle geometry on the M151A1 was responsible for the rollovers, injuries and fatalities, the industry (Ford and the Army) claimed that they were primarily due to driver errors, with operators unprepared for the increased performance compared to the Jeeps, which it replaced.

Steering input as commonly found in a high-speed emergency avoidance maneuvers or hard cornering, was a recipe for disaster.

Recoilless rifle carrier models were especially prone to rollover accidents due to their stiffer rear springs and were typically subjected to severe speed restrictions any time the gun was not aboard.

Nevertheless, when, in 1969, an automotive engineer at the Human Engineering Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground wrote a report that included: 1) an analysis that showed the high pivot swing axle in the M151A1 was inherently unstable under cornering, 2) retrofits that had proven to solve the problem on Corvairs, VWs, and Formula Vees and, 3) ways of designing a replacement.

Despite its official replacement, the M151 has some distinct advantages over its much larger and heavier successor, like being small enough to fit inside a CH-53 heavy transport helicopter.

Additionally, beginning in the late 1990s a few companies dealing in Military surplus items bought M151s from some of the foreign governments that received the vehicles via FMS for reconditioning and further sales.

[citation needed] Growler Manufacturing and Engineering designs and sells the Internally Transportable Light Strike Vehicle based on the M151 drivetrain.