AM General — a headquarters with a Studebaker root

Formed 1971 – headquarters in South Bend from 1986

How a Jeep division became a South Bend company: AM General was formed in 1971, when the American Motors Corporation made the Jeep Corporation's General Products Division a wholly owned subsidiary and renamed it AM General Corporation. The division's South Bend root is a matter of record: in 1964 Kaiser-Jeep had purchased Studebaker's Chippewa Avenue facilities in this city — Studebaker's own General Products Division — together with its $87 million Army truck contract, which the government pressed to have performed in South Bend. LTV Corporation bought AM General in 1983; headquarters moved to Detroit, then Livonia, Michigan, in 1984, and then to South Bend in 1986, where the company's offices stand at 105 North Niles Avenue. The Renco Group bought the company in 1992 (it became an LLC in 2002), Ira Rennert's MacAndrews & Forbes took a joint-venture share in 2004, and KPS Capital Partners acquired it in July 2020. In February 2023 the Army awarded AM General the production contract for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle's second generation — a contract of more than $8.66 billion for roughly 20,682 vehicles and 9,883 trailers, won in recompete against the incumbent builder. The company's work in South Bend is headquarters work — engineering, program management, and the corporate seat. Its production is another city's: the HMMWV plant at 13200 McKinley Highway stands in Mishawaka, and is printed as a boundary in the closing entry.

Sources:

1. AM General, the standard company history — formed in 1971 from the Jeep Corporation's General Products Division; Kaiser-Jeep's 1964 purchase of Studebaker's Chippewa Avenue facilities and General Products Division and the $87 million Army contract at the South Bend plant; the LTV purchase of 1983; headquarters Detroit, Livonia (1984), then South Bend (1986); the Renco purchase of 1992, the 2004 joint venture, and the July 2020 KPS acquisition; the February 2023 JLTV A2 award of more than $8.66 billion for about 20,682 vehicles and 9,883 trailers.
2. Defense & Tech company profile (2026) — the corporate headquarters at 105 North Niles Avenue, South Bend, and the principal manufacturing plant, the Military Assembly Plant, at 13200 McKinley Highway, Mishawaka.