John North Willys began selling bicycles in upstate New York.Within a few years started manufacturing his own line of bicycles.By 1900, at age 27, Willys had built the business up to $500,000 in sales. Willys saw his first automobile on a visit to Cleveland and realized that the automobile would replace the bicycle.So, with the growth of the fledgling automobile industry, he opened a car dealership in Elmira, New York, the American Motor Car Sales Company, selling the very popular Overland brand.

As he became a better salesman and advocate of automobiles, Willys encountered a problem: he could sell cars faster than his distributors could make. To overcome these supply problems with the Indianapolis-based Overland factory in 1907, Willys simply bought the company. He proved to be a very good manager & quickly turned the company's fortunes around. In 1909 he acquired the Marion Motor Car Co. of Ohio & a few years later shifted operations to a production facility he bought from the bankrupt Pope Motor Car Co.,Toledo, Ohio. He promptly changed the name to the Willys-Overland Motor Company in 1912, and, not unlike the charismatic William Durant, who was quickly buying companies to form General Motors, Willys was building his own automotive empire.

He acquired the Edwards Motor Co. of New York in 1913, which gave him a license to manufacture the patented Knight "sleeve valve" engine. Although other manufacturers also used the Knight engine, none were as successful as Willys-Overland in keeping the manufacturing costs low enough on an engine which demanded high quality and close tolerances. For a brief time Willys-Overland was the second largest carmaker in the US behind Ford. Before the end of the decade, one-third of the city of Toledo's workforce was employed either at Willys-Overland or at one of the numerous small businesses providing parts and supplies. And, like GM, Willys wanted to offer automobiles at different prices ranges. His company offered the consumer the choice of an Overland, Willys or Willys-Knight vehicle, each relative to a specific type of engine or price range.

Through his holding company, in 1918 John Willys acquired the Moline Plow Co. of Moline, Illinois that manufactured the "Universal" brand of farm tractors and a line of Stephens cars. In 1919, he acquired control of the Duesenberg company primarily to take control of the Duesenberg factory in Elizabeth, New Jersey where he planned to produce a new six cylinder car. Labor troubles emerged at the Willys-Overland Toledo plant that resulted in a violent strike in 1919, shutting down the plant for several months. Willys hired General Motors vice-president Walter P. Chrysler to run the Willys-Overland operation at the then-astonishing salary of $1 million a year.

However, Chrysler tried to oust Willys with an attempted takeover bid that backfired. Chrysler left in 1921, money in hand, to go into business for himself. Willys once again began expanding and in 1925 bought the F.J. Stearns Co. of Cleveland, Ohio that made a line of luxury vehicles. In 1926 Willys introduced the "Whippet" model line that sold in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Following the election of Herbert Hoover to the Presidency of the United States, in March of 1930 Willys was appointed the first U.S. Ambassador to Poland, serving until May of 1932, when he returned to Toledo to run the troubled company. The Great Depression of the 1930s saw numerous carmakers go out of business and the Willys enterprises went into bankruptcy reorganization in 1933. After having to cut production of the expensive Knight-powered vehicles, Willys kept the company going with the bare bones Willys 77. He was heavily involved with the reorganization plan when he died suddenly of a heart attack in 1935.

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