KERRVILLE, Texas—All Leon Miller wanted was a Jeep Grand Wagoneer to drive. Sixteen years later, he's got his choice of Wagoneers and a business to boot.

Miller's love of a vehicle that ceased production nearly 17 years ago has turned the retired cattleman into the "Wagonmaster."

That's the name of Miller's business that buys low-mileage Jeep Grand Wagoneers (and a few Jeepster Commandos for variety), spruces them up and then sells them around the world.

He's sold more than 1,300 vehicles, shipping them to Europe, Japan and the Middle East. His clients include Tommy Hilfiger and his ex-wife (two each), singer Alan Jackson and actor-politician Fred Thompson.

"They love the look," Miller, 75, said of Wagoneer fans. "People never tire of that look. It's an earthy look, a boxy look. It's very, very well appointed."

Miller had driven a Wagoneer for years while tending feedlots, raising cattle and growing vegetables down in Eagle Pass.

During that time, he fell in love with the vehicle. So when he retired, he wanted a new one, only to find out that Chrysler, which recently had bought Jeep, no longer was making them.

"I called Detroit when I found out I couldn't get a '92 or a '93," he said. "I told them, 'These things are too beautiful for you to stop making them.'"

Eventually, Miller found his way to Brooks Stevens, the designer of the Wagoneer and a number of other vehicles.

He and Stevens struck up a bit of a relationship, and Stevens started encouraging Miller to restore Wagoneers and to sell them to enthusiastic fans of the vehicle.

Stevens died in 1995, but his son, Kipp Stevens, chairman of Brooks Stevens Inc., wrote, "I can picture my dad encouraging him."

Miller didn't want to do any heavy restoration work.

He calls his projects "renewals."

Miller buys Wagoneers with no rust and has a hard and fast rule that they have no more than 70,000 miles per vehicle.

Miller said he gets two to three calls a day from people wanting to sell him their Wagoneers.

He ends up buying "one out of every 40 or 50," he said. "I have to be really particular," Miller said. "I don't want to take on somebody's major problems."

Miller doesn't want to spend much more than $10,000 on a renewal project. He has a staff of five who work on the Wagoneers. Miller also will do a few Jeepster Commandos ‚a smaller Jeep vehicle ‚just to keep his workers from getting bored. Aside from the renewals, Miller offers a few extras such as sunroofs, heated seats, stereo and video systems and alarms. That work gets contracted out to other vendors.

What Miller won't do is customize a Wagoneer with special paint jobs, rims or "spinners." His only indulgence is the word "Wagonmaster" in the trim just below the front windows.

"He does good work," said Phil Skinner, collectible car editor for Kelley Blue Book and kbb.com. Skinner said he's seen Miller's work at collectible auctions in Fredericksburg.

"As far as a collector vehicle, they hold their own," he said. "We're not seeing prices drop on Grand Wagoneers."

Skinner called the Wagoneer the "king of the SUV." He said it was an SUV before there was such a term as SUV.

"It was the longest-running real SUV," he said. "It was the first civilized SUV. They came out in 1963. International had the Travelall and Chevy had the Suburban. The Wagoneer was a rugged, but still friendly, sport utility."

He said it was Jeep's station wagon.

It was supplanted in the 1990s with modern SUVs like the Ford Explorer, which became the replacement for the station wagon.

But modern SUVs don't do it for Wagoneer enthusiasts like Mac Johnson of Connecticut.

He's driving his third vehicle from Wagonmaster, a 1991 Wagoneer that was built during the last week of production. "It's the only kind of car I've had for 30 years," Johnson said. "It's the only kind of car my kids, who are 25, have known."

The Wagoneer, for Johnson, is a throwback.

It's a retro vehicle that wasn't built to be retro, like the most recent Ford Thunderbird or the latest Dodge Charger.

"I am 59 years old," he said. "My generation goes back to real station wagons. My generation is not minivans. It is not cup holders. It is not electric windows going up. We had real tailgates with real windows. We were whitewall tires. We were real chrome bumpers.

"It's just a carry over to the days when Sperry Top-siders were made in the USA," Johnson continued. "You were able to burn leaves legally. Gentlemen wore neckties after 6 o'clock at night. You dressed up to get on an airplane. It was a generational thing. It was a way of life. It's all gone now."