1973 Volkswagen Type 181 Thing Review and Buyer's Guide

By any standards save for originality, this Thing had indeed been dramatically improved since it rolled off a Mexican assembly line 32 years ago

by Marit Anne Peterson

This trucklet sold for $38,880 at Barrett-Jackson’s Scottsdale sale, held January 25-30, 2005. Every year at Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale, there is at least one highly modified oddball "restoration" that gives you cause to wonder who in their right mind would ever sink so much money into such a ridiculous project. Not surprisingly, many of these vehicles tend to be trucks. Perhaps the dumbest of these from recent years was a multi-hued Lincoln Mark V mounted on a monster truck chassis, a vehicle that proved beyond any doubt that two wrongs don’t make a right. Comparatively, spending $40k to build a VW Thing almost makes sense. At least this over-the-top custom was neither tasteless nor useless, as is often the case when a gung-ho marque enthusiast with very deep pockets starts throwing around phrases like “better than new.” By any standards save for originality, this Thing had indeed been dramatically improved since it rolled off a Mexican assembly line 32 years ago. Originally conceived as a forestry truck for use in Europe and built there from 1969-1971,Volkswagen’s kooky Type 181 was known in the U.S. as the “Thing,” and called “Safari” in Mexico, where it was built from 1971 on. Based on the rear-engine, rear-drive mechanicals of the Beetle, Things lacked the brawn, power, or four-wheel-drive of a real SUV. It instead found a calling as a minimalist, convertible beach cruiser. Employing the square Karmann-Ghia floorpan made the Thing only a couple of inches wider than the Beetle. And though its four doors make it look much larger, the Thing weighs about the same as a Bug. North American Things were fitted with VW’s air-cooled, 1.6-liter flat-four, making 46 hp and 71 lb-ft of torque, meaning top speed was only about 70 miles per hour, with a tail wind. A modified VW suspension did allow for eight additional inches of ground clearance. Things have become something of a cult classic, due in no small measure to their quirky styling, modeled on VW’s original military Kuebelwagen but with angular rather than curved wheel wells. Thing doors are removable without tools, and the flat look of the hood and fenders leaves no question as to its strictly utilitarian purpose. The interior is a perfect illustration of form following function, and its painted steel door panels and split, flat bench seats look appropriately post-modern, industrial chic today. VW made a lot of options available in an attempt to convince buyers that the Thing was truly an all-purpose sort of vehicle. From a limited-slip transaxle to a fiberglass hard top, chrome wheels and even option packages like the “Acapulco” with a surrey-style top, almost all the bases were covered. Except that regardless of how you dressed it up, the Thing was still a bare metal box on wheels. What is most startling about the Thing was its price. Volkswagen banked on American enthusiasm for all things VW; however, the Thing’s suggested retail of around $3,000 was about $1,000 more than a Beetle, a fairly obscene price for something with a steel interior and a bikini top. Perhaps that’s why only about 25,000 Things were sold through the end of production in 1975. As long as there are beaches, and beach houses with garages, there will always be a market for Things. However, spending more than $15k on a restoration is about the upper limit of sanity considering that these tend to trade in the $8,000-$10,000 range. And there are enough clean ones to go around that finding a good driver, which is all anyone really needs in a Thing, shouldn’t be too hard. Of course this paints the $38k paid for our subject Thing in an unfavorable light. However, as is often the case with extensively customized vehicles that are finished to a high level, any pricing guidelines go out the window—and that goes double for anything that crosses the Barrett-Jackson block in Arizona. Let’s just agree that the seller here should consider himself lucky to have gotten back almost what he spent on his project and leave it at that. (Descriptive information courtesy of the auction company.)