My older brother’s friends in high school in the ’80s had a variety of vehicles that set my internal bar pretty high in terms of what I would aspire to later own and drive. Among those rides were a Jeepster, a Honda Prelude, and a hump-fendered AMC Javelin, the latter of which probably kick-started my fascination with American Motors and the Javelin in particular. I don’t recall any Escorts, Cavaliers, or other more common small cars like these among the bunch, though a girl he dated for a while drove an Omni GLH which I remember thinking was a legitimately cool hatchback.
1973 Volkswagen Thing print ad.
My brother and many of his friends were in advanced placement high school courses, so I had always assumed that their more eclectic taste in cars reflected some sort of “advanced” automotive palate that would shun more mainstream rides like Cutlass Supremes and Camaros. This is not at all an insult to my brother’s friends, who were all pretty cool toward me, being that I was quite a bit younger than all of them. (And I still wanted a Trans Am.)
The most radical conveyance of all of my brother’s friends had to be a Volkswagen Thing, as it was known in the United States (called the Type 181 / 182 in most of the rest of the world), owned by one of his right-hand men. Paul Niedermeyer had written up the 181 here, back in 2014, so you would do well to click on that link for a concise overview on this vehicle’s conception and execution. The 181 designation was for left-hand-drive vehicles, and the 182 applied to the right-hand versions. It was sold in the United States for just two, scant model years, 1973 and ’74, though it was available in other markets from 1968 through ’83.
Perhaps it was because of my brother’s friend’s example that I seem to recall seeing a handful of these Things around Flint, Michigan when I was growing up. The truth is probably closer to the fact that said friend lived in our neighborhood. Regardless, my first impression of the Thing was that it looked, to me, like a Beetle. Like an angular, four-door, convertible Beetle that was designed using only a ruler, a straightedge and a protractor. I later came to realize that it actually didn’t look like a Beetle at all. Sure, the basic rear-engine configuration was there, along with the round headlamps, the grille-less front end, a very geometric look, and those taillamps. By geometric similarity, I mean that the Thing defined straight lines the way the look of the Beetle was synonymous with semi-circles.
Enlarged Volkswagen Type 1 taillamps used from 1973 on.
It was as if a kid unfamiliar with Volkswagens had been shown one picture of a Type 1 / Beetle, just once, for maybe five minutes, before the photo was taken away and the kid was asked to build one out of Legos. There is one stylistic detail, though, that threw off my cognitive recognition of the Thing in terms of my thinking it looked like a Beetle: the taillights. It was because of these tri-color units that before I knew the proper model name of this vehicle here in the U.S., I thought of it as the “Weird Beetle”. Have we evolved in the post-industrial world to recognize and associate automotive styling cues the way that our hardwired ability of face-recognition is innate? I’m not being totally serious with that question, but let me present another example of what I’m talking about.
1974 Volkswagen Thing print ad.
Around this same time that my brother was in high school and I was an elementary school kid, there were still a plentiful number of Ford Pintos still running around. It didn’t matter that we lived in a GM town. Though the Chevrolet Chevette was still a very popular car, and even if most Vegas were in the final throes of complete and total disintegration, the plain and simple fact is that basic, reliable, and economical transportation was always going to be needed in our blue collar factory town, regardless of brand – as long as it was domestic. Pintos were a common sight, and since the bulk of them were sold prior to the slight restyles that occurred for ’77 and ’79, many of them were going to have the taillamp assemblies that looked like this:
By contrast, and moving up a size class from subcompacts to compacts, the Pinto’s slightly older, slightly bigger sibling, the Maverick, was not that common a sight at all. I’ve written before about how Chevrolet seemed to be the most common make of car on the streets of Flint when I was growing up (again, this is just my perception), so this would explain the presence back then of Novas and Citations dwarfing that of the Maverick, and even the popular Granada. All of this is to say that it took me an unusually long time to finally learn the model name of the Maverick.
Taillamps on Ford’s Pinto (l.) and Maverick (r.).
First, the type font on the Maverick’s emblem wasn’t quite as easy to read as the name of some other cars. Second, when I was first learning to identify the makes and models of cars, taillamps and their variations from year to year were one visual cue that I came to rely on. For the longest time, in my head, the Maverick was the “Big Pinto” because of the taillights it shared with the smaller model. The following would have been the type of argument in the family car that I might have had with my brother. “That’s a Pinto. Just look at the taillights.” “Dude, I’m telling you, that’s a Maverick. You just have to trust me on this.” Then, there was: “See the letter ‘t’ at the end? That’s a ‘Chevro-lette‘!” “Chevro-lay. Have you ever heard of a ‘Chevro-lette’ before in your life? Shows how much you know.” So he was older and bigger. And right, both times. Whatever.
My point is that taillamps are, to me, a strong visual cue, to the point that their presence on both the Volkswagen Thing and the 1973-forward Beetle might have subconsciously caused me to misidentify the former as a type of the latter, when the Thing was a different type of vehicle altogether. I may not be able to do everything I’d normally want to do this summer on account of the current pandemic, but I’m still able-bodied and can walk, and I can still take pictures. What a pleasant, throwback experience it was to spot a “Weird Beetle” on an evening walk through a nearby neighborhood. Let’s hope this Thing still runs well.
Rogers Park, Chicago, Illinois.
Friday, July 24, 2020.
All other images as sourced from the internet.
I knew someone who called these “Bauhaus Beetles”. For a variant that only made a fleeting appearance on the US market, it sure had an impact. Funny how Things go, sometimes.
Bauhaus Beetle is brilliant.
I still vividly remember seeing one of these at the Fort Wayne auto show, probably 1973. I was in love with its simplicity, and the fact that it revived the bowl-style hubcaps that defined Beetles for me up to a certain point in my youth.
I had forgotten that these were only here for 2 years. I wonder if they might have done better with a more conventional name, but perhaps not. A Beetle was already a crude car in 1973, and taking away what few creature comforts it had was probably no way to mass acceptance. And I am not sure I have ever seen a beige one. A great way to start the morning.
It was known as the Safari in Mexico, but of course Pontiac had dibs on that name in the US and Canada.
I was going to remark that the “Safari” name would have been far better used on the Thing than on various Pontiac station wagons, but I don’t know. I like that the name connotes adventure. If you were a kid forced into the wayback of a station wagon, wouldn’t you like to think you were going on a “Safari” somewhere? I think “Safari” is a great name for a vehicle.
The GMC Safari in my garage agrees with you.
Things could not be legally sold in the US after ’74 because it could no longer meet safety standards. There was a loophole where it was not classified as a passenger vehicle and that got closed. Mexico, no problema.
In 2014, the VW dealer where we bought our Passat had a Thing on the showroom floor. It was a delight to look it over as my sightings of them previously had been rare. The only other I can really remember seeing was one belonging to a math professor at Southeast Missouri State University which he drove occasionally during the two years I went there.
Joe, like you, the sharing of tail lights was something I noticed long ago. Here’s another one for you to amaze others with – the 1971 Mercury Comet and Montego shared tail lights.
You beat me to it, Jason… that was the example I was going to point out…
Wow. Can you imagine if instead of elongated Pinto units, Mercury had used these quad-pods from the Comet on the Bobcat? I’m glad they didn’t.
In this application, though, I think these taillamps (in clusters of two versus three) look better on the Comet than on the Montego / Cyclone.
Speaking of bobcats, their taillights look really cool on Mavericks. They look like junior GT500s
That is an upgrade! I have never seen that before.
Mention of the Things of Flint brought my mind around to “Freaks and Geeks” and one detail of the car-casting; literally the only import cars to be seen in the show, set in the Detroit suburbs in 1980 but filmed in SoCal 20 years later, were a few aircooled VWs.
It wasn’t perfect, there was James Franco’s character’s car which was too new-at-the-time to be the old beater it was supposed to have been.
https://www.imcdb.org/m193676.html
What a great show! I wish it were back on some streaming service online again…
My fun-loving and eclectic uncle in SE Iowa has an orange Thing in good running condition on his farm. My wife has driven it on occasion but I have not had the pleasure yet.
https://www.amazon.com/Freaks-Geeks-Complete-DVD/dp/B078JZ18G3/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3DGGI0SSX67JA&dchild=1&keywords=freaks+and+geeks&qid=1596556234&s=movies-tv&sprefix=frea%2Caps%2C163&sr=1-2
I believe it is on Netflix. I binge watched it last year.
I have long been meaning to check out “Freaks and Geeks”. It was another show that had been on my radar to queue up, and it hasn’t happened. In quarantine, I’ve really got nothing but time!
Years ago, the back of CAR Magazine in the UK had two sentence summaries of just about every car on sale there, A-Z, in a section titled GBU – Good, Bad Ugly. They’d list in the shortest form the Good, then the Bad. (Can’t recall if Ugly actually got spot or not).
Under the McLaren F1 – and yes, it was actually a thing listed in new car price lists at 650k GBP for at least 4 or 5 years – they said something like this.
For “Good”, something along the line of “Simply the best car ever made”. And under Bad, “A trifle expensive. Rear lights off a Bova coach.”
So, Joe, you’re certainly not the first to see this, and nor is your “thing” confined to a lowly Thing. For the record, I’m one who’s noticed such arcana on cars since I was sprog.
And it’s always nice to hear – usually from folk here – that I’m no more eccentric than quite a few select others out there, noticing things that don’t add much to the sum total of useful knowledge one needs to get through life!
They still have the GBU section. I think it used to have little photos of each car, and maybe mpg ratings, but I’m not sure.
Subaru Forester
Functional square-rigger is the kind of crossover that existed before we had “lifestyles”. Good on road, great off it, not cheap – VERDICT A solid Subaru. Tweed cap, pipe, sheep flock optional.
(They never changed this review with the new Forester model in 2020.)
“Rear lights off a Bova coach…” I had to look this up. This reminds me of those Jeep taillamp units that were used on all kinds of trucks and vehicles for years. Hahaha!
Bova coach rear lights on a McLaren F1….yeah, right, I thought. But it’s true, it’s true!
Must be this one:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/bus-stop-classic/bus-stop-classic-1987-bova-futura-fhd-12-280-a-21st-century-coach-introduced-in-1982/
When my wife was about 10 years old, her father bought a Thing, which was one of many VWs that passed through their household. It proved to be unsuited to Upstate New York winters (weak heater and a leaky, ill-fitting folding roof) and was unceremoniously traded for a Ford Country Squire a year or so later. I can’t imagine a greater contrast in automotive driving experiences.
Their Thing was red, as virtually all those I have seen seemed to be. I don’t remember ever seeing a beige Thing.
William, to your point, I can hardly think of a real-life automotive swap that involves two vehicles closer to 180 degrees from one another.
I don’t recall ever seeing a red or beige. My west coast memories include a lot of yellows, a few whites, and some in orange. Perhaps a pale blue as well…
All of the colors you mention Jim are the only ones I remember… perhaps a pale green as well.
Mine is a beige respray over the original avocado green. White, yellow, orange, red and green were offered in the US, not beige. There was also a special edition of white and blue.
This car is a ’73. there were strange side pods added to the air intakes for ’74. The reason, to switch from the gasoline heater to the “fresh air” beetle style heater. Some exhaust was sucked in, so the air intake was moved forward. I cant remember the word in German, but these were known as “hamster cheeks”.
Nikita, thank you so much for those identifiers for model year. I don’t know when my next Thing spotting will be, but I look forward to applying what I’ve just learned. “Hamster cheeks”… fascinating.
While in the drive up line at D&D last week a chopped and lowered black one appeared behind my Accord. Driver was a nice guy who was surprised I knew what it was. Very cool
Wow, I had forgotten these were only sold here for two years. There’s still a handful running around my town regularly. Can’t say the same about Mavericks or Pinto’s.
I was thinking the same Thing. I guess their simplicity and coolness factor have brought about a very high survival rate.
As long as they don’t rust, they’re too impractical and uncomfortable to use up. It’s the kind of car that you want when you don’t have one. It probably takes six owners to wear out a set of rear wheel bearings or an engine, although many of them racked up their mileage towed behind motorhomes. There are thirty of them for sale on autotrader classics and thirteen on ebay. On top of that, only one of the bunch isn’t an original ’73 or ’74 model. Either this reflects a survival rate that is off the charts for a Mexican-made car of any sort, or it reflects a for-sale rate for survivors that is off the chart for practically any vehicle ever sold.
Rotate the Pinto/Maverick taillight 90°, and voila!, you have Ford pickup truck taillights!
Ed, I had to look this up, as I couldn’t be quite sure, either way! It looks like the units are slightly different, but wouldn’t that have been something?
I just thought of something else. The units on the 1972 & ’73 non-wagon Torinos also resemble the Maverick / Pinto units, if flipped upside down.
The last car sold here with side curtains ?
Nope. The 1st generation Viper had ‘curtains’ instead of windows.
Wow, that’s a throwback for me. The first gen Viper was my dream car when I was 7, first one I ever saw was in front of a hobby store my parents brought me to on a dreary spring weekend and it had the full fabric kit applied, AND a bra! It looked like one of those pre production cars in camo!
Seeing these always gives me the creeps as a neighbor was killed in her husbands Thing in a snowstorm-related crash. She was 20.
CC Effect: I just saw—and smelt—one of these yesterday. An orange one.
Yep, I saw one of these this weekend myself! Love the Thing.
That one’s awesome. I really like what they did with it.
In high school in the early 80s the drama club tech crew had some interesting vehicles. My friend’s Beetle was positively normal compared to his colleague’s Orange VW Thing, a Renault 15,a BMW 2000 (normal but rare) and Volvo 144 wit ha column shift automatic. The maximum weird had to be the jock who drove a Citroen Mehari. I never got to ride in the Thing but I’ve been fascinated by them since the first hit the US market.
I remember the Thing being Orange.
Seems like most of them were either orange or yellow. I don’t recall seeing them new in this somewhat military looking color, which of course brings to mind the superficial resemblance of the Thing to the World War II military Kubelwagen.
Taillights? How about Italian taillights? Never know which will show up where
There are still a lot of Things down here in Mexico. There are several in my town of five thousand people. None of them have a top on them. It is all open air running here.
Love these things. For me it’s the marker lights on the tops of the fenders I associate most with the Beetle, the separate fenders with round headlights, while boxy, drive home the resemblance to me.
Oddly, the 70s Karmann Ghias with their totally different taillamps instantly remind me of the beetle ones too with the same amber-red-clear color scheme, I always knew those cars were related even before I knew for certain
Another notable taillight association I make is rounds with the chrome gunsight trim and a reverse light inboard: 68-82 Corvette, 68 Chevy B body(sort of), 71-72 Chevy A body, 70-73 F body, 72-74 Barracuda, 74 AMC Matador coupe
…
Small round lights just say Chevrolet, as so many models had them from ’58 on.
Wasn’t the slang term for the 1973 and up Beetle taillights “elephant’s foot”?
Glenn, the “elephant’s foot” reference was omnipresent when I was looking on the internet for the picture of the taillamp.
Thanks for getting back with me. When I was in college my roommate bought a new ’73 Super Beetle. I was impressed with the bigger windshield, more contemporary looking dashboard, steering wheel and the taillights. Shortly after he got the car some magazine writer (I don’t remember the name) coined the “elephant’s foot” term for the taillights. My roommate thought that was a derogatory term and was highly offended. I think it is a good descriptive term and fits perfectly.