The Volkswagen Thing Is Slow, Old, Unsafe... and Amazing

this is a 1974 Volkswagen thing it's slow it's funny-looking it has no amenities and it has absolutely no safety equipment of any kind it's also a rental car today is going to be a fun day before I tell you about this thing let me tell you about things in general the thing was originally conceived as a West German military vehicle in the 60s sales in the u.s. started in the 70s to civilians now in Mexico it was called the Volkswagen Safari but in the US there was already a car called the Pontiac Safari so Volkswagen got together with a group of marketers and designers and engineers and product planners and I said what should we call it and someone said I've got it the thing I'm in Minneapolis to drive this thing at Morrie's Heritage Car Connection which is an exotic in vintage rental car firm operated by a car dealership group out here but unlike your typical wall-to-wall Lamborghinis with rims they have weird stuff like this Volkswagen thing that you can rent but then that begs the question why would anyone want to rent this looks legen thing it certainly isn't the amenities because the Volkswagen thing has none allow me to take you on a little tour the first thing you find when you open the door is wood flooring which is exactly what you want in your deck interestingly the wood flooring is removable I don't know if this was a fence at one point or you're probably wondering does the passenger side have any cool amenities no it is nothing except for two little things one of which is a grab handle that isn't really on here all that tight and frankly shakes the entire car the other is the front hood release now that we're under the hood let's take a look at what we got well there's the spare tire and there's also a little plaque that insists you put in 91 octane premium can you imagine buying this thing and then having to put in premium here's another great thing detail the wipers work and they work pretty well but there's only one wiper motor it's attached to this wiper and then this wiper is attached with a cable so basically what happens is you turn on the wipers the motor moves this wiper and this one is just kind of along for the ride the windshield folds down you might already know this now the problem is they really wanted windshield wipers so when the windshield is folded down it's kind of resting on the wipers and sitting directly in your line of sight is the giant windshield wiper motor still tell me this isn't pretty cool so now you've parked your thing overnight and you've closed the top and shut the windows because you don't want anybody to break in which by the way is a hilarious idea because the front doors lock and the rears don't so how do you get the roof off actually it's pretty easy just two latches by the windshield one here and one here then throw the top back get out undo two more latches one on either side and then it's down but now that's the roofs off what do you do about the windows well you have two options you can either unbutton the front window open up the flap and get a little air in or if you want the window all the way down see a window you also wouldn't want to run a thing to check out its advanced safety equipment because there is no safety equipment airbags anti-lock brakes traction control none of that stuff is around that much is obvious what might not be so obvious is just how little protection the thing has from any type of collision allow me to demonstrate I've parked a run-of-the-mill Ford f150 next to the thing the most popular car in America imagine getting hit with one it wouldn't be pretty it especially wouldn't be pretty because of the things side crash structure the B pillar and C pillar oh yeah those don't exist there's only an A pillar it's the windshield frame it can be folded away in fact the things only real side crash protection is this panel and I don't think that's really going to stop an impact from an SUV or certain larger insects and then there are the doors I wish you could feel how flimsy these doors felt over the Internet but suffice it to say there's probably a team of engineers working on the Porsche 911 gt3 desperately trying to get their doors as lightweight as the doors were on the 1974 Volkswagen thing and then there's the size the thing clearly hails from a different era because that f-150 at 148 inches in length the thing fits in its wheelbase you also wouldn't rent a thing for its performance don't be fooled by the strangely large hood the things engine is in back and it makes 46 horsepower you could probably outrun a thing on foot even if you didn't know you were racing it the thing is also hilarious to look at it looks like the kind of military vehicle that you would get if you gave a child a pencil on a piece of paper in 20 minutes just look at all the squared wheel arches and the fender flares and a boxy right angles trying to be tough and then you look at it you can't help but just giggle it's crazy imagine encountering one of these things in battle you're sitting there behind enemy lines trying to hold the hill with your with your fellow soldiers off to the side and then the enemy drives up in a thing you can burst out laughing it another choice and then of course you would destroy it using a rock so why would you want to rent a thing because it is absolutely hilarious to drive it is impossible not to smile as you drive this car that makes a lot of noise of course I'm going 14 I can't believe it driving this is so such a ridiculous car the acceleration is minimal to be charitable although it does make a lot of noise so you feel like you got off shift so I up shift first at 15 miles an hour and second is 25 miles an hour so I'm deep in the third in about 29 31 the brakes aren't as bad as they are in a lot of older cars I suspect that's because this thing weighs about as much as a shrub there's a guy with a leaf blower he's got as much power as I do it's so cool it's crazy how slow this thing is crazy but you know given time and it does get up to the speed of traffic this is a car you could legitimately drive around roads I don't know if I take it on the highway you know I have to admit there are some things it's missing a lot of features but there's some things that I'm impressed with how modern it is the pedal feel is pretty good the turn signals cancel the wipers work fine the signal stocks actually have a pretty good tactile feel to them which is weird I feel like they're like a modern Audi and of course then I look down and then half the floors would and half the floor is orange so well this is gray this is fun this is hilariously fun car god I love this thing but you don't would make it even more fun it's a little wavy here I can't see anyway I'm going to try to hide by the library motor everybody is staring at me now there's a wink the windshields down there's not a single person in Minneapolis who doesn't think I'm nut man if we roll over right now the roll cage is my skull I wonder what kind of mileage this guess of course we'll never know because the fuel gauge is now permanently reading zero could be empty but given that I'm driving around in a car staring at a windshield wiper motor I bet that it's just broken this is great in this to life didn't bombarded with air while we go 12 miles an hour under the speed limit I've driven a lot of weird cars but as I sit here with the windshield down staring at a wiper motor in a bright orange Volkswagen wear first gear ends at 14 miles an hour I gotta say this might just be the weirdest so my verdict on the thing it's unsafe it doesn't have any amenities it's not it's not well-equipped it's slow but but it's an experience that everybody should have [Music] so there you have it that's the Volkswagen thing please click the link below to check out my column on autotrader.com slash oversteer for more of my thoughts on the thing in all of its bright orange glory you're probably wondering does the passenger side have any cool amenities or features power windows they're in or if you want the whole window down if you want the window all the way down or if you want the window all the way down

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 2,372,465

Rating: 4.7393684 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: WWrkENGbkNs

Length: 9min 49sec (589 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 13 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/wes_andersoup]

/u/Doug-DeMuro didn't mention it, but those who don't know these cars would get a kick out of the heater. They're not like the other air-cooled VWs of the era. The Type 181 (Thing) has a small gasoline burner under the hood near that spare tire that heats air to be blown over your legs in the cab. A buddy of mine had one of these in high school with a working heater and it was the most unsafe yet amazing car to ride in. Also with decent tires, they are very capable off-roaders much like the old willy's jeeps. Video of Edd from Wheeler Dealers talking about the heater.

[u/KingPetunia]

The holy trinity;

• This Thing

• Citroën Méhari

• Renault Rodeo

Awesome video /u/Doug-DeMuro

[u/Doug-DeMuro]

Haha - thanks for posting! I think like seven people will watch this video, but I sure had fun filming it.

[u/vwhaulic]

I have an all original '73 Thing in great condition in my driveway right now that my dad is working on for someone. I kind of want one now. I would lower it and put a 2276cc engine in it with some 44 Webers. It would definitely be fun with 160hp :P Here's a photo of a Thing with airbag suspension and a big engine that belongs to a friend of mine.

[u/Too_Many_Science]

My father owned one of these while he was a tank commander during the Vietnam war. He always talked about how he would use it when the jeeps he had couldn't get to a spot on the range. Surprisingly capable vehicles.

[u/Xarvas]

What is this? Doug's shit car week?

[u/blue_bomber697]

I first found out about this car early this year haha. What an odd vehicle. Nice find and review!

[u/MisterNoisy]

One of my brother's high school friends had one of these cars in a weird slightly greenish-tinted yellow. Goofy as hell and dog-slow, but everybody loved it and riding around in it - Doug's right in that you can't help but have a goofy grin in one while it's on the move.

[u/SnapMokies]

Awesome video. I'd definitely love to try one out at some point...there's a guy who lives near me with one identical to the one you rented, but the orange is definitely getting a bit faded.

They seem like a neat little oddity, I had no idea the windshield folded down, or that windows were even an option. I'd probably would never want to own one but you're right, just seeing it makes you giggle a bit.