Pressed steel may be the basis of the 181, but with hardly any insulation or any concessions to creature comforts, it gets a bit noisy. Thankfully, it’s not a front-engined car! Like with the Bug, the 181’s independent suspension features the standard torsion bars with telescopic shocks at both ends and it rides on 15-inch rubber. It’s a bit bouncy with just one driver, but get your gang along, and it’s brilliant.
When it was launched in the US, VW ran an ad in Playboy in 1973, with a medley of visuals showing the car on sand, fording through water and generally making itself seen as a lifestyle accessory (Volkswagen Presents "The Thing." It Can Be Anything!). In one of their issues in the same year, Motor Trend said, ‘The Thing is nearly irresistible because it is all things to all people, and in an age of overspecialisation, that can’t be all bad.’ But in the same breath, they moaned about the fact that VW had missed the dune buggy boom, and have come with a better, all-weather vehicle about five years late.
Even though most automotive magazines loved the Thing for what it was, the infamous Ralph Nader had targeted it as being unsafe. While VW claimed that it was a utility vehicle and not strictly a passenger car, Nader’s allegations eventually hit the mark. But VW anyway was looking at ending the Thing’s run in the US, but that was also due to the fact that it was quite overpriced compared to the Beetle. Still, the Thing/Safari had a successful run in Mexico, and VW did eventually sell more than they expected. That’s really some Thing, what?
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