The Volkswagen Type 181 “Kurierwagen”, popularly known in the United Kingdom as the Trekker, in the United States as the Thing, and in Mexico as the Safari, was a small military vehicle produced by Volkswagen from 1969 to 1983, although civilian sales stopped in 1980. It was based in part on Volkswagen’s Type 1 (Beetle), and was a continuation and improvement over the Kübelwagen, which had been used by the German military during World War II. The name Kübelwagen is an abbreviation of Kübelsitzwagen, meaning “bucket-seat car”.

i spied this here ‘thing’ on the way to the rose city bug-in today….. lots of interesting air-cooled german machinery to gander at….. more photos in this series to come. on “the simpsons” tv series, patty and selma drive a Thing with a personalized license plate that reads “manh8tr”.