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You'll Never Believe What This VW Thing Just Sold For

1974 Volkswagen Thing Acapulco Edition
1974 Volkswagen Thing Acapulco Edition

Much as the classic cars gathering at Amelia Island in March have begun to compete with Pebble Beach's annual concours in scope and beauty, the collector-car auctions around the Amelia Island event have swelled to new heights. Last weekend kept the trend alive, with more than $100 million in classic machinery sold, with 20 rare Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Mercedes drawing more than $1 million apiece.

And then there's this, a 1974 Volkswagen Type 181, a.k.a. Thing, that set a new world record price for VW Things during the sale at Gooding & Co. You'll never believe what this Thing is suddenly worth.

One of several customized for an Acapulco resort, this surrey-topped Thing is rare but not exactly museum-quality; it saw several years of use around said resort and came to Gooding billed as fun driver, not a conservatory piece. Things were slow beasts, what with their 46-hp engines and 0-60 mph times of "mix me another mai-tai while you're at it," but as they were based on widely available VW components, care and feeding has been fairly easy.

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There's a precedent for these types of runabouts; the Fiat 600 Jolly has a small but ardent fanbase, and one of those sold for $63,000 in the same Gooding auction last weekend, although Jollys are far rarer. According to Hagerty, this exact Thing had sold for $22,500 in 2010, and the pre-auction estimate of $25,000 to $35,000 seemed optimistic without being delusional.

And yet when the hammer fell, this Thing had set a new world record at $52,800. We're fairly ecumenical in our appreciation of old metal, but that's serious coin for a car that can't outrun rain, although prices on many older VW classics have been rising. If you're the seller of a Type 181 who thinks this sets the new bar, we'd suggest tempering your enthusiasm just a bit. Market corrections can be a hell of a Thing.