Some time ago while out with my wife walking our dog, we passed a house in the next subdivision over that happened to have the exact late model New Beetle that I have long imagined Alejandro drives. The brilliant yellow exterior has faded somewhat in the harsh Arizona sun, but just about everything else is exactly as I’ve described it, right down to the small spray of flowers sprouting from the dashboard vase. I couldn’t help but point that out to my long-suffering wife; she nodded and humored me as I waxed poetic about a vehicle I’ve never actually driven. Part of the fun of being a writer is, essentially, living in a world of make believe — though one that is, apparently, highly specific and extremely unique.
The perils of being an author, I suppose.
As we continued our walk, I thought a bit about why I had saddled Alex with such a vehicle; like everything else that happens when a character springs to life, I suppose it was a natural extension of the kind of person he is. The cars my characters drive do match who they are; Vas has always been a Chevrolet Camaro kind of guy, whereas Sean (spoiler alert!) will turn out to have a thing for Ford Mustangs. Tenoch is the latest addition to this list, and he finds Dodge Chargers more to his liking. These three seem infatuated with muscle cars — cars that reflect one or more aspects of their personalities.
And yet, Alex has a Volkswagen, one that could almost be considered a sub-compact. It’s a very practical car, especially for a guy who (until he met Vas) found himself drifting from city to city, looking for a place to finally call home. There’s also a style component here, too, for Alex has a thing for design; clean lines mean something to him, as does the slight echo that particular model has to the Mid-century Modern affinity for curves. Later versions of the New Beetle have never appealed to Alex, which probably means he’ll be driving his baby until the wheels fall off (and maybe further).
You’d be right to wonder if I had ever wanted a VW myself, and the short answer is — yes! When I was starting my junior year in college and looking for a dependable ride to replace the stalwart but fading 1977 Chevy Chevette I’d been driving since high school, I had a chance to test drive a Jetta and fell in love with how the car handled. The windshield was a little weird, and I felt a bit like I was sitting in a hole while behind the steering wheel, but other than that, the thing drove like a dream. It was also wildly out of the price range for someone trying to make ends meet while going to college.
Later that same year, I wound up finding something I could afford at the little Saturn dealership that had opened up a year or two earlier. Completely infatuated with the strange spinoff company from General Motors, I let go of my VW crush and committed to a long term relationship with a quasi-sporty SL2; that car lasted through my first two jobs after college and would have made the move to Arizona with me had I not gifted it to my youngest brother.
Funny side note: I’ve often joked with him that the clutch going out when he drove it on his first major cross-country trip was direct retribution for him pressing every god-damned button on the dashboard the day I drove it home from the dealership. I was furious at the time — hell, I hadn’t even put a hundred miles on it at that point — but now it remains one of my fondest memories of him.