MEXICO CITY — Janette Navarro’s 1996 Volkswagen Beetle roars because it barrels up a steep hill overlooking concrete homes stacked like containers on the outskirts of Mexico Metropolis.
She presses her foot on the pedal, passes a lime inexperienced Beetle like hers, then one marked with crimson and yellow, then one other painted a vivid sea blue.
“No different automobile will get up right here,” she mentioned. “Simply the vocho.”
Drivers declare that the “vocho” is the one automobile that may stand up the steep hills. AP
The Volkswagen Beetle, or “vocho” because it’s identified in Mexico, might have been born in Germany, however on this hilly neighborhood on the fringes of Mexico Metropolis, there’s little question about it: The “Bug” is king.
The Beetle has a protracted historical past within the nation’s sprawling capital. The old-school fashions like these — as soon as pushed as taxis — used to dot metropolis blocks because the quirky look captured the fascination of many all over the world. It was lengthy often called “the folks’s automobile.”
However after manufacturing of older fashions halted in Mexico in 2003, and the newer variations in 2019, the Bug inhabitants is dwindling within the metro space of 23 million folks. However within the northern neighborhood of Cuautepec, traditional Beetles nonetheless line the streets — a lot in order that the world has been nicknamed “Vocholandia.”
Taxi drivers like Navarro say they proceed to make use of the vochos as a result of the automobiles are cheap and the engine positioned at the back of the automobile offers it extra energy to climb the neighborhood’s steep hills.
Navarro started driving Beetles for work eight years in the past as a approach to feed her three youngsters and put them by means of college.
The “vochos” are often called the folks’s automobile as a result of they’re cheap and the rear engine offers them the ability to ascend the hilly neighborhood. AP
“Once they ask me what I do for work, I say proudly that I’m a vochera (a vocho driver),” Navarro mentioned a day earlier than the Worldwide Day of the VW Beetle on Saturday. “This work retains me afloat … It’s my adoration, my love.”
Whereas a number of the older automobiles wobble alongside, paint lengthy light after years of damage and tear, different drivers costume their automobiles up, holding them in prime form.
One driver has named his vivid blue automobile “Gualupita” after his spouse, Guadalupe, and adorns the underside with aluminum flames blasting out from a VW emblem. One other painted their VW pink and white, sticking pink cat eyes on the entrance headlights.
One driver named his Volkswagen after his spouse and adorned it accordingly. AP
Mechanics within the space, although, say driving vochos is a dying custom. David Enojosa, a automobile mechanic, mentioned his household’s small automobile store within the metropolis used to promote components and do upkeep totally on Beetles. However since Volkswagen halted manufacturing 5 years in the past, components have been tougher to come back by.
“With the present pattern, it should disappear in two or three years,” Enojosa mentioned, his palms blackened by automobile grease. “Earlier than we had too many components for vochos, now there aren’t sufficient … So that they should search for components in restore outlets or junkyards.”
As he spoke, a buyer walked up carrying a worn down bolt, in search of a substitute for his Volkswagen’s clutch.
Mechanics say that the custom of driving beetles is dying, and that substitute components are harder to supply. AP
The shopper, Jesús Becerra, was in luck: Enojosa strolled out of his store holding a shiny new bolt.
Much less fortunate drivers should do laps across the neighborhood in search of sure components. Much more automobiles fall into disrepair and don’t go emissions inspections.
However Becerra is amongst those that believed that the vochos will endure in his neighborhood.
Some drivers are assured that “vochos” will proceed to be the favored automobile of the world. AP
“You adapt them, you discover a approach to make it maintain working,” he mentioned. “You say, ‘We’re going to do that, repair it and let’s go.’”
Others like Joaquín Peréz say persevering with to drive his 1991 white, Herbie-style Beetle is a approach to stick with it his household custom. He grew up round Bugs, he defined as his automobile rumbled. His father was a taxi driver identical to him and he realized easy methods to drive in a VW.
Now, 18 years into working as a driver himself, his dashboard is lined with trinkets from his household. A plastic duck from his son, a frog stuffed animal from his daughter and a material rose from his spouse.
“This space, at all times, at all times since I can keep in mind has been a spot of vochos,” he mentioned. “This right here is the automobile of the folks.”