One Of Our Readers Used To Own A Car That’s Now A Bigshot TV Star And He Can Prove It

A couple days ago, I wrote about the cars cast in the critically-acclaimed horror-comedy show on Apple TV, Widow’s Bay. It’s an extremely funny and well-done show, and the car-casting is, I think, very effective. But I covered all that already in that last article. What’s even more exciting is that one of our readers, a suave go-getter named Tim Wade, noticed something interesting about one of the cars featured on the show, an ’85 Volvo 245 wagon. What he noticed was that it sure as hell looked like his old car.

While we know that most cars in movies and television and other media started their lives as just normal, non-celebrity cars, there’s still something exciting about seeing a car that you personally have had interactions with on screen. It’s essentially the same feeling as if you were watching a movie and an actor walked into the scene and you immediately had a flash of recognition that made you scream “hey, I went to high school with that girl! She once puked off the side of the bleachers right onto the marching band!” or something along those lines.

That was the sensation Tim had when he saw a screenshot of the Volvo from the show that I used in my article, even before he watched the show itself. This screenshot:

Just from this initial, dark image, Tim felt a flash of recognition, emailing me:

“I’m almost 100% it belongs to a former friend of mine that works in the movie business in New England. We actually co-owned it for a few years. If it is my old Volvo it’s an ‘85 which would actually make it a GL.

Someone had quad-round headlight buckets laying around and we swapped them out one day as a joke. It was known as “Squidwig” as it had a long maroon vinyl squid on the sides.”

What I find most interesting here is how quickly and definitively the recognition hit Tim, which supports my theories about how we interact with our cars in ways closer to how we may interact with our pets than the other machines and appliances we use in our lives. Would seeing a dishwasher you once owned in a movie or something spark such an immediate sort of recognition? I don’t think so.

As Tim put it,

“What’s most amazing to me is that I was able to recognize (almost instantly) that Volvo from that dark and gloomy screen cap…I have no idea why, but I just knew it was Squidwig. With the quad-rounds it always looked a little sad and forlorn.”

Still, despite what Tim felt, I needed some real proof. It may look like the old Volvo Tim used to have, but there were lots (about 70,000 that year, it seems) of ’85 Volvo 245 wagons made; how do we know this is the same one?

Well, there’s some details about the car that may help. For example, the quad round headlights. The quad round lights, introduced in 1976, were replaced in 1981 with quad rectangular headlamps, which this car would have had. It’s tricky to tell the year of any Volvo 200-series car other than the headlights, but I think this one does seem to have a bumper design that looks like the slightly different mid-’80s bumper, a kind not found on round light cars, which weren’t all black rubber-coated like this car seems to have.

Tim has a picture of the Volvo mid-swap for the quad round lights:

Personally, I think it looks pretty cool with one of each, giving it a kind of David Bowie mismatched eyes charm. I would have driven it around like this! But, no, Tim went for all four round lights, and I get that.

While this does add to the distinctiveness of the car, I’m not sure it’s enough to prove that car on screen is his old car. We need something more irrefutable, some positively identifying something. And Tim had just that, and it has to do with the car’s name, Squidwig. Those squid decals on the rear quarter panels:

Tim also explained the suffix of the name:

“Just for context – the leader of our group named one of his cars Hedwig, and that started the tradition of naming Volvo wagons with the suffix -wig. Twigwig (a 240 that was crushed by a tree and bought for parts), Malwig (a truly malevolent 240 that never wanted to cooperate), Squidwig the wagon in question, and a few others that escape my memory.”

Now, the squids are vinyl decals, so they could have been removed. But if they haven’t then their presence would definitively confirm this is, in fact, the same car. Another ’85 Volvo 245 having squid decals like that is just too astronomically unlikely, after all. So, with that in mind, Tim really scrutinized the screen.

Here’s what he told me:

“Scanning through, Episode 5 about about the 15 minute mark…I was trying to pick out a few details to match it up (and I found quite a few) and then….on the passenger side rear quarters, I saw what looked like a red mark.”

“I thought it might have been lighting or something, but when it flips to the drivers side…you can juuuuust make it out, on the rear quarter panel:

A red squid.

This is absolutely 100% my old car.”

Do we agree with Tim? Let’s look:

Oh damn, look at that!

Yep, that’s the squid, all right. This is absolutely Tim’s old car.

Amazing, right? Why is this so exciting? I think it is, and Tim has plenty of feels about it all, too:

“I’m also very happy that the squids were still on the quarter panels…I’m happy to think that a forgotten and rescued Volvo is now on the small screen!

It also makes me feel melancholy for past friendships that are no longer around…but happy that the Volvo is still out there doing it’s thing.”

Oh, and Tim also has a theory about why this Volvo is only ever seen parked on the show:

“Also makes sense why it’s almost always static as it’s a manual transmission and I’ll bet few people in the cast know how to drive a manual…”

That may be true. Still, I’m delighted that Tim got to see his old car living such a glamorous new life. Maybe this is the start of a whole new career for the Volvo! I heard rumors that the Volvo is planning to do a one-car show about Mark Twain for the Roku Channel, but don’t let anyone know I leaked that.

(Top Image: Apple TV)