I have embarked upon a journey, friends, and in doing so I’ve solved a mystery and uncovered a remarkable treasure. It is a great accomplishment in my journalistic career, and the only people who are really going to care are either Volvo enthusiasts or fans of the extremely Millennial sitcom New Girl.
Maybe I’m selling myself short? New Girl has found a new audience, and was one of the most watched shows during the pandemic, even though it had been off the air for a couple of years. So maybe more people will care than I think.
While not a car show, New Girl was set and shot in Los Angeles, which means that automobiles were a big part of the characters’ lives. For a long stretch, Ford even provided paid product placement, correctly giving a Flex to Max Greenfield’s Schmidt character (it is the most baller of 2000s cars).
If there’s one car that stands out, though, it’s the Volvo 145 station wagon owned by the new girl herself, Jess (played to adorkable perfection by Zooey Deschanel). The wagon reflects her sensible, quirky character and gets most of the automotive screen time (though Nick’s sleeper-cool AE86 is maybe a close second).
Since the show went off the air there have been two mysteries surrounding the wagon: What model year was it, as it demonstrates characteristics of both the 1969 and the 1972 model, and where did it go? I have answers to all of those questions.
New Girl In An Old Volvo
New Girl is on Netflix, so you can watch it if you haven’t somehow seen it. Very briefly, the thin premise of the show is that the protagonist, Jess, is a slightly awkward and good-hearted teacher who finds her boyfriend cheating on her with another woman. Lacking enough money to live on her own, she moves into a large apartment with Nick, Schmidt, and Coach (later to be replaced by Winston).
Where the show succeeds is not so much in the concept, as in the perfect execution of a single-camera, no-laugh-track comedy. There are multiple will-they-won’t-theys, incredible guest turns (Jamie Lee Curtis and the late Rob Reiner as her parents, for instance), and an ensemble cast that clearly loved one another (they have multiple very good podcasts). It is a go-to comfort show for me, and about once a week I think to myself “Gave me cookie, got you cookie.” I’ve also seen the video of Jake Johnson absolutely blowing a promo on a Nashville TV station about 7,000 times.
I’m not going to do it justice, just trust me and watch. And when you watch it, please enjoy that Jess pilots a blue Volvo 145 in decent condition. The car is seared into my memory, having rewatched the show so often. It’s also a predecessor to the Volvo 240 wagon, of which I’ve owned two.
The car itself is a part of a bit of New Girl-meets-Volvo nerd lore, as it was initially identified on The Internet Movie Car Database as a 1969 model, though user zodiac points out some issues with that:
What makes this particular car interesting is that it has the 1971 longer rear window, but not the free flow ventilation system (a black rectangular plastic patch on the right rear wing).
It also has the hazard light introduced in 1970 (not, as far as I know, available in 1969).
It, though, has the 1969 seats without the head rests, but a 1973 steering wheel.
It has the 1972+ doors and the (1971-74) DE Luxe wheels.
It has the BW 35 automatic gear box with a floor gear shift, which I thaught was introduced around 1972. Before that it had a column gear shift.
That’s all sorts of weird.
Was it a 1969? Was it a 1972? Was it both at the same time? Movie cars sometimes are cobbled together from pieces, so it’s possible that a mix of parts led to a sort of early ’70s hybrid car.
The Auction That Solved The Mystery
I can’t remember who it was, but someone sent me a link to the Hollywood Movie Car Auction taking place this month. I believe because it features the 1971 Volkswagen Type 3 Squareback from the Harrison Ford movie “Witness.” This is an oddly specific star car, from a movie I forgot even had a car in it (it’s about Amish people, essentially).
While browsing through the auction I saw Lot #69, a blue 1969 Volvo 145 with a white grille surround and odd seats. Almost immediately I had a guess about what it was.
Look at photos of the car and then look at this:
Both The Bishop and I went back and forth comparing the two vehicles, noting some of the specific discrepancies, but thinking that it was close enough to give the auctioneers a call.
Excited about my find, which wasn’t noted on the website, I called the auctioneers to see if I was right. After a bit of research, Thomas Mau, an auction partner at Fleet Vehicle Disposal, called to let me know that the company had determined that both vehicles were from the show.
“Winner, winner chicken dinner,” Tom cheerily told me when I picked up his call. “You are correct, both were used.”
Wait, both? In my excitement over finding the car, I overlooked the fact that Lot #70 was an almost identical 1972 model. That’s right. There are two different wagons, which both makes sense from a production standpoint and also explains the difficult to place model year.
Looking at the records, Tom thinks that the vehicle mostly worked as a background player for films pretending to shoot in Europe after its starring role in New Girl.
That’s not the only interesting vehicle at auction. There are a ton of famous cars, though I’m drawn to the John Deere from the infamous Mad Men episode “A Man Walks Into An Advertising Agency.”
I’m curious if there are other interesting lots there that have not yet been identified. Let me know what you find in the comments.
Top graphic images: moviecar.net; Fox
I know almost nothing about New Girl, and am only somewhat aware of who Zoey Deschanel is (if I were 20 years younger, I’m sure I’d be more than just somewhat aware). 😉
I bought a 240 wagon (an ’89) with a 5-speed manual and air conditioning just half a year ago, and it’s in decent shape for a 37-year-old car, but needed $1,200. of underhood work to put right. I paid $6,500. in LA, plus the work afterwards, so about $7,700. total. Generally, I’d consider my end cost to be about average for this part of the country and the condition of the car.
Just providing this info for reference in case anyone’s considering bidding on either of these New Girl wagons. JMHO, but a 140/240 can make a very decent, comfortable, and useful daily driver if decently sorted. They’re also pretty easy to work on if that’s your thing, and my impression is that parts are reasonably available and usually not overpriced.
This is god’s work right here.
Since the breakup I can’t watch anything with Zoe, I’m team Ben but I do have memories of a buddy in HS involving jumping his wagon multiple times and surviving.
Both wagons are a mess of unoriginality. The 1969 car in lot #69 had a VIN that decodes to a B20A, which is a single-carb engine that was never officially sold in the US. That engine *may* have been available in Canada. It was originally built with the M41 4+OD transmission. Obviously got a swap to the BW35 Automatic, which isn’t a great transmission. This explains why the shifter is on the floor and not on the column. It’s quite unfortunate that there are no underhood pictures.
Lot #70 makes a bit more sense. It’s also closer to “as built” condition. Again, no underhood pictures, but the B20E (if that’s what’s still under the hood) is a high-compression engine that will require premium fuel, and if the head hasn’t been rebuilt with hardened valve seats, good luck finding leaded premium gas these days.
I personally don’t care if a car has appeared in a TV show. As a Certified Volvo Nut™ I see both cars as needing a fair bit of work to get into decent condition, and the bids are already pretty close to what I perceive as the actual value.
As a not-certified not Volvo Nut, your service is appreciated. I got a killer hot wheels 240 recently though!
Note to producers; Just put “Must be able to drive manual transmission” on the audition notes rather than causing damnfool things like automatic-swapping perfectly good manual Volvo wagons!
Doing the millennial thing of having a comfort show on in the background while I wrap up the day scrolling through new Autopian posts, and the show of the night is New Girl! Not an episode with the Volvo(s) though. I have a mug with “Gave me cookie, got you cookie” on it.
Edit for anyone interested, it can currently be found on Hulu.
Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency.
Unfortunately I have to challenge you here. New Girl was on Netflix in the past, but no longer.
Alas, that’s life as a millennial. Life changes and takes away all the good things from the past when you’re not looking.
If you pirate it and download it offline them they can never take your media away from you.
I’m a millennial but I have no idea who that is or what “New Girl” is.
This must be what it feels like to be David Tracy.
It’s a funny show! On Hulu now (not Netflix as Hardibro posits) if you happen to be paying that particular service.
Matt is now properly credited for the New Girl link in the auction listings.
This is one of the two Volvo Station Wagons used for Zooey Deschanel’s television series: The New Girl – as discovered by Matt Hardigree, publisher of the popular online automotive magazine: TheAutopian.com
Matt’s going big-time famous now!
Now I direct Jason’s attention to Lot #56.
This site is my favorite magazine!
hahahhaha
Had to google the show. Now I understand a few memes.
It’s a great feeling watching a show and discovering a meme. And I know it’s not just because I’m not on top of pop culture, because sometimes it’s oldies like The Wire.
[entire conversation using only the f-word and short phrases that contain it with varying inflection and delivery]
Did New Girl ever have a finale or just stopped? I don’t remember seeing the end but it may have been just me losing interest and not watching it anymore.
Season 7 was the last one. Nick and Jess got married. Everyone leaves the apartment.
I don’t remember if I actually saw it or even which season I stopped watching at.
There was also a flash forward to everyone having kids and playing a presumably far less drunk version of True American.
Just what I need – a manic pixie dream car.
I never really got the people paying crazy money for Volvo wagons 10+ years ago. The idea the one actress from the show that’s hard to watch baffles me but people are weird. My sisters all love new girl and have binged it. My daughter and nieces think its sort of dumb but funny. My wife doesn’t understand it. They all love and binge Gilmore girls and friends almost constantly.
That one girl that was a thing for while from that show love was also a big retro Volvo ambassador. They seem to think she is peak millennial. Gave her the diet coke ads. Something happened before kids and millennials are drinking that poison again.
It seems like it’s YJ have taken the place of the Volvo wagons. They all want to be mid 90s clueless or something. TJ actual have some breathing room now. Crazy times we live in.
Also the Sabrina Carpenter – Coachella Truck that seems like it could be a thing that will blow up to a high price.
The Ford product placement on that show was painful to watch.
Counterpoint, Zooey Deschanel pratfalling her way through a product presentation for the Ford Fusion might be the best product placement, if just for finding a semi-organic way to get a character to talk in adspeak.
Counterpoint counterpoint: Fo’scapé
Counter-counterpoint: The Ford Fusion bit is an uncharacteristically good example, the rest is generally painful.
Not as bad as USA Network shows like White Collar. They interrupted a perfectly normal conversation by having a passenger warn a driver about his blind spot, then having the driver point out that the Ford Fusion’s blind spot monitoring made him well aware and then say that the Ford Fusion (or maybe Focus?) practically drove itself. And I think they even enabled lane assist while in a chase. That sort of narrative-breaking thing happened a couple episodes each season, while other episodes just had them making calls using SYNC or whatever.
Community, of course, did the best job. It was very self-referential, part of the schtick, and integrated with all the other weirdness at Greendale.
Holy fuck I want that tractor
I am constantly fascinated by the things we gravitate to based on how or when we grew up.
I’m on the older end of the Gen X spectrum (I think? Born in ’73) and we had shows and movies we were obsessed with like The Breakfast Club or Knight Rider or Miami Vice etc.
Some themes are universal and others are based on nostalgia and what we experienced. It’s odd that there are so many the two generations agree about (such as That 70’s Show or Friends, Buffy the Vampire Slayer etc).
But two shows I see Millennials on about all the time is this one (New Girl) and Gilmore Girls. It’s hard to understand the appeal. Gilmore Girls is quite bad though and I couldn’t get through much of that one at all.
I did watch New Girls because my wife (also Gen X) has a fondness for Zoey Deschanel. It was ok, I would not say it is anything special but I am not Millennial. I do wonder what it is that resonates because I found it all to be quite flat.
Anyway, TL;DR: I don’t understand how some things specifically call out to specific generations but it is incredibly interesting to me how our brains work in that capacity. Cars are much easier to understand given the linear nature of year models and design changes over time.
My 75 year old mom’s favorite show is Gilmore Girls… I definitely did not see that one coming when she told me.
Gen X is 1965 to 1980 so you are almost dead in the middle of the range. I was born in 1978 but feel more of a connection to gen Y than X.
I do like the mini generation name for people born from 1975 to 1985 – the “Oregon Trail” generation. That is such a strong memory for me when I was in elementary school and and if we got our work done before the end of class we could play Oregon Trail on an Apple IIe in the corner of the classroom. (On of those specific things that stick you were talking about)
My childhood was pretty great time to be a kid despite economic issues. People my age are young enough that we weren’t micromanaged as kids. We could freely roam in a square mile and just had to be home for dinner and then by the time the street lights came on. No endless schedule of extra curricular activies to get into a good prep school or college. However, we also had computers in elementary school
Oregon Trail is something I never had access to but I “remember it” because it was so ingrained in our culture at the time. Memes before there was an internet.
Due to so many socioeconomic circumstances we were able to be grown ups long before we likely should have. And I do think that sort of independence streak we exhibit is certainly a defining characteristic and also the main trait that separates us from the next generations.
Oregon trail was still on the school computers even after Y2K Either my school district was poor or Oregon trail was just that awesome.
… but was it the old 8 bit green screen version where bullets were little squares or the new and fancy version with actual graphics?
Oregon Trail is still on Apple Games.
On the newer computers (each classroom teacher got 1) it was Oregon Trail Deluxe, which had actual graphics. The computer lab was definitely the old version.
I always thought a version of Oregon Trail set in its’ own era would’ve been fun. Imagine an 8-bit guy crouched under the hood of an 8-bit Ford Fairmont (weren’t they all?) with the caption “You have stalled out from vapor lock. Lose 2 hours. Kids run wild around a highway rest area on I-84 near the Utah-Idaho line. Lose motel reservation in Boise.”
It was such a time of change for Gen-X – I’m nine years older, so I didn’t have a computer until the end of college, and I only barely know what Oregon Trail is (I never played it). Despite going to a VERY wealthy school district for high school, I don’t recall computers being in classrooms at all. I suppose there must have been a couple somewhere. Some of my friends had early ones like TRS-80s and Commodores, but I had no interest at all until my senior year of college when I got a 486 as an early graduation present, though by college all of my papers were typed in the school lab and I had e-mail in 1989 thanks to being besties with a total nerd (he got the first student address at school and I got the second). But I ended up as an IT Engineer/Consultant after going to law school (undergrad degree in accounting). Go figure on THAT career trajectory… Amusingly, to satisfy the computer requirement for my degree, I had a self-designed class with my advisor “computer applications in accounting” and he would come to my dorm room for class twice a week. I had a better computer than anything in the computer labs at my very small state school.
But yeah, the free-roaming childhood was pretty great, and I lived in a suburban housing development with a TON of similar age kids for much of my childhood. We were quite the pack. I really feel for the micromanaged children of helicopter parents today.
I also feel for the kids with helicopter parents.
10 years ago we bought our current house in June when school was out. We scheduled a home inspection and the day before the owners tried to reschedule it because their son would be home alone and they didn’t want to take off work to watch him. We asked how old the child was and they said 16! There is a park 2 blocks from our house. It simply didn’t compute for me that a 16 year old boy needed to be watched and couldn’t walk from his house to the park for the 30 minutes a home inspection required. At 16 I had a full drivers license and my own car. We refused and the wife took a day off to “watch” her child.
I’m sorry but that is insanity to me. In 1984 at 6 years old I was walking or riding my bike 1 mile to school with no adult supervision. The oldest kid in our group was my brother who was 8 at the time. We survived and thrived. I can’t imagine how stunted a kid will be who hasn’t made a decision on their own until they are 18 and leave the family home for college.
It’s insanity to me, I work in retail and have trained plenty of 15-16 year-olds in their first real jobs even still today. Those parents have either tipped over well into setting the kid up for failure or there are some special needs involved that they don’t want to casually divulge.
Just helicopter parenting. I met him when we arrived and we talked about motocross a bit when I saw the bikes in the garage. While we did the inspection they sat in the mom’s car at the curb then he went back in and she left and went back to work..
My first job was at 10 delivering newspapers on my bicycle. Once a month I had to go door to door and collect the subscription money from each house. Wasn’t uncommon to have a couple hundred bucks in my pocket.
That is truly incredible unless the kid is developmentally disabled or something. Just wow! The kid didn’t have friends he could go hang out with?? or really, just be there while you do the inspection, keeping out from underfoot.
When I was in 9th grade I was riding my bicycle the 50 miles from my house to my grandparent’s house through the middle of Portland, ME. And by 16 I had a job at McDonald’s, afterschool and weekends. I think most parents today would stroke out at the thought of either of those things. And that was in a time when crime was legitimately worse than today (but there wasn’t 24x7x365 news making people paranoid that it’s going to happen to them). An hour of news a day is all anyone really ever needs.
One thing that I find interesting as a mixed race dude, is that there seems to be a real racial divide here that is rarely talked about. This is almost entirely a white folk thing. I still see black and brown kids outside playing in the neighborhood. I do NOT see white kids outside playing as a rule – my area is pretty well mixed when it comes to families with kids (VERY few Asians though, I’d be curious as to whether they boot kids outside to play). I also see a very obvious divide in public behavior. If there is a kid carrying on in a restaurant, airplane, or other public space, it’s white kids 99% of the time. And the kids who have jobs at obviously young ages are never white kids anymore either, the kids working at McDonald’s here in Florida (and even in Maine today) are all black and brown kids. Which may also be an economic difference, but certainly 40 years ago white kids flipped burgers everywhere.
Not all ‘normal’ looking children have brains and social skills that you had. One of my children would be fine wandering around at 16 years old, while the second one would find it extremely stressful. They could do it, but it would take away from some other capacity for the day. If this doesn’t make sense to you, congrats. Your children are not on the rough end of the autism spectrum.
The kid had enough social skills to talk to me about racing motocross.
That’s a subtly different brain function. Give the kid two more years and he’ll catch up to the average development. Hopefully they’ll then be able to lead a successful adult life.
Same here. My younger brother is technically a millennial (1981), but I feel like we had the same experience growing up.
I don’t recall playing Oregon Trail in “computer lab”, but I remember some game with a castle and a goose, the name escapes me.
I am SO glad I was a kid prior to Y2K, and being 21 in 1999 was peak.
You never know what will appeal when it comes to TV. I’m an older Gen-X being a ’69 model year, but I loved Gilmore Girls. But I HATE Seinfeld, never got that show at all.
I remember enjoying Seinfeld quite a bit when it was new but I have to say it does not hold up well at all so you may have just been ahead of the curve on that one.
I’d say don’t feel badly or even question it too much. There’s a great fondness to separate and segregate by generation (a largely meaningless cohort designed to be a shorthand for how much money you have to spend).
I wish MH would spend less time leaning into generational distributions and distinctions – to me it’s a pretty weak substitute for saying something that means anything. Maybe if you were middle class, had cable, were most likely white, and lived in the United States, and were born in a relatively narrow range of years, New Girl means something to you (73mil US/1.8bil world, about 4% just on birth rates alone).
It’s not some “we should all be age-blind” bullshit on my part, either. It’s that it’s at once so vague as to be presumably anyone, but always carries the underpinning of being born in those years with that socioeconomic upbringing and in certain countries that it doesn’t mean anything, statistically, to say “dear fellow millennials” and then talk about a US television show, and even then it still doesn’t get it right as a useful descriptor. It doesn’t mean anything to me at all and I *am* one, for fucks sake. Just say “New Girl fans…” Demographic generations are malleable and as imprecise or exclusive as you want them to be and it’s maddening.
Source: Millennial with the attitude of a gen x’er and the disposable income of a gen Z’er, but a Silent Generation approach to the Boomers with a twist of Xenial regard for the Greatest Generation. Ugh.
I think there are real differences, even if they aren’t necessarily as concrete as some would have you believe. I’m a Gen-X who is definitely rather old-fashioned in many ways because I was mostly raised by my greatest generation grandparents, not my baby boomer parents (not that my mother and my grandparents had notably different approaches to child rearing itself). Though my two stepfathers were actually silent generation, being rather older than my mother.
Certainly those of us who grew up basically completely before ubiquitous personal computers, with both parents working, and were pretty much entirely “free range kids” are wired differently than those who grew up with them and the rampant helicopter parenting, who seem wired different from those who grew up with ubiquitous smart phones and social media and constant screen time, and I really feel for the kids who were kids through the pandemic. That’s gonna leave a mark…
I watched the show in the background. I just kept waiting for something to flow correctly. It was almost good. But it just continued to fall flat. It was disappointing. The setup had a lot of potential. Ultimately the only episode I remember is the Brooklyn 99 crossover episode.
I desire this. Or Jesses 74 duster. Or Nicks AE86.
Wait, whys this show have great cars?
Pretty sure that Nick’s 86 was also used in Bridesmaids, too.
Yes!!!! It’s definitely the same car.
You are correct. Thanks for sending me down an IMCDB rabbit hole. Like I needed an excuse.
I thought I was the only one that noticed that.
I love these posts about screen-used cars because it gives me comfort that I’m not the only nerd poring over car details I see on TV.
My wife and I loved New Girl and I was fortunate enough to visit part of their set when my race car got invited to Fox Studios. I got to stand behind the bar the cast often visited, and I waved hi to Lamorne Morris (Winston) as he crossed the street close to me. Also my friend lived in the real building in the L.A. Art District which the characters supposedly live in.
When I was 19 me and some buddies visited LA on a road trip and stopped by “Sacred Heart” hospital to see the Scrubs set. We couldn’t get close, because they were actively filming the last season that was done there. The guy at the guard shack was making small talk with us and The Janitor walked out to his Avalon (a very non-descript car, but he’s a tall dude so probably a good fit) and gave us a nod as he was leaving. That was awesome.
Also awesome – when the guard found out we were visiting from western NY he called over the set manager who was from Buffalo. He invited us back later in the day and personally gave us a tour of the sets. Twas awesome.
I wonder if my acquaintances would be weirded out to know that once I see them in their car, they will always be associated with that car.
Did they up the reserve?
Elder millennial here. I’ve never heard of New Girl until about 35 seconds ago.
Am I out of touch? Did I spend my pandemic doing the wrong things? Please help.
Yes, Yes, just go watch it!
Middle Gen X here and I remember the show being on but the only episode I ever saw had a quest appearance by Prince. It aired after the Superbowl, which is likely why I ended up watching it the one time.
Yeah, I’m in the same boat. I mean, I remember the Volvo wagon from Beetlejuice
First we need to know how you spent your pandemic, then we can vote on whether you need to redo it.
Gaining weight.
You could’ve multitasked and simultaneously watched New Girl: C-
Taking care of three small toddlers/kids, mostly. Also figuring out remote work at a brand new company. Growing a beard. Watching my wife play Animal Crossing.
That sounds productive, stressful but also sort of nice!