Blue Beetle



The Blue Beetle is Harry Dresden's car, an old Volkswagen Beetle.

Description
"The Beetle isn’t really blue anymore, since both doors have been replaced, one with a green clone, one with a white one, and the hood of the storage trunk in front had to be replaced with a red duplicate, but the name stuck anyway. Mike is a super mechanic. He never asked questions about the burns that slagged a hole in the front hatch or the claw marks that ruined both the doors. You can’t pay for service like that."

- Dresden

Harry Dresden acquired and drives the car because he was once told by his mechanic, Mike Atagi, that it's the easiest car in the world to repair. Although the Beetle was originally blue, many pieces of the body have been damaged and replaced with spare parts of different colors.

The interior of the car has also been changed at least once after a Mold demon destroyed the upholstery and foam padding in the interior, leaving Harry Dresden to drive the car seated on a wooden crate until he had a custom interior installed.

The clock on the beetle does not work.

In Storm Front, Dresden describes the Blue Beetle as not really blue anymore. One door was replaced with a green door, and the other door was replaced with a white one. The hood of the storage trunk in front had been replaced with a red hood.

In Fool Moon, one door is green, the other white as the originals were shredded by something with claws. The original hood had been ruined by fire and the replacement is red. Dresden mostly cares that it runs despite his Wizards magic fouling up technology and he's comfortable with it.

In Grave Peril, the passenger door is red, the driver's door is white and the hood is grey.(primer color?) There is also a green piece somewhere in the mosaic of parts.

In Dead Beat, Mike has pounded the hood back into its original shape after the original hood was destroyed by a Chlorofiend (plant monster), and the hood is now grey primer until Dresden can get enough money to repaint it. There are panels and doors in colors including white, yellow, red, and green. Mouse takes up the entire back seat.

Storm Front
In Storm Front, when Harry Dresden pulls up to the Velvet Room, in an expensive lakeside location, the Beetle coughs, the engine rattles and blackly smokes with a big "whoomph", then the engine dies. Dresden gives the guard, "Fido", the number to Mike's tower guy, George, who give Dresden a wood-paneled Studebaker as a loaner.

Fool Moon
In Fool Moon,

Grave Peril
In Grave Peril, based on a tip by Bob, Harry Dresden and Michael Carpenter race the Beetle to Cook County Hospital to save nursery infants from the maniacal Ghost, Agatha Hagglethorn. Carpenter complains that that it's not gong fast enough, he's worried for the babies. On the way, Carpenter lectures Dresden about Susan Rodriguez telling him that he should tell her how he feels about her and that Dresden should marry her. He's too isolated and could easily start down a darker path. He mentioned Elaine Mallory setting Dresden off in an angry tiff. Dresden drove past a police car twenty miles an hour over the limit—the police chase them. Leaving the Beetle, Dresden grabs his staff and blasting rod—both still green and freshly carve. The Blue Beetle got impounded by the police because Dresden was driving too fast. Dresden got the Beetle back, Karrin Murphy fixed it for Dresden after he help Micky Malone from a psychic attack by the Nightmare. Dresden drove around Bucktown/Wicker Park looking for Lydia.

Summer Knight
In Summer Knight, Harry Dresden drove Billy Borden home in it after the rain of toads and the attack by the Tigress. Later, a "Chlorofiend" (plant monster) banged his fist down on the hood of the Beetle, crumpling it like tin foil. It's lucky the engine in older VWs is in their rear or it would have flipped over. Then Dresden and his gamely Beetle rammed the monster, the iron in the car making it smoke. Then carried him the length of Wal-Mart, and then rammed it again, tearing it in half. — Later, Elaine Mallory comments that the vehicle is named after the "super-hero from the Electric Company".

Death Masks
In Death Masks, the still-red hood is held on by hanger wire to keep it from flapping open. Harry Dresden hopes to make enough money from Father Vincent's case to fix the Beetle.

Blood Rites
In Blood Rites, after escaping in the Beetle from monkey demons chasing them after Harry Dresden collects the Temple Dogs for Brother Wang, Thomas Raith, who's driving, asks Dresden what happened to his car. The inside of the car had all the seats gnawed bare of stuffing, vinyl, seat covers, chunks of the dashboard were missing, and everything was stripped way down to the metal. Dresden had done some make-shift repairs using 1x6 boards, cheap padding from Wal-Mart's camping department and hanger wire to make temporary seats. Dresden explains that mold demons ate the interior and that they were a gift from the "guest villain a few months ago".

Proven Guilty
In Proven Guilty, Harry Dresden in the Blue Beetle is rear-ended by large dark-gray Chrysler with tinted windows. And the car slams into him again, sending him into a deadly spin and into a brick building on the passenger side. Per Dresden: "The Beetle, stalwart crusader against the forces of evil and alternative fuels, was still running, though its engine had acquired and odd, moaning wheeze as opposed to the usual surly wheeze."

Small Favor
In Small Favor, Harry Dresden mentions that the number "53" had been spray-painted in a circle on the hood (a reference to Disney's Herbie the Love Bug) by an "anonymous joker".

Changes
In Changes, the Ik'k'uox smashed the Blue Beetle together with Thomas Raith's white Jag like thy went through a trash compactor. There was no way the Blue Beetle was going to resurrect from that. Dresden felt tears forming. Plus his staff was in the car.