Vince’s Mazda is a potential status symbol, but one that he subverts. He has chosen a Mazda, rather than a fancier car, thereby signifying his desire for independence and autonomy from his family; he also insists on paying for this car by himself. His family is mystified by his rejection of a fancier car, even after they gave him a stolen Porsche for his sixteenth birthday, which was then spotted by the cops. Yet it is not merely stolen cars that Vince is rejecting; it is flashy cars that advertise the driver as being rich and powerful. To Vince, such cars represent all of the embarrassing attention that is directed at him and exceptions that are made for him, because he is the son of a powerful gangster. They represent a type of specialness from which he wants only to escape.

His independence from his family, however, is only partial, as is illustrated by the fact that he later learns that his father secretly paid for part of the Mazda. The incident in the first chapter of the book, in which a body turns up in the trunk of Vince’s Mazda at a very inconvenient moment, further illustrates the challenge that Vince faces in trying to escape his family and become his own person.