Janette Navarro’s 1996 Volkswagen Beetle roars as it barrels up a steep hill overlooking concrete houses stacked like boxes on the outskirts of Mexico City.

She presses her foot on the pedal, passes a lime green Beetle like hers, then one marked with red and yellow, then another painted a bright sea blue.

“No other car gets up here,” she said. “Just the vocho.”

The Volkswagen Beetle, or “vocho” as it’s known in Mexico, may have been born in Germany, but in this hilly…