No matter how one looks at it, the Volvo that Vern currently drives will always be his Volvo, no matter how many parts are replaced. Each time Vern went to Grace's Garage over 20 years to replace a part on the Volvo, even though the part getting replaced had experienced being part of Vern's Volvo the new part being put into the car, replacing the old one, immeadiatly inherits the past experiences of the old part and the entire car. For example, if when Vern originally bought the Volvo he took a long life-changing road trip. After that trip Vern will look at his car and be reminded of that amazing road trip. One part being replaced will not change that Vern's feelings towards the car concerning the road trip. The Volvo that carried him through the road trip with an old hubcap and the Volvo with the new hubcap are still the same Volvo. Vern's emotions towards the car are not changed with the part. This new hubcap still containing the experiences of the old hubcap and the rest of the car then forges new experiences in the future. Even 20 years later, when every part has been replaced, when Vern looks at his Volvo, even with none of the parts actually physically been on that road trip with him, he still looks at it fondly and recalls that magical life changing road trip.
Through this reasoning, that means that all of the old parts in Grace's Garage cannot possibly be Vern's Volvo. This is because even if Grace puts the old parts back together it would not be the same. Yes, it has the experiences of the road trip that Vern took 20 years ago, but it does not have all of the experiences of the future that Vern had with the Volvo. For example, after the hubcap is replaced after the life changing road trip, Vern takes his girlfriend on a romantic drive to a scenic lookout point and proposes to her. The new hubcap that has inherited the experiences of the earlier life changing road trip now also has the experiences of the drive where Vern proposed to his present wife. The old hubcap, on the other hand has not experienced this and therefore, when Grace puts the car back together from the old parts it is not the Volvo that Vern looks fondly upon.
One might refute that since the parts were replaced over the course of 20 years why can't the old parts inherit experiences from the more recently replaced parts. This is true that when Grace puts the Volvo (with old parts) back together it will be Vern's Volvo up until the last replacement, but the Volvo that Vern will call his own is the one that he is driving in the past, present, and future. The Volvo that Vern was and always will drive is the one he looks upon fondly and recalls the life changing road trip and the romantic drive that led to his proposal.
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