When they first made their bumpy arrival on the American street scene in the early 1900s, automobiles were considered fussy toys for the rich and famous.
Their cost and impracticality made them inaccessible for the average American.
Henry Ford was first to understand that while most Americans couldn’t afford a car, virtually all of them wanted one.
His Model T brought the automobile to middle class citizens and was the beginning of America’s love affair with its cars. And Hollywood’s love of cars inspired Americans to stretch their wallets for the latest and greatest.
Ever since, the car culture has been a major niche for our nation.
According to statistics compiled by the Federal Highway Administration, Americans drove a collective 222 billion miles during a single month this year?
That’s a lot of time spent behind the wheel—enough to make roughly 800 round-trips to Mars.
It translates to about 727 miles traveled for every man, woman,and child in the country.
As you can see, we live in an automobile-oriented society: car culture is everywhere.
Can you really say that you don’t care about cars or that you are not a car lover on some level?
You may think that your interest in motorized vehicles is merely practical, but we’re all car nuts to some degree.
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America, meanwhile, isn’t a country. It’s a road. It’s one vast, endless squiggle of highway.
Up close, this road is perpetually splitting into smaller and shorter pathways, and finally these peter out into private driveways.
Viewed as a whole, though, America is a big snarl of asphalt. It’s a mess of meandering gray lines with white stripes running right down the middle.
We adore our cars, and road trips are crucial rites of passage for most Americans. At the same time, our moods tend to rise and fall with the price of gasoline.
All Americans, for that matter, are always on their way somewhere else.
Even our best literature—John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrathor Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (just to name a couple of popular 20th century works)—is generally about journeys.
Our favorite movies are about going somewhere and getting back.
And for car lovers, high-octane acceleration is the ultimate rush.
It is the perfect way to show off a “heavily-modified ride” and your skills behind the wheel.
“What I like best about driving is the sound of my car,” a young driver told me recently, “the feeling I get when I release the surging power under my foot, seeing heads turn as I drive past.”
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Rarely has a single object taken hold so quickly and recast the American lifestyle as completely as the automobile.
It enabled women to get out of the house, children to get off the farm, and everyone to get off their feet.
Even as critics take aim at the nation’s increasing dependence on the automobile and the dangers of the country determined to keep the vehicles moving, cars seem to always keep pace with buyers’ demands.
In fine, the car reconfigured family values and opened an endless stream of possibilities.
In the 1960s, it was the Sunday drive.
It may be hard for young adults to believe nowadays, but back when gas prices were low and car culture was at its height, families would get in their cars and go for no other reason than to be out together.
Sometimes the journey was the goal, with no destination in mind. And sometimes the driver was headed somewhere; those of us in the backseat just didn’t know it.
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Even today, car nuts cross all social and economic levels, reflecting the diversity of our society.
You probably know a car nut or may be one yourself.
America is a nation in love with the automobile. The last century belonged almost totally to the American auto. What the future holds for America’s car lovers in decades to come, we can’t say.
If the wheels come off the industry, we’ll find out somewhere down the road.
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Top o’ the morning!