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American Car Culture. Does It Even Exist Any More?

Nov 28, 2010
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Back when I was a kid, America lusted over cars - mostly American cars, but the occasional foreign oddball, too.

When we kids got older and got our first used car, we often customized them. Removing excess chrome, nifty paint jobs, hot-rodded engines, glass packs, fender skirts....

Here's a short video of one of the more desired cars of my youth. Two red versions of the same model. About halfway through when it switches to the 2nd one, those of you who don't know what a fender skirt is will catch a glimpse.

 
There will always be people into old hot rods, pin-up girls and rockabilly music.
there are a bunch here in austin and these brothers who live near me had a tv show, and a garage, and a bbq joint. the tv show went bye bye. but the bbq joint is still there. and i drive by their house a lot and they still get cars all the time
 
I had to hunt down dates and locations on FB this summer, but a lot of small towns still had car shows this summer (some bigger ones were cancelled) along with a fair amount of cruises.

I think there was a nice bump this year due to the virus - brought back the drive in movie for example

Sadly, at most of the events I went to, the cars being shown were owned by people a fair amount older than me (50).

There's always a few newer cars owned by younger people but it was a pretty low percentage.

However, the last 25-30 years has been a golden age of powerful, good looking cars.

I think there will always be the shows & cruises, and hopefully enough people younger than me will get hooked due to this summer and will enjoy and respect these new 'classics' for the many decades to come like kids of the 50s thru 70's did.
 
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I had to hunt down dates and locations on FB this summer, but a lot of small towns still had car shows this summer (some bigger ones were cancelled) along with a fair amount of cruises.

I think there was a nice bump this year due to the virus - brought back the drive in movie for example

Sadly, at most of the events I went to, the cars being shown were owned by people a fair amount older than me (50).

There's always a few newer cars owned by younger people but it was a pretty low percentage.

However, the last 25-30 years has golden age of powerful, good looking cars.

I think there will always be the shows & cruises, and hopefully enough people younger than me will get hooked due to this summer and will enjoy and respect these new 'classics' for the many decades to come like kids of the 50s thru 70's did.
the younger guys are into drifter cars or hot rod japanese stuff.

also resto mods are cool now. the trend to do resto mods on older cars is kind of concerning to me. they ruin the integrity of the original factory stuff and make it all new with fuel injection and high horsepower crate engines. then they sometimes "murder it out" by making it all flat black and removing chrome and putting 20 inch wheels when it should have 15. I am a purist. I like original factory stuff. I blame fast and furious movies for these latest trends.
 
That’s something I’ve never gotten into. To me it’s merely a tool to move people and things.
I have been into it since like age 5 or 6 . starting with my matchbox and hot wheels cars and slot cars and going into the grandma's garage to marvel at her impala convertible as a teen. to of course having cars in high school. to this day i haul tires to mechanics and auto parts and the wife makes computer chips for high dollar bmw and mercedes and german stuff. used to be she made chips for ford. kind of like cars run my life.

just this week i was junkyarding hoping to replace a leaking tube for a trans cooler on my minivan, but it was only a hose spraying on the metal tube. an opitical illusion. after i had "willy the parts puller" pull the tube off a junkyard car for 40 bucks. oh well.
 
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Last year I visited my Aunt and Uncle who still have my Nana's 55 Chevy, in that desired turquoise and white color. I can remember as a little girl when she bought it, and what she paid for it. She had the seats covered in the clear plastic "to keep it nice", which it did, by the way.
I love classic cars and here in Florida, as you can imagine, we have lots of retired Boomers who have become hobbyists and who love to do shows and "cruises". We have folks who come to Florida to participate in the shows. My sister and I met a Boomer from Maryland (not Esiason LOL) who was doing a whole circuit, pulling a trailer full of classic Corvettes.
We've been to several shows around North Florida. It's a fun group of people our age...nothing wrong with flirting with older guys, especially if they flirt back. ;)
 
Today’s youth is definitely far less interested in cars and driving than Boomers. For the most part, it’s just a tool that serves a utilitarian purpose, and nothing more.

When I see any kind of exotic car on the road it is invariably a Boomer behind the wheel. To the extent that any young people are into their vehicles it’s mostly rural males with jacked up pickups.
 
Last year I visited my Aunt and Uncle who still have my Nana's 55 Chevy, in that desired turquoise and white color. I can remember as a little girl when she bought it, and what she paid for it. She had the seats covered in the clear plastic "to keep it nice", which it did, by the way.
I love classic cars and here in Florida, as you can imagine, we have lots of retired Boomers who have become hobbyists and who love to do shows and "cruises". We have folks who come to Florida to participate in the shows. My sister and I met a Boomer from Maryland (not Esiason LOL) who was doing a whole circuit, pulling a trailer full of classic Corvettes.
We've been to several shows around North Florida. It's a fun group of people our age...nothing wrong with flirting with older guys, especially if they flirt back. ;)
my 73 merc came from san angelo texas and it had those clear plastic things on the seat, but what happens here in TX those plastic things become yellow and burnt looking and brittle and they disintegrate and crack if the car is outside. this car was outside in the heat and weather. then the seats get destroyed underneath of them. then the plastic holds in the moisture or mold or whatever is destroying the seats. it's a mess. taking that crap off after it has been melted and burned to the seat, is very tough.
 
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It’s mostly because cars aren’t that big of a deal anymore. Everyone seemingly has multiple vehicles. Hell, my 13 year old has one and he can’t even drive yet.
 
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The sounds outside my window on First Ave in Cedar Rapids every night tells me there is still something of a car culture. Sucks when it is nice out and I have to keep the windows shut just because some assholes like showing me how loud they can make their car
 
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all you gotta do is go to a big swap meet and see that it is a big deal. prior to covid. I bet it comes back in full force.
 
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Today’s youth is definitely far less interested in cars and driving than Boomers. For the most part, it’s just a tool that serves a utilitarian purpose, and nothing more.

When I see any kind of exotic car on the road it is invariably a Boomer behind the wheel. To the extent that any young people are into their vehicles it’s mostly rural males with jacked up pickups.

I had a small period where I was into cars as a teen. I was able to snag a 78 Monte Carlo Landau for 1500 that looked decent and was driveable. I don't think that market really exists anymore. 70s Monte Carlos certainly cost a lot more and I'm not sure that a 16 or 17 year old would buy in that price range that doesnt have over 200k miles, and rust, on top of just being a 90s or 2000s car. Plus the older cars were a good deal simpler to work on, and easier to dress up the engine on.

Seems like a lot of cars from to 80s-90s disenigrated away, and I am guessing cash for clunkers took a chunk out too.
 
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A stock Model X SUV can take a McLaren F1 off the line. There are like a hundred guys in the world that can drive a modern 911 turbo to its peak. It costs $30k an hour to track a hyper-car. On the high end, people don’t have the skill or resources to play.

Car culture has shifted. Where I am it’s all over-landing and off-roading. There are plenty of $100k Jeeps. I see more Rubicons than Jeep Sports. There are also tons of guys who do track days, hill climbs, or auto-cross with Mazda MX5s.
 
A stock Model X SUV can take a McLaren F1 off the line. There are like a hundred guys in the world that can drive a modern 911 to its peak. It costs $30k an hour to track a hypercar.

Car culture has shifted. Where I am it’s all over-landing and off-roading. There are plenty of $100k Jeeps. I see more Rubicons than Jeep Sports.

When you turn 16 in Bettendorf IA you are awarded a Jeep Wrangler. This place is crawling with Jeeps that haven't seen gravel road.
 
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The cars of the 1950's and 1960's became classics as they
aged with dignity. Today, in 2020, most folks sees cars as
a means of transportation and not a family heirloom.
 
When you turn 16 in Bettendorf IA you are awarded a Jeep Wrangler. This place is crawling with Jeeps that haven't seen gravel road.
I never cared for jeeps. never gave them a second look. until i started watching this dude. makes me want to investigate jeeps.

 
I had a small period where I was into cars as a teen. I was able to snag a 78 Monte Carlo Landau for 1500 that looked decent and was driveable. I don't think that market really exists anymore. 70s Monte Carlos certainly cost a lot more and I'm not sure that a 16 or 17 year old would buy in that price range that doesnt have over 200k miles, and rust, on top of just being a 90s or 2000s car. Plus the older cars were a good deal simpler to work on, and easier to dress up the engine on.

Seems like a lot of cars from to 80s-90s disenigrated away, and I am guessing cash for clunkers took a chunk out too.
those cars have about doubled in price to about 3 grand now in decent shape. maybe 2500. there is a huge fanbase of those monte and mainly the buicks because of the grand national in that body style and the t-type. and of course the cutlass which is out of buisness and the grand prix out of business. so the 1978-1989 or so body style is collectible a little. especially with t tops. and a v8. the v6 is not so much.
 
those cars have about doubled in price to about 3 grand now in decent shape. maybe 2500. there is a huge fanbase of those monte and mainly the buicks because of the grand national in that body style and the t-type. and of course the cutlass which is out of buisness and the grand prix out of business. so the 1978-1989 or so body style is collectible a little. especially with t tops. and a v8. the v6 is not so much.

The ones I see up here are significantly more than 3k, and I dont see them often. Eventually I'll get another 70s Monte or an 80s Grand Marquis or Crown. A Grand National would be awesome but I am guessing they are expensive as hell now.
 
The ones I see up here are significantly more than 3k, and I dont see them often. Eventually I'll get another 70s Monte or an 80s Grand Marquis or Crown. A Grand National would be awesome but I am guessing they are expensive as hell now.
grand nationals go for like 15-30 k depending upon niceness and low miles

the crown vics and marquis go for cheap here. I passed on one the other day for $500 but it was beat. it was like a 1985 . there is one in a front yard of a house for sale near me need to see if it's gotta go when the house goes. it looks like a 1983. all two toned brown and copper.
 
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grand nationals go for like 15-30 k depending upon niceness and low miles

the crown vics and marquis go for cheap here. I passed on one the other day for $500 but it was beat. it was like a 1985 . there is one in a front yard of a house for sale near me need to see if it's gotta go when the house goes. it looks like a 1983. all two toned brown and copper.


They are fairly cheap here too. Eventually the right one will pop up and I'll snag it. They ride like a dream.
 
Today’s youth is definitely far less interested in cars and driving than Boomers. For the most part, it’s just a tool that serves a utilitarian purpose, and nothing more.

When I see any kind of exotic car on the road it is invariably a Boomer behind the wheel. To the extent that any young people are into their vehicles it’s mostly rural males with jacked up pickups.
When I saw the thread title this is the first thought that came to my mind as well. I agree that to a certain extent this type of culture still exists with trucks. There are lots of people that do after-market modifications on their trucks (lift kits, bigger tires, meaner looking grilles and bumpers, etc). I live in Denver and see quite a bit of it in the suburbs down here so it’s not just a rural thing necessarily, although obviously in downtown areas you wouldn’t see it because jacked up trucks wouldn’t fit in most of the parking spaces or parking garages downtown.
 
Cars are all the same snice the 90s. They do last longer, though. I drove a 12 year old car in HS and I was mortified. Lots of POSs, but NO ONE else drove a car anywhere near that old. (Not old enough and too beat up to be a "classic", of course)

Car odometers only went to 99k. Now my 2007 Silverado has 240k on it, and I would drive it across the country without too many worries.
 
Only pereipherally related, but I stumbled across an article a while back talking about different vehicle preferences across different geographic and demographic groups. I've forgotten most of it but I remember that the top choices among Native Americans were listed as pickup trucks and Buicks. Buicks? Go figure.
 
I've never cared about cars. Point A to point B. I prefer my car to look bland and whatever so it doesn't get broken into or draw attention in public. Much prefer stealth look to wealth look.
 
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The last real youth thing I can remember with vehicles would have been rappers love affairs with SUVs and tiny imported sports cars in the early 2000s. Now rap is about depression and Xanax.
 
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