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They just don’t make cars like they use to. This line has been used by generations of car
enthusiasts as the ever evolving market of the automobile advances. Every few decades, it seems,
we reach a new stage in how we see our main form of transportation, the car, and with every new
dawn of the next big thing in automotive engineering it seems it draws a crowd of people who
dislike whatever is being engineered. Car culture in America cannot be described with one
group. There are many groups and teams of enthusiasts indulging in their passion for whatever
piece of machinery they call a car. From the new scene of imported Japanese sports cars to the
old scene of classics and hot rods, there always seems to be a disconnect in what enthusiasts have
a passion for. Men and women who enjoy classic muscle cars may argue that the fuel injection
systems that run through every modern car and every car since the 1980’s have ruined cars with
their dependence on computer systems. Similarly, young teenagers such as me, who enjoy
Japanese sports cars from the 1980’s-1990’s will say that electrical systems and traction control
have taken away from the driving experience. It seems that conflict is too common in car culture.
I have loved cars my entire life. I’ve dipped my feet into almost every pool of
mainstream car culture that is present near me and I see that one thing is very clear throughout all
groups of car enthusiasts. Cars are changing. This is obvious. They have been since their birth
over 100 years ago. But now I have the chance to dive into this life-long passion of mine and ask
some questions that I hope to answer. Mainly I wish to answer: How have advancements in
As cars and the technology that runs them change, so does the culture that surrounds
them. But that is nothing new; cars have been changing along with people since they were first
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created in 1885 by a man named Carl Benz. Benz invented the first official automobile in his
father's blacksmith shop “and in the fall of 1885 the world’s first practical automobile rolled into
the courtyard fronting the shop of Benz and Company in Mannheim” (Lomask). Benz would go
on to present his invention in 1888. This invention of his won highest honor in the Munich
Engineering Exposition of 1888, amazing crowds of people with this astonishing mechanical
creation. However when it went on sale in the following year, it did not sell. A creation that
would in later times change the way we move from place to place was nothing to the common
people: “Even the receipt of a gold medal at the Munich Engineering Exposition in September,
1888, along with lavish praise for his invention in the press brought no buyers. The only person
to order a Benz in Munich, Carl joked later, was ‘carted off to a lunatic asylum’ before the sale
could be concluded” (Lomask). Even as far back as the late 19th century people were resistant to
change. It is human nature to resist change, because “if it works why fix it?”. The majority men
and women of Germany when presented with the new option of transportation made by Benz,
thought that their horse and carriage would suffice. His original design could only seat two, and
with a very limited range it was not worth the common consumer. I should mention now, if it has
not been obvious, that Carl Benz would go on to form a partnership with a man named
A few decades later, in 1908, Henry Ford invented the Ford Model T. This car was a true
game changer. While Carl Benz invented the first car, Ford created the car for the people at a
time of mass change and adaptation. In turn, this made the Model T the foundation of all cars
that would follow. The difference of only a few decades between these two inventors was the
deciding factor of success. The world was not ready for the car in 1888; it was ahead of its time
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and too pricey for the average family. However, Ford found ways to make the car a tool for the
masses. According to Jennifer Goss, “The moving assembly line appeared to the onlooker to be
an endless contraption of chains and links that allowed Model T parts to swim through the sea of
the assembly process”(Goss). This in turn allowed the Model T to be priced affordably for the
people of America. With the actions of Ford, the automobile became a common thing a family
would own, a tool that people grew to use with necessity. Steven Stanford of the Henry Ford
Heritage Foundation writes that Ford constructed 15 million Model T’s during the 19 years they
were in production. By the end of that time, half the total cars on the streets throughout the world
were Model T’s. “Imagine today,” Stanford says, “if in every parking lot across the land half of
all the cars parked between the lines were Ford Fusions or Escapes! The Model T had a
tremendous impact on the way people live” (Stanford). Ford’s invention, along with the next new
cars that were released in the next few decades, sparked an enthusiastic following. You can find
people still caring for their original Model T with a passion. As with any new advancement, there
is a new group who flocks to the new, and an old group who sticks to what they have got.
Today when you would ask the common person what comes to mind when you hear
“gearhead” or “car nut”, they will probably think about young teenagers modifying their cars
beyond what came from the factory to change their appearance or make them faster. But how has
that image of a “gearhead” come about? Surely there had to have been a point in time when
people started taking stock cars and modifying them. Well it is hard to pinpoint a certain time
when this became a common practice for car enthusiasts. We could talk about early coach
building in the 1920’s where different companies would create beautiful and elegant bodys for
eccentric chassis of huge proportions. We could talk about the 1940’s where moonshine
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transporters modified their cars to outrun the police, giving birth to nascar. We could talk about
the 1960’s where car modification became a worldwide practice spreading through many
different cultures. I would say that car enthusiasts have been around since the beginning of cars
themselves. In an interview with Tony Hernandez, a young car enthusiast and owner of a Honda
Civic Type R, he stated “ Car enthusiasts make up a lot of different people with different taste in
cars, but we all have a passion for cars. I enjoy my Honda but that doesn’t mean someone who
likes old muscle cars has to like my car” (Hernandez). The true answer doesn’t have to be about
the stage in which we started to modify or race cars; the true answer lies with the car enthusiast.
The person that has a passion for cars beyond a means of transportation. And with this person
comes more people that share the same interests in cars and will express that through their
lifestyles and through their culture. This expression can be in the form of modification or in the
form of admiration. With different cultures and different age groups, comes the variety in car
I decided I needed to go and experience a gathering of car enthusiasts for myself to better
understand the variety of car cultures that I write about. I went online and in no time, found a
Cars and Coffee event in Richmond on March 3rd. I remember when I was a child my
grandfather would take me to some car shows for classic American cars. It had been a long time
since I have been to a car meet and I was very excited to go and see what was different. It was on
an early Saturday morning and my father and I left early enough to make it to the event by 8
o’clock in the morning. I slept the entire car ride there, but as soon as we arrived I was hopping
in my seat with excitement. There was already a large crowd of people and cars lining the
parking lot of this shopping center I had never been to before. We found some parking and set
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out on foot to go and explore the awesome variety of cars. There was everything from supercars,
to classic hot rods, and I loved it all. Even though the temperature outside was cold the
atmosphere of the people was warm. Everyone was talking to each other about their beloved
automobiles. There was separation, however in the form of organization. There was a place for
the high end sports cars and supercars, a place for classic American cars, a place for European
cars, and a place for Japanese cars. Most people mingled with people of similar taste in cars. My
father and I spent 3 hours walking around and talking to complete strangers about their cars and
the cars that they like. I went home with a new perspective of the way car enthusiasts view each
other. It seems that car enthusiasts all share a passion for cars yet most car enthusiasts of
The change that we see in car culture comes from the change in the cars that we drive.
However the cars that car enthusiasts want to drive are overlooked by major car companies most
of the time simply because car enthusiasts make up a small percentage of consumers of
automobiles in the market. Naturaly, car companies will listen to what the majority of consumers
want for their survival. According to Mary Barra, “In the auto industry, the revolution is being
driven by the convergence of connectivity, electrification and changing customer needs” (Barra).
In the automotive market, the consumer dictates where the market is going, and not necessarily
enthusiasts. Car companies around the world are switching to smarter and cleaner means of how
their car works. A common complaint among the car community is that the manual transmission
is a dying breed. It is not the performance of the manual transmission that is killing it off, it is the
common consumer demanding new and better ways of shifting gears, prompting car producers to
create “less engaging” parts such as automatic transmissions. We can find evidence of this in
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auto shows: “Visitors to the upcoming Los Angeles Auto Show will see supercars, hoverboards,
self-propelling luggage and all manner of new transportation options. But they’ll be hard pressed
to find a clutch pedal or a stick shift. Available in nearly half of new models in the U.S. a decade
ago, the manual transmission is going the way of the rumble seat, with stick availability falling to
about a quarter this year. Less than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions”
(Fleming). It is up to the consumer to make the change that we will use in our lives. If everyone
decided that they would only drive a manual transmission, then auto makers would only make
manual transmission cars. Fleming writes, “But as automakers perfected the automatic
transmission, and learned to make it less expensive and more dependable, drivers became
accustomed to the relative ease of leaving the shifting to the car” (Fleming). In the majority of
today's car culture, car enthusiasts stand by the manual transmission as the “true driving
experience” or the “best way to feel a car”. But sadly our wants are triumphed by the consumers
needs.
As I mentioned before in this paper, people are resistant to change, and not just in cars.
Maybe people are scared of the unknown, or maybe people don’t want to give up a good thing.
As my mentor Nick Talerico, a life long car enthusiast and owner of a classic Camaro put it
during an interview, “With time and the price of gas, that has forced many kids to go with
smaller engines and more intelligent engines, apparently, they are separating from the real cars to
be enthusiastic about; the ones with V8’s” (Talerico). Talerico is not a fan of modern cars
because in his words they lack the spirit and passion of the old muscle cars of his era. This
conflict between old and new generations creates a wide variety of followings. Every car
enthusiast has their own taste in the car they drive. In recent years, electric cars have become
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more prevalent and car enthusiasts complain that they don’t make noise, they take too long to
charge, and they cost too much. But who knows what future generations of car enthusiasts will
like? In time electric cars could become mainstream and the cars we call modern today will be
for older car enthusiasts like Talerico. However for now electric cars as a technology is still
brand new and expensive, most of the time too expensive for the majority. Does this sound
familiar? When Carl Benz created his automobile it brought the proposal for a lot of change.
However due to price and availability issues it didn’t catch on right away. This might be the very
same case with electric powered cars. With a demand for cars to be cleaner and more
economical, the electric car becomes more of an option. As time passes and technology
advances, the price and availability of electric powered cars might make it far more mainstream.
As with any change, there will be resistance though. This is bad news for the car enthusiast,
because soon their wonderful V12 powered classic Ferrari will become a fossil of the past and
far too unreasonable to run on the roads. You don’t see many Model T’s driving around anymore
because they have been long passed up and are now obsolete pieces of technology. Andy Jensen
states, “Hot rodders and horsepower enthusiasts tend to have a dismal opinion of electric cars.
Once accurately described as slow tin cans, today’s electric cars are the future of the muscle car
and the hot rodding hobby” (Jensen). An even bigger threat to today’s car enthusiast may be the
autonomous car. The invention of things such as self-driving cars threaten the very existence of
cars as we know them. As car journalist Doug DeMuro put it, “Car culture has developed around
a society that essentially needs automobiles in order to go anywhere. Some of us happen to enjoy
the ‘going anywhere’ process a little more than others of us, … But car enthusiasm will surely
take a hit, right? Once we can sit back and install a home gym in our automobiles rather than
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drive them, we won’t care about cars anymore. Right?” (DeMuro) Wrong, thinks DeMuro. He
goes on to say that ,“car enthusiasts will continue to exist, much like horse enthusiasts continue
to exist today”(DeMuro). People who need to travel and are only concerned about the most
reliable way to get where they need to be will most likely choose a car. That is a majority
decision. When there were only horses people would need horses to travel. What kept horseback
riding from dying off as cars became the main form transportation? The enthusiast. It is up to the
car enthusiast to practice the passion and expression of cars through their culture.
Instead of looking down on the improvements that car enthusiasts face, sometimes we
have to realize that they can better us. Either for safety or for speed, new technology will grant us
these things. Inventions of the past that are now common in nearly every modern car were at
some point looked down upon. Disk brakes, power steering, fuel injection, cruise control, etc.
These are only some of many that have changed and in many ways bettered the cars that we have
a passion for today. I was not around for many of these changes, but I can assure you there were
a lot of people who were resistant to these changes when they came out. Right now as an
optimistic teenager awaiting what the future will bring for me as a car enthusiast, I know that one
day I might stop looking forward and start feeling pleased with what we have. At one point or
another a lot of us will feel the same way, even if you are not a car enthusiast. At that point we
become the generation that is unpleased with newer generations enjoying their electric cars. It’s
almost like the circle of ever advancing life. It is not wrong to resist change, in fact sometimes
it’s important to resist change to keep old hobbies alive. And sometimes it is our resistance that
helps further innovations. That is the whole principal of research and development. Let’s use
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automotive racing as an example. Racing and motorsport can be a proving ground for new
technology. A lot of the times, that new technology can make its way into the cars that we drive
on the road. As John Huffman put it, “Racing is where new concepts and technology can be
proven and stressed to the breaking point long before production lines are established. And it’s
where crowds grow hungry for the future speeding by in front of them” (Huffman).
Car culture and the technology that drives many cultures and their cars is changing. It
always has been and it always will. The advancements in technology has not only affected car
culture greatly, it has created it and diversity among car culture. The passion to love cars will be
handed down through generations and the technology that follows will change. New followings
will arise and old ones will become outdated. I grew up around Japanese sports cars with my
friends showing some of the first racing games featuring these cool new futuristic cars. I grew up
to love these carsand I will always hold a place for them in my heart, much like my father will
always hold classic American muscle cars in his heart because he grew up around those types of
cars. And much like his father loved classic French cars, it will always be a generational thing.
Because of my family's interest in cars I will also hold a place for American muscle cars and
French classics, and it is up to my children to decide what new type of car they will hold near
and dear but I have no idea what my children will decide to like. Electric cars might be the next
cool thing for teenagers and I will seem like the old buffoon who thinks their interests are stupid.
Maybe my children won’t even consider cars as a thing to have a passion for. Technology has
and always will change the cars that we drive and maybe the cultures that follow, but they can’t
take away what it means to be a car enthusiast. Because that applies to whatever may lie ahead
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for the automobile. So bring on the electric cars and driving assistants because while I may not
like what they bring, I along with future generations will not shun what the future brings.
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Works Cited
Online Sources
Barra, Mary, and General Motors LLC. “The next revolution in the auto industry.” World
revolution-in-the-car-industry/.
DeMuro, Doug. “Will Autonomous Cars Kill Car Culture?” Autotrader, Dec. 2016,
www.autotrader.com/car-news/will-autonomous-cars-kill-car-culture-260156.
Fleming, Charles. “The disappearing stick shift: Less than 3% of cars sold in the U.S.
have manual transmissions.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 15 Nov. 2016,
www.latimes.com/business/autos/laautoshow/la-fi-hy-disappearing-stick-shift-
20161115-story.html.
Huffman, John Pearley. “How Racing Technology Changed the Cars We Drive.” Men's Journal,
we-drive-20150528/1911-marmon-wasp-the-rearview-mirror/.
Jensen, Andy. “5 Tire Maintenance Tips for Summer Road Trips.” Advance Auto Parts, 12
electric-cars.
Lomask, Milton. Invention and Technology. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1991.
Carl Benz
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Stanford, Steven C. “Henry Ford - An Impact Felt.” Henry Ford Heritage Association,
hfha.org/the-ford-story/henry-ford-an-impact-felt/.
Interview Sources
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