Social Impact of Cars in the USA

For some, the subject of cars has always been an emotive one. While they may be mere machines, they have always seemed greater than the sum of their parts. Ever since they first came around about 130 years ago, cars have been objects of desire and aspiration. One of the reasons for this, as Henry Ford put it, was that cars helped people get over the limits set upon them by geography.

The origins of the automobile date back to 1886, when the Benz Patent-Motorwagen was produced by Karl Benz in Germany. This was the first contraption that followed the general layout of the car as we know it today. In the early days of the car, from the late 19^th to the early 20^th centuries, they were accessible only to the rich. Many people dismissed it as a passing fad and thought it would never really catch on. Car manufacturing was a strictly small scale, artisan industry then. Some of the more bizarre thoughts going around at the time were that car production would be limited by our ability to train chauffeurs and a limited supply of leather for the interiors.

The first concerted effort to bring the car to the masses was by Henry Ford of the Ford Motor Company in the USA. Although this company had been around since 1903, they had been manufacturing automobiles on a small scale like everyone else. In only 1908 did Ford come up with the Ford Model T. Although this was not the first car to be mass produced on an assembly line, that was the Oldsmobile Curved Dash of 1901, it was the first that made mass production a viable form of car-making. The Model T was cheap and simple to operate while being very versatile. This has helped make it the 8th most sold car till date. He priced the car in a way that the factory workers making the cars could themselves buy one. He used interchangeable parts, a skilled workforce and kept the design as simple as possible. There were no colour options apart from black and almost no changes were made to the design till 1927 when production ceased. This last fact eventually backfired as competitors like Chevrolet came up with cars which improved on Model T strength making it start to look irrelevant.

However, more important than the commercial success of the Model T, is the social impact it had on American society as a whole. Now, suddenly, cars were accessible to the American middle-class who saw that they were good. Distances were considerably shortened and daily life was more efficient. This was the first car the truly paved the way for cars to become an indelible part of American culture even though this was a purely commercial and not a social initiative to begin with.

After this, the proliferation of the car as a social tool was fairly limited till the late 1940s. This was because of the two World Wars and the Great Depression. During the wars all of the countries’ resources were directed to the war effort as such the supply of cars remained stagnant whereas during the Depression it was only the luxury car makers like Dusenberg, Packard, etc. which saw any substantial sales.

It is after the Second World War that we come to the generation of the Baby-Boomers. This term is used to describe people born roughly between 1946 and 1964. This was the generation which was most prolific in the adoption of the car as a social tool. There were a lot of factors that led to this happening. These were the development of a vast and efficient interstate highway system in 1956 by the Eisenhower government. There was a positive and vibrant social and economic sentiment all around, American had just won the most brutal war in history and emerged as the only true superpower. There was a thriving middle class who were not afraid to lead the good life.

Cadillac Eldorado
Credits: Boldride

In all of this the car played a very important role. Cars of the time like the Chevrolet Bel-Air, Lincoln Continental, Cadillac Eldorado, etc. reflected this sentiment. They were big, bold and not afraid to be flashy. Over time they have somehow become a reflection of this time as these cars helped the American public fulfill all their desires. Automobile were the most convenient means to express this considering the fact that they were relatively cheap and generally of a respectable standard.

Very soon families had 2-3 cars. Teenagers took their first steps towards adulthood by getting their own car. Families created memories by going on road trips along the interstates while thrill-seekers satiated their urges on the NASCAR racetracks. This type of racing originated in the Prohibition era of the 1930s when bootleggers spruced up their cars to escape being caught. Eventually when prohibition ended, these cars were used for races.

Ever since then, the importance of cars in American culture cannot be downplayed, they have always been a proxy for the social sentiment of the time. This can be seen when in the late 1960s muscle cars like the Ford Mustang, dodge Challenger, Chevrolet Camaro, etc. depicted through there high power engines the US might in Cold War era. Then in the 70s when the oil crisis struck, Americans quickly shifted to small, efficient Japanese cars which was something of a reality check after the heady days of the post war era. But again, the Americans whole-heartedly accepted this and Japanese cars now regularly outsell American cars in the US and have become a big part of US car-culture with the after-market modifications becoming a thriving industry.

There was also the extravagant SUV craze of the 90s and the more eco-conscious hybrid era of the 2000s, but through all of this it is fairly evident that once Americans were introduced to the idea of the car, there was no looking back. The car has become an outlet of sorts of the social sentiment of any given time and looks set to be that way for the foreseeable future.