Sholeh: Our ongoing 4-wheel love affair

Car culture in America is different. Beyond the obvious necessities, cars symbolize the roaming American lifestyle, a feeling of freedom and independence. For James Dean types, maybe a touch of wild rebellion. 

In other words, some have a real love affair with cars.

Lest you doubt it, check out Car d’Lane this weekend. Even if fumes and noise turn you off, the enthusiasm and excitement at this annual local favorite are simply infectious. It’s more than sleek lines and fancy paint jobs. More even than a reminder of youth. Those nostalgic old classics transport us to the idylls of earlier times.

Why are Americans so obsessed with cars? Given price rises since 2020, you’d think this affair would be waning. 

According to the Feb. 7 issue of Newsweek, both new and used car prices rose to record highs during the pandemic, thanks to supply chain disruptions and chip shortages. Since then, new and used car prices rose 30% and 38%, respectively. 

According to Kelley Blue Book, the average new car price topped $48,000 in April 2024, while used cars averaged around $25,500 (although predictions are they’re finally starting, and will continue to, fall).

Using Census data and a budget standard of 10% for average car expenses, Americans would need an annual income of $100,000 to afford one. That hasn’t stopped us. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, between 2018 and 2022 vehicle registrations increased by 3.5% (while the U.S. population increased by 2.17%, but that includes children).

Yes, in such a big country without a modern train system, we need cars for work, human connections and play. But that doesn’t fully explain the affection and psychology people attach to a machine, a simple tool. People, especially men, buy them in mid-life crises, after a breakup or when they want a boost. People collect more and buy more expensively than their needs require.

“Here comes 40. I'm feeling my age and I've ordered the Ferrari. I'm going to get the whole mid-life crisis package.” — Keanu Reeves

So it wasn’t surprising that when Men’s Health asked “why guys love cars,” the answers centered on feelings of masculinity: “They look cool.” “They make me feel sexy.” 

As the (male) writer described it, “They are fun and loud and empowering and dangerous at a time when society conspires to take those manly thrills away from us in a thousand subtle ways.”

A University of Minnesota study found men crave time behind the wheel because it feels like asserting masculinity through technology, in control of their own destiny (via destination, presumably). 

Some women also relate to feelings of power or control, but it remains predominantly a guy thing. A 2003 study from the United Kingdom noted that while men and women both enjoy psychosocial benefits from cars, including feelings of autonomy, protection and prestige, only men experience increases in self-esteem.

OK, but why personify them? Assign them gender or names? The Men’s Health article mentioned a study by Arizona State University psychologist Jameson Wetmore, who believes the impulse to humanize cars or talk to them (apparently, when alone some people talk to their cars because they’re “good listeners”) is an attempt to mediate technology which might otherwise baffle. Plus, cars don’t talk back like people do. As “listeners” they’re more like pets, but without the purr or sloppy kisses.

Another theory is that a car can be worked on and made near-perfect. It’s something we can control in a world where it’s easy to feel out of control.

So is a garden, and that’s a lot cheaper.

“I take the open road, healthy, free, the world before me.” — Walt Whitman

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Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network who’d prefer a horse and buggy. Horses are good listeners, too. Email sholeh@cdapress.com.