Cars as Material Culture

Material culture is durable in that the material produced by a culture more often than not outlasts the particular era of cultural expression that produced it. Cars tend to reflect this in the mythology surrounding the design and production of vehicles. Design stylings of cars, with noted exceptions, adhere to trends based on the era of their production. In the '60s, family sedans and wagons were massive and "boatlike" with all the handling of a mattress. Fuel economy was abysmal with some models reaching as low as 6 miles to the gallon. In the 70s, the Arab Oil crisis fundamentally changed the face of consumer demand; now more and more cars were small, cheap Japanese imports. They were light yet durable and American manufacturers attempted to ape this styling throughout the 80s. In order to meet national fuel standards, manufacturers of the 70s choked their engines. By the 80s, cars attempted to adopt "futurist" aesthetics and the new technology of fuel injection. The 90s saw the white American family trade in station wagons for minivans; by the 2010s, those were replaced with extended cab trucks.