Car Ownership

• Post-War Economic Boom:

  • People had more job security and more money to spend on cars.
  • 1955- $7.9 million new cars were manufactured.
• Growing Car Ownership changed the American Lifestyle:

  Spacious New Cars:

  • automatic transmissions
  • power steering
  • power engines
  • radio
  • heaters
  • air conditioning
• Growing Car Ownership changed the American Lifestyle:

  Demonstrated ones status and promised mobility and freedom-

  • long
  • multi-coloured
  • decorated with large qualities of chrome and ostentatious tail-fins- made by - General Motors, Ford and Chrysler
• Car Ownership:

  Due to the Nations unprecedented prosperity car ownership rocketed from:

  • 39.3 million in 1950
  • 73.8 million in 1960
• Republican President- Eisenhower- Interstate Highway System Act 1955:


  • Provided $26 billion to create a nationally integrated system of highways:
  • This gave stimulus to construction and the car industry- Their purpose was to help the rapid movement of troops and military equipment.
  • 41,000 miles of interstate highways that opened up the continent to travel and changed American society and culture.
• Automobiles reflected and shaped us life and indicated social and ethnic status and gave young people and women a greater sense of freedom, created a new on the road culture that led to explosive growth in industries and contributed to the suburban growth and urban decline.
• Automobiles


  • Helped reflect and define one's social status
• White Men


  • Most expensive and spacious models- Lincolns & Cadillac's
• Middle & Working Class

  • Fords & Chevrolet's
• Poorer Hispanic Americans


  • Cheap second hand Chevy's
• Black Middle Class


  • Cadillac's became a desirable status symbol- 1960's
• Young People


  • Independence and to escape from parental control- cars became an important part of dating
  • Young men expressed their individuality by customising their cars in order to emphasis speed and style
• Women


  • Freedom- growth in service industries & contributed to the suburban growth & urban decline (shopping malls) but automobile designed for women reflected traditional attitudes- 1955 Dodge La Femme came with a matching lipstick and shoulder bag
• On the Road Culture

  Made life easier:

  • Go places faster  and more comfortably 
  • Obtain Fast Food 
  • Watch Movies 
  • Attend Church from the comfort of their car
  • Holiday Inns & Motels- cheap accommodation and fast food- First Holiday Inn- Memphis and by 1960 there were 228 McDonald's
  • Roadside motels & restaurants created tens of thousands of jobs in the service industries and changed the landscape large areas of rural America ( covered in roads, adjacent motels, restaurants, stores, huge parking lots, neon signs and advertisements)
• Automobiles and on the road culture

  • Had a dramatic impact on an American economy and workforce
• Impact of automobiles and on the road culture

  • Go places faster and more comfortably
  • Obtain Fast Food
  • Watch Movies
  • Attend Church
  • Holiday Inns & Motels
• An increasingly large proportion of Americans employed in service industries & office based work
• Number of white collar workers had grown from 21.2 million


  1950
• Number of white collar workers had grown to 27.2 million


  1960
• There were 7.6 million service workers


  1960
• A large proportion of American workers were blue collar workers- New technology left the American economy less dependent upon heavy manual labour in factories and mines in the 1950's
• 34.8 million service workers outnumbered the 25.6 million manual workers


  1960
• Fall in manufacturing jobs led to the economically depressed areas in the old industrial heartland of the Midwest and Northeast
• Urbanisation


  • Automobile enabled people to move from the cities into spacious homes in the suburbs that were within an easy drive of work
  • Those who could not afford to move out- cities lost their tax base and deteriorated