esigns and safety features produced by the automobile industry had a direct relationship to American culture of that decade. As much as we define the types and kinds of cars manufactured in Detroit, so they define us. We see this in each decade as different cultural and social trends were mirrored in the style and design of automobiles, whether it was the stylish designs of the 1950s which emphasized gender roles and domesticity or the environmentally-friendly vehicles of the 1990s which focused on heightened consumer awareness of environmental issues. Regardless of the decade after World War II, cars in each decade were symbols of the culture in which they were made and to which they were sold:
Much of the discourse about the automobile in the 1950s has centered on the issues of gender and domesticity. The intervention of the fashion designer in creating auto interiors, the role of mom as chauffeur, the emergence of the family car and its trailer or home-like capacity to generate a complete environment of family values are critical matters of the decade of the 1950s. The image of style that fashion and the car propagated in the decade was a mutual one in which apparel and the car became indivisible, whether sports car or town car, high style of sportswear. In that compelling conjunction of car and clothing, there is an American dream of creation and consumption. Cars and clothing remain linked. In the 1990s, venerable Oldsmobile invited us to literally ‘wear a Ciera.’
To say the automobile industry impact on American culture has been great is to state only half of the equation in this mutual relationship. For American culture and social changes have just as greatly impacted the automobile industry, from a demand for safer and more environmentally friendly cars to a growing trend in consumers for more personalized options and features. However, this is not a new phenomenon when looking at American culture and the U.S...