http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/15/living/teenagers-1960s-cars-irpt/index.html
If it does, any hint of a feeling that it would have been cool to experience has died. The article makes it seem like it was all about exclusivity, which I'm sure was great for the people who had cars, but it was at the expense of all those who didn't.
My father is in his 70s. He had a car. A '50 chevy in '56. It cost $25 and didn't run. He and his friends put a junkyard '49 Dodge truck motor in it and spent their days at the Pocono Drag Lodge breaking it. He still spends hours every day putzing around the garage working on his car.
I'm pretty sure things were mostly just like they are now. Some guys play with cars - some just acquire 'em.
EDIT: For a "better" version of 1960's car culture google "Watkins Glen The Bog" 
"Back then those who had cars were gods among people," Anderson says. "There was a lot of envy and admiration for those who had cars. People gravitated to those who had cars, and you'd want a car to have that status."
They're kind of overstating the case, but yes - if you were a teenager, it was a big deal to have your own car back then. Most kids didn't, and if they were lucky they got to use Dad's car on Saturday night; of the kids who did have cars, most of them were $500 beaters (or less - I paid $70 for my first car); and then there were only a few who could by one means or another afford cool cars like GTOs or Camaros.
That doesn't necessarily mean all the kids with the cool cars were cool themselves...at least in my home town, half of those guys were jerks. 
They also forgot to mention that the mfgs and dealers gave half-a-E36 M3 about selling their product.
The new model would be hyped up like crazy, dealerships papered up the windows for a couple days before so they could have the big unveiling.
It was a family event, free hotdogs, bring the kids, come see the brand new Oldsmobiles!
Now, we get "hey, we're making the Camaro again. It'll be here in three years and we'll revise it and talk about it so much that no-one will even care when it finally gets here"
The concept cars and new ideas were so far ahead of their time, look at GM's Firebird I, II and III, the future was going to be awesome.
Now, the future is just a slightly larger jellybean that removes the driver from the experience even more than before.
That sounds a lot more like the '50s to me, rather than the '60s.
I have mixed feelings about this. Yes, I do think it was different then, and yet, not different at the same time. Some kids really wanted cars, and some parents were able to provide that, or you worked for it. Today is the same. However, I do think when you got a car then, maybe it was appreciated it more, for some. What I see now is that some kids view it as a burden, my nephew among them. Instead of really wanting a car and working for it, when my brother offered to help him get one, he basically said no. He wanted a new iphone instead and not the expense of a car. He had no interest. I wanted to smack him.
Now, 3 years later and in college, he has one, but rarely drives it and doesn't care about it at all. Not many of his friends have cars either. They just aren't important.
I don't remember anyone with attitudes like that. Even if you didn't really like cars, you still wanted one to be "free" and mobile. You simply picked up a station wagon instead of a Chevelle.
racerdave600 wrote: I don't remember anyone with attitudes like that. Even if you didn't really like cars, you still wanted one to be "free" and mobile. You simply picked up a station wagon instead of a Chevelle.
Hell, it was like this in the 90's when I was in highschool. It didn't matter if you liked cars or not, or whatever click you hung out with, the first one with a car out of your friends made you king. It didn't matter if it was a 65 Mustang or an 89 Accord. In my case, I was the first and it was a 74 Beetle. We treated it like a clown car, stuff as many of us in as possible.
GameboyRMH wrote: http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/15/living/teenagers-1960s-cars-irpt/index.html If it does, any hint of a feeling that it would have been cool to experience has died. The article makes it seem like it was all about exclusivity, which I'm sure was great for the people who had cars, but it was at the expense of all those who didn't.
Since neither you nor the author "grew-up" during the 60's, your reactions are worth exactly - squat. Jareen Imam wrote that pos article to advance a narrative and you're both naïve enough to believe it.
That piece smells like a ten-years-old "journalist" dissected 9/11/2001 with the perspective of one who is ten years old.
This just in, all history older than oldest historian deemed worthless, thousands of years of events called into question! 
My dad and I used to talk about his teen years all the time, in early WWII he bought a 1928 Chevrolet for $25. He said he and all of his buddies had cheap hoopties like that, it wasn't anything unusual.
In the early 1970's when I was in middle school at least 75% of the people in my high school had cars, usually older stuff. My first car was a 1965 Falcon that I bought for $225.00. I damn sure wasn't a god.
I'm going to guess that was pretty much the story nationwide at the time.
I remember the first guy in our crew to get his licensee. The car was an 84 Diesel Escort wagon with 254,000 on it. Total crap, and we loved it. That guy was king for months.
I remember the first guy in our crew to get his license in 94. The car was an 84 Diesel Escort wagon with 254,000 on it. Total crap, and we loved it. That guy was king for months.
GameboyRMH wrote: This just in, all history older than oldest historian deemed worthless, thousands of years of events called into question!
BS...
Historical facts are - facts. Attempts to interpret the motivations or circumstances of those whose actions created those facts are mutable.
I'm not questioning the "facts" as presented in the article. I'm questioning the rationale of applying the "2014 wisdom" of someone two-generations removed and using it to promote a narrative.
Even in the 80s society was a lot less safety conscious. No one thought twice about driving a car without seatbelts, or even seats that were bolted down! Truly crappy cars were everywhere-- they broke down-- and you fixed them with wire hangars, duct tape, cut-up aluminum cans, and whatever else you could find easily. I had a car at 16, that I paid $350 for. Most of my buddies had similar crappy cars--- although one of my friends was a spoiled kid--- his folks bought him an 1983 Starion Turbo. (this was 1986) Before you guys get excited--- although nearly new, his Starion was a horrible POS, and not fast...at all. It did have groovy digital instruments though! 
These days parents are so overprotective they won't let their kids drive anything without 14 air bags, abs, etc.
More importantly back then a car was a place to fool around with your girlfriend. Drive-in movies were popular, outdoor parties common, and the car was a ticket to freedom--- and a hope that you may get laid at some point.
These days I have no idea. I guess kids are so involved with gaming, and cyber interactions that they have no desire for real human interaction. They'd rather text their buddies than hang out with them-- or hang out on message boards. Hey...wait a minute!
it's a strange new world.
So...is the graphic novel "The Surrogates" now historical?
Joe Gearin wrote: These days I have no idea. I guess kids are so involved with gaming, and cyber interactions that they have no desire for real human interaction. They'd rather text their buddies than hang out with them-- or hang out on message boards. Hey...wait a minute! it's a strange new world.
I find it really depends on what area of the country you are from.
It also (imo) isn't even about whether people want to drive or not. Parents are the problem. I've never saw so many kids, so OLD, chaufered around by their parents. As soon as I was old enough to drive, not only did I want to drive, but my parents said "You're 16, you want to go places, get there yourself". Which is fair. They are my parents, not my friends or my servants, they have lives too.
I was first in my group to get a car. I had been working since I was 12 and the day I turned 16 I bought a 78 Camaro with the motor from a '71 Z28. Later that summer I picked up my Porsche still had the Camaro. At my school I was king. Even the older kids knew who I was. When I left for college ran into a guy that ha been a couple years ahead of me come up to me and remembered me from high school. Damn near everyone in my class got a car and wanted one. Heck even the dorkiest guy in class got a car I think it was an old LTD.
In reply to Joe Gearin:
My dad had a 1968 "98" 2-door that had separate lap belts from the shoulder belts. The shoulder belts had a chrome loop tp hold them on the ceiling and if you played with them the chrome tongue part would rattle on the chrome inside ceiling trim and it made my dad nuts so he yelled at us to leave them alone and NOBODY ever used the seat belts in the 1970's.
HiTempguy wrote: As soon as I was old enough to drive, not only did I want to drive, but my parents said "You're 16, you want to go places, get there yourself". Which is fair. They are my parents, not my friends or my servants, they have lives too.
On the way home after passing my driver's test my father stopped at the hardware store and had a set of keys to the car made for me. Neat!, except that it meant I had to get up an hour eariler and take him to the train to work. Then I had to come back home, pick up my mother and brother and deliver them and myself to our respective schools. And in the afternoon reverse that whole process. My Saturday mornings were now busy taking my mother to the grocery store, etc.
Yes, I had a hot-rodded 1957 Chrysler to use almost any time I wanted as long as I made sure everyone else got where they needed to go first.
Grew up in SoCal & started driving in the early/mid 70's. If you had your own car you were cool. And if your car was older and beat a little that meant you worked and bought it yourself, another cool factor. Otherwise you drove daddy's car or daddy bought your car.
And no stigma in driving a station wagon, it had its advantages. Well, other than the evil eye from your dates dad. 
Just tell him that it makes carrying your surfboard easier.
Most of high school I drove a 65 Chevelle 4-door w/210 I6 & powerglide, no power steering or brakes which were drum front & rear. Took over 2 complete revs of the huge steering wheel to turn a corner. But with the front bench seat didn't have to crawl over to the back. Before that car I drove a 69 Datsun 510 Wagon that I learned to drive in.
One of my high school buddies had a 4 door Rambler that was a 'salesman's car'. It had a front seat with an extra tall back and the whole seat could be slid forward more than normal, that way the seat back would recline and turn the whole inside of the car into a bed. As you might imagine, we constantly borrowed his car for trips to the drive in.
This is the split seat version, his was later and was a full bench.
I came of driving age in the 90's as well as some of you...my friends drove all manner of strange hoopties. There was my nerdy scientific friend who somehow scored a 1978 Caddy...a 2 door no less, brown with brown interior and a 425. Another friend had a 1965 Mercury Montclair with the breezeway rear glass. Another friend had an '85 Monte Carlo with a 305. Total POS, even then. I had a '90 Olds Cutlass Ciera (my mom's car) with the 3300- which was an AWESOME engine- and another friend had the identical Olds but in wagon form. They were even the same shade of red. We routinely drove everywhere as fast as we could. My Olds would peg the speedo with ease. I put in a $25 junkyard Delco radio with a tape deck. It was the E36 M3.
Nobody seemed really concerned with WHAT you drove, as long as you had something.
volvoclearinghouse wrote: Nobody seemed really concerned with WHAT you drove, as long as you had _something_.
This. I grew up in the same time period. I had an oxidized dry-rotting 87 Plymouth Grand Voyager and it was, um, "useful" in HS.
Curmudgeon wrote: One of my high school buddies had a 4 door Rambler that was a 'salesman's car'. It had a front seat with an extra tall back and the whole seat could be slid forward more than normal, that way the seat back would recline and turn the whole inside of the car into a bed. As you might imagine, we constantly borrowed his car for trips to the drive in.
My Audi 100LS would do the same thing. Very handy!
Class of '92, drove a '85 Fiero 4 cylinder. 125k miles, Black, black steel wheels, zero options. Basically 'murdered out' before that was trend. Got laughed at for driving a doorstop and didn't help me with the ladies one bit. Once you're labelled a loser/nerd/dork it stays with you regardless of what you drive.
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