The mechanics at Enthusiast Automotive prefer classic cars. Their take on American car culture offers particular perspective. The conventional view has regarded the latest developments of American car industry as embattled by poor engineering and lower efficiency than that of their Japanese colleagues. With the 1980s drive towards fuel-efficient cars brought by the 1973 OPEC countries oil embargo, many US car manufacturers have been engaged in the pursuit of car designs that privilege lower gas mileage and reduced smog emissions. The perspective of Speed and Enthusiast Automotive mechanics offers a different take on these developments. Their preference for older, pre-1974, automobiles shows that along with the industry’s shift to more fuel-efficient and environment-friendly cars, recent changes in design have led to automobiles that are less durable and more expensive to repair. The drive for more fuel-efficient and advanced cars— including hybrids—has produced cars that are difficult and often unaffordable to fix. As a result, few owners of contemporary cars pursue substantive repairs and instead opt to abandon their cars and find new replacements.

Maintenance of contemporary cars operates differently from the upkeep of older models. Due to the shift in car design towards computerization, it is difficult to approach the diagnostics of a car without the help of computers. Increasingly, car mechanics merely connect cars under inspection to a computer that identifies problems. This growing dependence on computers makes it more difficult for mechanics to repair cars if there is a substantive problem. The preference for older and less computerized cars points to the other, less glorious, story of technological progress: the proliferation of devices that are difficult to fix and therefore susceptible to being easily discarded.

In this economy, Enthusiast Automotive has supported and maintained the cars that were made in the previous decades of American industrial superiority. These cars could last a lifetime because even if one part broke down, it was possible to make the car run by simple repair and maintenance. As a result of the presence of the autoshop, there is a large community of people who own and drive these old cars.

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