In this chapter, car culture is framed as a two-way process of production and consumption. Here, particular tastes become concrete through aural, visual and performance-enhancing modifications. Furthermore, everyday practice is located against the context of existing and evolving infrastructural dynamics, thereby resisting normative and racialised modalities featuring ethnicity, class and culture. These issues are, therefore, examined through illustrative examples of car-related employment and leisure activities, as well as Bradford and its demographics. To begin with, however, some discussion of broader car-buying data is a useful backdrop against which more specific issues can be set.

Changing up

According to UK census data (2011), close to 75 per cent of households had access to at least one car or van, with 42.6 per cent of households having access to more than one vehicle. Lansley uses the UK's Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency's (DVLA) database of car model registrations in ascertaining socio-economic characteristics (occupational categories) based on ownership of ten distinct car types, with data further segmented according to the geographical distribution of cars. Unsurprisingly, small ‘city’ cars are more likely to be found in cities; larger vehicles are more prevalent in both rural and suburban settings. ‘Higher managerial’ occupations are linked with access to prestige, sports, sports utility vehicle (SUV) and luxury cars, while those who have never worked or are long-term unemployed favour large family cars. Especially relevant to places like Bradford, with notable levels of self-employment and entrepreneurship, small employers and ‘own account workers’ are most likely to drive SUVs.

An individual's socio-economic position influences the choice of car, as Lansley indeed acknowledges, but ‘the value of cars varies considerably’. Those with less economic power (unemployed) may be more likely to own large family cars, but we do not really know how much these are worth, or which brands and models are preferred. Given that the average age of all cars and vans in 2018 was 8.2 years, we cannot pinpoint who is more likely to own older or newer cars. Furthermore, having access to something is not the same as owning.