Economy and Cars

Analysis of automobile sales can be used determine the social classes in a society and their relative abundances. There are multiple classes of vehicles: sedans, SUVs, sports cars, compact and so on. Each one fit a range or purposes whether it be leisure, efficiency, cost and so on. Analyzing the types of cars sold correlate to social class. In 1976, Walter A. Henry published his study in which he compared the sales of full size vehicles, compacts, sports cars, and intermediate size cars to the owners and their social class. From his results, he determined that sports cars were almost exclusively purchased by upper class whereas intermediate and full size cars were bought by the lower classes. Logically, middle class and lower class choice is heavily influenced by their ability to gather resources. Therefore, buying a full size or intermediate sized vehicle serves greater purpose: more space, broader utilization, and job transportation. Small, performance oriented sports cars are sold to and purchased by individuals who are able to spend the resources for leisure, recreation and non job driving factors. Results such as these demonstrate that analyzing cars can be used to more accurately reconstruct social structure and wealth distribution for a time period/

society.