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EP 18: John Stech: Same-same or different? Comparing the Thai and American car cultures
29 Plays19 days ago
In this episode, host John Stech discusses his observations on the Thai and American car cultures. Having lived in Thailand for nearly two years, he compares what he has observed on the streets, at motorshows, and at car meets. While some like to people-watch, John always has his eyes on the cars he encounters everywhere.
Says John, “Cars move us—but in wildly different ways. In America, a chrome grill might gleam with ambition and showy opulence. In Thailand, a dusty pickup truck or sprightly hatchback says: this is life—difficult, communal, and moving forward towards a bright future.”
John compares the two on their cultural bases, with independence being a main theme in American car culture, while interdependence plays a greater role in Thailand.
He briefly explores the impact of popular culture, manufacturing presence, cultural traits that reach back years, as well as changes that are pushing in on both sides of the Pacific Ocean.
Buckle your seatbelt, relax, and enjoy the insights and shared experiences from John’s automotive life.
For more information on The Auto Ethnographer you can visit the homepage at https://www.auto-ethnographer.com
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Transcript
00:00:00
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It's possible to compare the two countries and their car culture on the basis of identity versus interdependence.
00:00:11
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Hello and welcome to the Auto Ethnographer. I'm John Steck, your host on this journey. We travel the globe to bring you stories about culture and the global automotive industry. Fasten your seatbelt and let's get started.
00:00:24
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Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Auto Ethnographer. I'm John Steck, your host, and today we're talking about two nations that couldn't be more different behind the wheel.
00:00:35
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The United States and Thailand, where I currently reside. Everywhere I go, I look at the cars I see on the road and how people use them. It's just in my nature after a 30 year automotive career.
00:00:48
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It's time I put my observations in Thailand to the microphone. So buckle up, and although this isn't about horsepower, it's about identity, legacy, and what our vehicles say about who we are.
00:01:02
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Let's start in the US, where I spent most of my life, where the open road isn't just a metaphor, it's really a cultural myth. Picture this, a wide open interstate at dusk,
00:01:15
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The driving mix, my music is blaring, and the feeling is that anything is possible. You've probably seen this imagery in countless Hollywood movies, and that's something that continues to encourage that myth today.
00:01:32
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In America, the car has long been the symbol of many different things, of freedom and mobility. long highways, which represent escape, exploration, control over your own destiny.
00:01:48
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There's nothing that I personally like more than going on a big road trip. In fact, every time I visit the United States, I tend to rack up thousands of kilometers on rental cars.
00:02:00
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The car also symbolizes personal identity. Whether it's a beat up pickup truck, a sleek new EV, or a rumbling muscle car, cars speak volumes about their drivers.
00:02:13
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Personally, I always tried to drive cars which were different, something which nobody else had. I started with an 80 horsepower 1978 Volkswagen Scirocco.
00:02:24
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you know Very small car, very low horsepower while all my friends were driving much, much larger American cars in the mid to late eighty s And then I had a rough and bouncy 1975 Toyota FJ40 Land Cruiser.
00:02:40
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Yes, I was a very early SUV adopter in the late 1980s. And then I was a consistent driver of European wagons, which is not a very popular option among American consumers.
00:02:54
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You don't see so many wagons on the street in the United States.
00:03:01
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Cultural nostalgia is another impact of the car. You look at drive-in theaters, drive-in restaurants, the drive-through like at McDonald's, which has been become a worldwide staple.
00:03:17
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The car culture that you find in hip hop music and and music videos, it's all part of the national story and the national culture in the US.
00:03:28
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They figured strongly into films depicting teens with their cars in the 1950s, which was highly symbolic for the teen gaining independence from their parents.
00:03:40
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And the car, of course, being that mechanism that that gave them their freedom and their independence. Industrial pride figures into it as well in the US.
00:03:51
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Just think about Ford, General Motors, Chrysler. formerly known as the Big Three, now referred to as the Detroit Three, as Chrysler is now folded into Stellantis.
00:04:05
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The car isn't just transportation, it's a tradition and a symbol of manufacturing might. One that even cranked out aircraft and tanks 80 years ago to free Europe from occupation.
00:04:18
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And an advertisement, it's never just a car. It's your ticket to adventure, to power, and to status. There's always a sunrise on the horizon or the SUV advertisements, for example, which feature four by fours splashing through mud, jumping over hills, and other antics that a real consumer would never dare to attempt in reality in their leased SUV.
00:04:47
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Car advertisement is centered on freedom and adventure for decades, and it continues to this day. Now let's cross the Pacific and land in a place where cars aren't about wide open roads and freedom, but more about weaving through the pulse of life.
00:05:07
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In fact, the roads of Thailand contain much more variety in vehicles than what you would see in the United States.
00:05:15
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the vehicle represents something completely different in Thailand to the individual. It's practicality and affordability. Bangkok's travel chaos demands efficiency.
00:05:29
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Compact cars, motorbikes, three-wheeled tuk-tuks, and lots of pickup trucks. Compared to the average salary, cars are quite expensive in Thailand.
00:05:41
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thanks to taxes that make larger displacement engines much more expensive. This results in seeing many more small, inexpensive cars, as well as many, many pickup trucks, almost 50% of the market registered as commercial vehicles in order to achieve lower taxation.
00:06:02
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And don't forget, the motorbike and the motor scooter also play a big role. You see swarms of them cutting through traffic, which is normally at a standstill in downtown Bangkok.
00:06:14
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Cars represent community utility. Rides are for families, for food deliveries, or monks collecting alms. every Everyone moves together.
00:06:27
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With many people not cooking at home, but rather ordering out their family meals, the ubiquitous grab and other motorbike-based delivery services bring families together.
00:06:40
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And since many families have three to four generations living under a single roof or on a single compound, it's not uncommon for multiple generations to be seen on the road together.
00:06:53
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The car and the motorbike are a type of economic bridge. It's access to jobs, to the countryside to get out of the urban sprawl, and to markets.
00:07:05
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It's not a luxury, it's a necessity. And similar to American cities, Bangkok is a sprawling metropolis that often requires a car or motorbike just to handle daily life.
00:07:18
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When you think of Thailand, you also think of cultural charm. The tuk-tuk, for example, which isn't just transport. It's a symbol. It's vibrant, it's fast, it's improvised, like Thailand itself.
00:07:34
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Nowadays, three-wheel tuk-tuks are largely targeted at foreign tourists wanting to experience traditional Thailand. But of course, they also still find local use.
00:07:46
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The tuk-tuk owners often modify the exhaust system. So while you might think that that's a Ferrari revving its engine behind you, you turn your head and you'll be surprised.
00:07:57
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Frankly, they're quite loud and occasionally annoying. Maybe you're not expecting me to say this, but industrial pride figures in in Thai car culture.
00:08:10
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It also plays a role in Thailand as the country is ranked number 10 in the world for automobile production in 2023, having produced 1.8 million cars, of which a little more than half are locally consumed and the rest are exported to other markets.
00:08:29
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In fact, for many years, Thailand was proudly nicknamed the Detroit of the East. Now, of course, China to the north has taken on a bigger role in Asia with regards to its automobile market with about 30 million cars in production annually.
00:08:49
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So when I walk around in Bangkok, The streets are rich with sights. You'll see monks squeezing into pickup truck beds, the covered ones, which are called song towels, with two rows of seats in the back under a steel cover,
00:09:05
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and fruit sellers navigating traffic with baskets of lychee fruits and other fruits. You see old diesel buses sputter by, windows are open for lack of air conditioning, while those behind them are the most modern blue electric buses, which are not only equipped with AC, but also have USB charging ports.
00:09:28
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You see the occasional sports car, a Porsche, a Lamborghini. You see quite a few electric vehicles, most of them coming from China.
00:09:40
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When you glance about, the symbolism of it all is humble, it's layered, and it's grounded. It's possible to compare the two countries and their car culture on the basis of identity versus interdependence.
00:10:01
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So let's step back. What are we really seeing when we compare these symbols? Are we truly different between the two or are they just differing shades of the same?
00:10:14
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In the US, the car often screams individualism. I go where I want, when I want. The sense of freedom has been instilled over the decades and is aligned with cultural norms that trace their roots all the way back to America's westward expansion in the eighteen hundreds In Thailand,
00:10:39
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however, the message is more collective. We all move together through the same streets. Cars are a safe haven from the noise of the city, from the pollution,
00:10:53
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and a place to be with the family or an instrument used to go to a family gathering. In a way it reflects each of the nation's core philosophies, autonomy versus adaptability, legacy versus flexibility and speed versus rhythm, the rhythm of the city, the rhythm of life.
00:11:22
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And both come with contradictions. In the US, car dependence has become so prominent that it's led to urban sprawl and even isolation.
00:11:36
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You essentially must have a car to get anywhere in the US.
00:11:43
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In Thailand, the daily commute, it could potentially include floods. We're currently in the rainy season here now during June. It has heat 12 months a year, and it could be three hours of traffic in the city just to cover at a very short distance.
00:12:07
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As mentioned, Bangkok is also ah sprawling metropolis that increasingly requires use of personal vehicles. So in that sense, there's a, let's say, growing similarity between the United States and with Thailand.
00:12:24
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Then we can talk about screens and dreams. Movies, entertainment can tell us even more. Think about the United States with its Fast and Furious franchise.
00:12:39
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It's really extreme, isn't it? Where the car is about dominance and speed and choosing your family. Now contrast that with an award-winning Thai film, like One for the Road, where two friends, one who's dying of cancer, take a last road trip through Thailand.
00:13:02
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to visit old friends and experience a common past. The vintage BMW they drive with some patina is central to that story.
00:13:14
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So it's not just what the cars do, but it's what they say about us as we use them.
00:13:23
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But as Bob Dylan once sang, the times, they are a-changing. In the United States, the youth are increasingly disinterested in obtaining their driver's license.
00:13:36
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They wait longer and longer. They stay home or they use Uber to go visit their friends. They seem strangely happy to stay at home and interact with their friends by social media or via gaming.
00:13:55
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I'm personally very glad to say that my two kids are both avid drivers and that they both can drive a manual transmission to boot, which is a dying art in the United States.
00:14:08
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Kudos to them. Meanwhile, in Thailand, cars are increasingly taking on the role of status symbol. While it's not uncommon to see Ferraris or Lamborghinis,
00:14:21
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or Mercedes or BMW on the streets of Bangkok, most people express themselves with decorative modifications of their more run-of-the-mill vehicles like small hatchbacks or the ubiquitous pickup trucks.
00:14:36
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Did you know, for example, that Thailand is the third largest pickup truck market in the world behind the United States and Canada? There's the fun fact of the day.
00:14:47
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Furthermore, Thai enthusiasts have regular meetups to show their cars. I went to one such vintage meetup where the majority of the vehicles were 1960s and 1970s era Japanese cars whose 20-something owners, so young, had restomodded them after inheriting them from their grandparents.
00:15:12
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The enthusiasm lives on. And for those who are not familiar with the term resto modding, they've added modern elements like new engines, new brake systems, and other modern um technology into the cars while leaving them mostly looking in their original form.
00:15:32
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So when i stand back and look at the big picture, which I like to do, cars move us, but in wildly different ways. In America, chrome grill might gleam back with ambition and showy opulence.
00:15:51
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In Thailand though, a dusty pickup truck or a sprightly hatchback says, this is life. It's difficult, it's communal, and it's moving towards a bright future.
00:16:06
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Wherever you're listening from, take a second next time you start your engine. What does your car say about your culture and about you?
00:16:18
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Thanks for joining me on this week's episode. If you enjoyed it, please follow and share. Next week, I will be attending Mobility Tech Asia, an EV conference in Bangkok, but I will try to get another episode out before I go.
00:16:35
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Until then, keep on driving.
00:16:39
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Thank you for joining us on today's journey. Please remember to like and subscribe to The Auto Ethnographer and leave us a rating or comment. For more information, visit our website at auto-ethnographer.com.
00:16:51
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