Japanese Cruise-In at the Petersen Auto Museum Attracts Huge Crowd

Ever since I began working at the Petersen Vault, every once and a while I overhear people questioning out loud where exactly are the young people in car culture today.

I remember reading an article concerned with the current depreciating market value of classic cars today. It seems like the number of young adults who are into cars has been growing less and less by the years, as people are opting out for hybrids and economical vehicles instead. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it does seem like car culture is dying… or is it?

Well, I think the real reason why people aren’t buying classic cars anymore is because the new millennial generation has little interest in that era. Why? The answer is simple: most of us just didn’t grow up with those cars on our walls, nor do we have interest in cars older than 1980. We grew up with Ferrari Testarossas, Lamborghini Countachs, and even the dreadful but beautiful Ital Design Aztec on our walls. Furthermore, most millennials who are interested in cars grew up picking the Nissan Skyline whenever they fired up the Playstation 1, as it was all the rage in those ’90s era Best Motoring videos.

As most Millennial’s are barely graduating or getting out of college, we just simply can’t afford the supercars we grew up loving, nor do have a high amount of interest in cars from the previous era. So just like hot rodding was big in the ’50s, we flock to the affordable cars of today to customize and make our own. The Japanese cars of the ’80s and ’90s are currently at a transition state, where they have yet to be fully considered as classics and are still affordable.

This brings us to one of the biggest Petersen Automotive Museum Sunday cruise-ins of the year. The Japanese car cruise-in hosted by Super Street. With over 700 cars representing, many had to be turned away at the entrance. What is strikingly different from this meet compared to other cruise-ins was seeing almost all of the age groups represented. From kids, to teens, to college students, to adults, to seniors — this meet does not discriminate. Aside from the age group representation, my favorite part about the Japanese style tuning culture is the openness to the different types of cars that attended, from JDM, EDM, and even domestic vehicles. Check out the mega gallery below for a stunning visual recap.

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