Cars as social record

In this post I used the term "social record" as a sort of throw-away line. Glen picked up on it and commented:

I am currently writing a paper about hanging out at macca's and the problem I have faced is trying to figure out how to place such activity in a historical lineage. The macca's and other similar spaces themselves have little or no localised history about them, they are literally vacuous spaces of consumption that are deliberately constructed as 'smooth' spaces of mobility to enable efficient patronage. I turn to the cars that dudes drive there in to 'hang out'. The cars themselves offer a history of sorts that is embedded in the materiality and embodied in the technology of the cars. The cars are no longer simply mechanical objects but become cultural and historical artefacts.

Which made me think of frequent topics on various fora (forums?) that I participate in. Often, people will make reference to different cars and ways of modifying cars as being "90s", or "80s", or some other way of locating a particular style of modifications in a time period. Alternatively, cars can be modified in a way that is identified as being "JDM" (Japanese Domestic Market) . There is even a "New Zealand" style - the span of the Tasman makes a difference apparently.

I suspect that Glen has an even more nuanced meaning in mind - but what would I know - I only play an ethnographer on TV.