Attitudes toward car modifications in Beijing and the San Francisco Bay Area

People modified their cars to extract possible performance or appearance from the basic, original and factory products through alteration, addition or well designed replacement of parts. People want their cars to be different from the majority. Under the circumstances cars are the media while modifications are the messages. The study was conducted through the use of survey research, using questionnaire data collection. Participants were from a big university in China and a university in the San Francisco Bay Area. During this research, the tendency of assigning the cause or responsibility of people’s behaviors on car modifications to characteristics and individualities mostly is studied; the public attitudes from China and the United States toward modifications are analyzed; media coverages and cultural differences’ implications on people’s attitudes toward car modifications are also discussed. Besides, bias, misunderstandings and unnecessary worries about car modifications plays essential roles in affecting feelings concerning car modifications. This research aims to increase the amount of knowledge regarding car culture and car modifications culture and let people have a fair and proper perspective on car modifications, decreasing the bias and prejudices as much as possible.