Luxury Cars
These cars are clearly not in the price range for the Joads when they are car shopping. Nonetheless, the used car dealers in The Grapes of Wrath are well aware of the effect luxury can have on people:
"Watch the woman's face. If the woman likes it we can screw the old man. Start 'em on that Cad' [see above picture]...
Then you can work 'em down to that '26 Buick [see below picture]...
'F you start on the Buick, they'll go for a Ford" - used car salesmen from Grapes of Wrath
The used carsalesmen's dialogue is telling. They reveal their tactics of starting the negotiations with a car like a Cadillac, even though they are fully aware that the family in question cannot afford the luxury automobile. The effect is powerful if it is successful: set a high bar in the buyer's psyche, then they are more susceptible to settle on a mid-range car like a Buick.
Al is smart when it comes to cars, and so he knows what to look for. An average family, from a background of farmers, may not have the technical knowledge to know what to look for in order to avoid buying a broken-down automobile. Just as importantly, they may not know when a used car salesman is trying to upsell a luxury car.
"Didn' listen to the fella talkin' what a hell of a bargain she was. Stuck my finger in the differential and they wasn't no sawdust. Opened the gear box an' they wasn't no sawdust. Test' her clutch an' rolled her wheels for line. Went under her an' her frame ain't splayed none. She never been rolled. Seen they was a cracked cell in her battery an' made the fella put in a good one. The tires ain't worth a damn, but they're a good size. Easy to get. She'll ride like a bull calf, but she ain't shootin' no oil." (Steinbeck 100-101)
Al knows the most practical car to buy, and he knows a great deal about cars overall. He even has a significant story about a special car...
AL'S CHANCE ENCOUNTER WITH A SPECIAL CAR
"I looked under the hood of a Cad' 16 one time an', God Awmighty, you never seen nothin' so sweet in your life! In Sallisaw—an' here's this 16 a-standin' in front of a restaurant, so I lifts the hood. An' a guy comes out an' says, 'What the hell you doin'?' I says, 'Jus' lookin'. Ain't she swell?' An' he jus' stands there. I don't think he ever looked in her before. Jus' stands there. Rich fella in a straw hat. Got a stripe' shirt on, an' eye glasses. We don' say nothin'. Jus' look. An' purty soon he says, 'How'd you like to drive her?'" Floyd said, "The hell!" "Sure—'How'd you like to drive her?' Well, hell, I got on jeans—all dirty. I says, 'I'd get her dirty.' 'Come on!' he says. 'Jus' take her roun' the block.' Well, sir, I set in that seat an' I took her roun' the block eight times, an', oh, my God Almighty!" (Steinbeck 255-256).
The "Cad' 16" Al is talking about is a Cadillac V-16, also called a Cadillac Sixteen. The sixteen is not the year 1916; it refers to the sixteen cylinder engine under the hood. For comparison, an average car in 2017 has either a four or six cylinder engine; sports cars and trucks have six or eight cylinder engines; exceptionally fast cars may have eight, ten, or twelve cylinder engines (There are a few exceptions which have more, but these are outliers since modern cars are much more efficient with smaller engines). Al's encounter with the Cadillac V-16 is a worthy story. It was Cadillac's top-of-the-line car from 1930 to 1939. A common man like Al would generally never get the chance to drive such a unique car. As evidenced by the picture, it was good enough for President Hoover.
Laura DeLucia asserts that Steinbeck "clearly intended to convey class and social standing with specific makes and models; however, readers today cannot place a 1925 Dodge or a 1926 Hudson Super Six in a meaningful social context, leaving a gap in potential understanding" (138). Steinbeck definitely knew about the unique Cadillac V-16. The Joads are also aware that certain cars distinguish between socioeconomic classes:
“The Okies are conscious of vehicles as status symbols and automatically distrust anyone in a better car. When a new Chevrolet pulls into the laborers' camp, the laborers automatically know that it brings trouble. Similarly the condition of the Okies' vehicles provides perfect parallels for their own sad state.” (Griffin, Freedman 573)
The Joads are genuinely good-hearted and welcoming to most people. Their reaction to certain luxurious cars, and the people who drive them, is simply a necessary survival tactic they learn on the road. When a nice car drives up to their camp, then it usually does not end well for them.
Conversely, it is interesting that the wealthy owner of the Cadillac is not vilified. In fact he lets Al drive his high-priced vehicle around the block. It would have been easy to make the owner a jerk who tells Al to get away from his car. However, Steinbeck makes the rich man a somewhat sympathetic character. Perhaps Steinbeck was commenting on the nature of wealth and capitalism by showing that not all rich people are evil (but of course this is just speculation). Furthermore, Al notes that the owner of the car “jus' stands there”; Al suspects that he looks like he has never looked under the hood of his own car (Steinbeck 255-256). To Al this is a special car and a unique experience, but as far as the owner is concerned, it is just another car. For the Joads, a car can always be much more than a car. Initially, a car is their way out of dead-end Oklahoma. As they journey across the country, their car is often a financial burden, but ultimately they must always rely on their automobile. It eventually gets the Joads to California, but a machine cannot solve all their problems. It is just the necessary equipment to transport the family, along with their troubles.