FACTBOX: The automobile entangled in American culture

(Reuters) - Since 1893, when brothers Charles and Frank Duryea revved up the first gasoline-powered car manufactured in the United States, Americans have had a deep love for the automobile.

Getting a driver's license has long been a major rite of passage for American teenagers, and pop culture from music to films to television shows has celebrated the automobile.

But the country's love affair with cars hit a rocky patch as gasoline prices topped $4 a gallon last July and the country tumbled into recession.

RITE OF PASSAGE

* Getting a driver's license represents freedom, enabling teens to come and go without needing a ride from a parent. The responsibility of a car also is a step toward adulthood.

* In 2007, 87 percent of people 16 or older had a driver licenses in the United States, 205.7 million Americans, according to U.S. data.

* 85 percent of licensed drivers had their own car.

RISE AND FALL OF THE SUV

* Passenger cars are the vehicles of choice among Americans with 135.4 million registered in 2006, data from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics showed. But Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) have accounted for three-quarters of new vehicles since 1995, preliminary findings from the 2008 National Household Travel Survey conducted by the Transportation Department show.

* SUVs on the road skyrocketed from 12 million in 1995 to 36 million in 2008, according to the initial findings.

* But the trend is waning -- SUVs were the worst sellers in 2008, including such names as the Nissan Armada, Hummer and Dodge Durango.

DRIVING IN POP CULTURE

* American musicians from Chuck Berry to the Beach Boys to Willie Nelson to Prince have scored pop hits with songs about cars and driving. There is even a whole genre romanticizing car crashes, as "Last Kiss" and "Dead Man's Curve" illustrate.

* "Pimp My Ride," a reality show airing on MTV, took cars in the worst condition and restored and customized them. "Fast and Furious" -- the fourth film in a popular series -- is the latest box-office smash that celebrates driving.

(Compiled by Jasmin Melvin; Editing by Jeffrery Jones and David Gregorio)