I have about 6 friends from California, and 3 of them know *everything* about cars. One of them is a ~23 year old woman, who convinced my wife that I was right about which car to buy. Based on this extensive data, cars appear to matter more to at least half the population of CA than anything else.
Not to mention a song or two:
The Little Old Lady From Pasadena
Little Deuce Coupe
Dead Man’s Curve
Ventura Highway
Running on Empty
Hot Rod Lincoln
California Highway
Surfin’ Safari
To quote Missing Persons: “Nobody walks in L.A.”. And though he is British, I could add that Gary Numan was thinking of CA when he wrote/sang:
“Here in my car
I feel safest of all
I can lock all my doors
It's the only way to live
In cars”
California has the same number of cars per capital than Texas, and more than every highly populated state other than Ohio. So, yeah, California loves cars.