Most get their first car when they are attending high-school, they name their cars as if they were people or pets, and once you are done, you can donate your used car to help organizations (100% tax deductible!).
In fact, one person in my parking has an antique car that never uses, but he/ she keeps it clean both inside and outside at all times.
However, there are streets and bridges without sidewalks, cities are crossed by highways instead of being surrounded by them, large urban areas have no subway system at all, and the use of bikes as a means of transportation is minimal among non-students.
Saying that Americans love cars is just a simplification of course, for good or bad, Americans are bound to use them (or are they?).
Causes include the fact that cities spread instead of growing high, thus, making more expensive to provide public transportation.
In the past gas price was really low and the automobile industry infused prosperity in cities such as Chicago and Detroit, much of what is gone now.
Cars are also embedded into the national culture: do you remember Thelma & Louise, Cars or Knight Rider?. Movies and series where the car is a central object perpetuate that image.
As a matter of fact, the car ideal has been influenced by other national traits: «the bigger the better» also means that in the u.s. there are no ford fiestas, seat ibizas or fiat pandas: every car has at least 5 doors, the amount of SUVs is significantly bigger even in the cities, and everybody says it’s crazy when it comes to parking, but everybody drives.
Even though I don’t drive a car because it isn’t a sustainable way of transportation, I can see some positive qualities about the way they are used in the u.s.:

• For instance, people are more independent that in europe.
• Although it’s mostly gone now, it dynamized the economy some decades ago.
• All you need to travel, move, etc is a car, and in my experience people move much more in the u.s. than in europe.
• Cars, specially if they are second hand, also seem to be cheaper.

However, in my opinion the number and importance of the drawbacks outnumbers the advantages by far:

• To begin with they create bad life habits, people who work with a computer may not walk more than 20 minutes a day despite the multiple benefits of exercising.
• Parking slots are needed: americans expect to park not only near but next to their work place (and they pay for it).
• Traffic jams take place daily decreasing the quality of life.
• Pollution is bad, even if you are not an ecologist, it can detriment human health.
• Security here isn’t reached by height but by space: richs’ neighborhoods are safer because criminals need to drive half an hour to get to them, but all the others are potentially more dangerous. Something that adds to that insecurity is the lack of people on the streets and the diminishing public spaces, which have largely been substituted by private ones. And since retail stores are centralized at some points of the cities, you need to take the car even to buy milk.
• The train system is for the most part pre-1980s, designed to be slow, and hasn’t been upgraded for decades. Furthermore, there are no low cost flying companies because the car also represents that segment of the market.
• And it’s even worse: even though people don’t realize it, driving is still expensive: compare the cost of a bike or public transportation to the cost of a car + gas + insurance + cleaning + future health costs.

Why, then, ride a bike in the u.s.?.
On the one hand it’s the right thing to do, improves your physical and mental condition condition, saves you money, you actually get to know the place where you live, it’s better for the people around you, and it’s something you can do as you get older. And if you need to travel to a remote place?. Well, then you realize how important it is to get in touch with people and share those cheerful journeys ;-)

PS: By the way, where is the Spanish Henry Ford?, the visionary industrialist who more than doubled the salary of his workers during a depression in order to attract the best talent, increase productivity, and develop a good public image.