rooted in their bulk

....his eyes were lingering over the cars that were not what he had previously known as cars - vehicles, designed to carry passengers from one point to another - but whole establishments, solid and rooted in their bulk, all laboriously acquired: weightage, history, even an inheritance. Their backseats piled with baby seats, dog blankets, boxes of Kleenex, toys and mascots adhering to their windows like barnacles. Each a module designed to contain and propel lives and dreams.

Can you, please, explain the underlined part of the sentence?

Thanks!

The cars this person is looking at are filled with bits of their owners' lives - they are not merely vehicles, but have acquired a broader meaning which is making them metaphorically weighty.

More context would help!

Nothing else has been said about it. :(

Is it from a story? What is the story about?

it is from a novel "Fasting, feasting" by Anita Desai. You can find a short review here: Desire for Freedom Gnaws at Siblings a World Apart

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Anglika

The cars this person is looking at are filled with bits of their owners' lives - they are not merely vehicles, but have acquired a broader meaning which is making them metaphorically weighty.

More context would help!

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G'day Rusalak and Anglika,
I agree with Anglika but suggest that perhaps the answer is not complete as the passage seems to refer to the cars themselves.

In many countries cars are point a to point b things and are quite utilitarian. People use cars as a means of transporting people and that is that. Nothing else.
In the US things are different.
For a start; the cars are huge, solid, bulky things almost as big as a house.
Some people in the US use cars as a status symbol to display wealth and position and an implied inheritence or even that the car itself will be handed down to the child.

The back seats and back benchs of US cars are often covered with baseball caps and tissue boxes and decorations of memoribilia and stickers cover windows telling whole life stories.

See ya

.,,