The color of a car can mean everything or nothing all at once. A red car might mean fun, performance or a reason for the local constable to pull you over. A black car might look luxurious or sinister. A yellow car…well, you’re standing out, sunshine, and good for you.
It used to be, at least as a kid when I was growing up, that there were colors! Yellows, reds, two-tone blue sedans, black cars with lime green or red and orange stripes…they existed! An interior that wasn’t black or gray! Nowadays the color palette looks like Batman’s uniform closet unless you paid dearly for the car or you have that one color in the offering that gets you a tan interior. I’ve owned cars that were whorehouse red inside. I had one for a bit that was dark watermelon green inside. I actually like the plaid inlaid seats that Volkswagen puts into the Golf/Rabbit. It breaks up the monotony of black nicely.
While driving around town with the wife, we took stock one day of the colors we saw. Essentially it was every freaking form of silver/gray possible, dark blues, black, white, and one gold Chrysler. There were two standouts: an orange Challenger and a lime green Mitsubishi Mirage. Having a bright color on a Challenger makes sense…on a cut-rate miserable little econo-turd is something else. But there are other colors that could work out. For a luxury sedan, why not a metallic brown with hints of copper in the metal flake? For a pocket rocket, why not purple? What’s wrong with some shade of green? It’s not that the colors aren’t available, it’s that nobody wants the colors. That’s kind of sad. Just because you’ve settled to buying a midsize sedan or SUV doesn’t mean it can’t have a good color.
A great example is this 2014 Buick Regal GS. It’s not black or silver or gray, but a great shade of red. Another potential is this green, slated to be on the Chevrolet SS next year:
Here’s hoping that some of these colors start taking hold with buyers, because I’m getting sick of looking at traffic jams that from a distance, look like rolling clouds.
OEMs build cars for their primary customers . . . the dealers. Relatively few new cars are specially-ordered by retail customers. Most are purchased out of dealer stocks.
The huge consolidation of new car retail into a bunch of mega-dealer chains, often with hundreds of similar vehicles on the lot at each “store” . . . and the constant bean-counters’ pressure to eliminate any options that add cost without boosting profits have both contributed to the bland homogenization of what we’re seeing on the streets today.
The metallic silvers, grays, charcoals, blacks and whites are all “safe” colors with several decades of consumer popularity . . . and when you’re buying hundreds if not thousands of vehicles at a pop, safe, but bland will likely triumph every time. What minion in a huge dealer group is going to risk his or her upward mobility by ordering stuff that might not be a quick sell?
I currently drive a ’90 Miata in that bright-ass Smurf Blue color, but my other cars were a black ’99 Cavalier, a black ’93 Subaru Loyale and a tan ’90 Acura Legend, so I guess you could say it’s only recently that I started to buck the trend
I agree. Too many ‘sludgy’ greys/charcoal/ mocha colours out there.
WTF can’t there be one decent blue or green these days?
I like my “Silver” Buick :'(
I love my silver Mustang, but my next one will either be “Gotta Have It Green” or “Grabber Blue”
Could it be color choices chosen by milque toast focus groups like everything else? What does that mean? To me, you get the same middle of the road boring. Red, white, black, silver, medium blue, darker green, dark gray…….snooooorrrrreeee.
Kudo’s to Chrysler for putting out some very bright and wild colors of late. They are the only new car colors that catch my eye. Everyone else is painting in el cheapo rental car colors. BORING!!
the boring colors really pop with the shades on the inside i think.. silver? gray? red interior= awesome! light green or b5 blue? white uhpolstery= wow!
For those uninformed the book and film “50 Shades Of Gray” have NOTHING AT ALL to do with automotive finishes!
I’ve had numerous cars and trucks In my life mostly Black a few stand out being I’m thinking about them… Brownish/Copper 81′ AMC SX4 with tan Interior almost the same color on a 75 Dodge Dart with tan vinyl top. My current a 99′ Cherokee that for the longest time I thought was Blue which for the most part Is but tends to flip purple when the sun hit’s It.
I painted my last vehicle tropical turquoise. It stands out a bit. It’s also magnet for disaster…
I saw a killer factory color recently… Black ’12 Nissan with red metal flake. Looks black from all angles until the light hits it, then it just POPS. Factory color…. Nice.