Automotive Color Monotony

Is it just my location but are most cars today painted monotone shades of white-gray-black?


Fully half of the cars/trucks I see on the road are either white, black or some shade of gray in between. Throw in the various shades of brown/tan and that makes up about 75% of all the cars I see.

Red, green, yellow, blue etc. are almost oddities.

I just got a red car.

My wife has one too. It's easy to spot in a parking lot, amongst all the drab monotone cars.

Everyone knows red cars go really really fast. The only way to go faster is to add racing stripes. At that point, your car would be the fastest car ever!

Red car owner here. Unfortunately it's a Volvo V70.

Only red car I ever had was a 68 Triumph Spitfire when I was stationed at Lakenheath (2000-02).

I blew a softball-sized hole in the engine block by throwing a rod.




I have a black 2017 Ford Escape now. Prior: white Escape, white Mustang, green Mustang, black BMW, green Civic, white Escort.

Which illustrates my OP, 5 monotone cars and 2 green.

Silver was the number one sold color for a few years (can you say 2002 Grand AM), so blame the bean counters for the 'new silver'.

Anytime I can be of service, anytime.

I have 2 blue cars, my wife has a white one and the youngest son and middle daughter have grey and the rest have 3 black.

My Range Rover looks like black at first glance but when the sun shines on it you can see the blue shine out through the dark base coat.

I prefer bold colors. Here is what is in my garage; one blue, one red, and plum metallic. Outside is another blue.

Nice Maserati OG

His n hers convertibles?

Edit: just noticed you have the same garage opener as I have, I had to get the left hand side of the lifting spring fitting reinforced as I have a personal access door in that side of the garage door.

Scientific proof of my anecdotal observation!

And, not just in the US but worldwide.

I find this interesting:





Of course, it's not data from the same area size or year... and one should not over-simplify when looking for causes.

Red Dodge Caravan here.


Hate the car's color that blend into the road.

I prefer red, but my current car is burgundy, so a little off. My wife’s is red.
Black, white, red, blue, silver are the more timeless colors, so good for value and won’t look as dated in the ling run.
After 4 black cars though, I think I’ve finally learned my lesson that although it looks great when maintained, it just isn’t worth it!

Red car here.At work a friend said I was crazy for buying a red car of which I said WTF?!? he said that red cars get in to more accidents and insurance companies actually charge more for red cars because of this.Lo and behold I was sitting at a light one week later and a car just rear ends me.The person was sorry and just said they got distracted....WTF!?!?!?

Here almost all vehicles (largely 4WD and utes) are white. But this is country NSW.

I bought this a little over a year ago.


Replaced a red Jetta I drove for about 2-3 years. Love it! BUT, I have been pulled over more times in one year than I EVER was pulled over driving this for over 10 years:


I love the Tangerine Scream color, but i wish I had bought it in Magnetic gray, or Oxford White.(Black is cool, but shows dirt worse than white.)

Wow, Grim_Death. I haven't seen a post from you in years. Welcome back.



My car is black. Several insurance studies have proven that brightly colored cars like yellow, red and green catch the attention of law enforcement more than if your car is black, white or gray.

Thank you.

Wish they trained them to look a little more in-depth, instead on relying on the "OH! SHINY!" reaction.

Oh how I want a convertible so badly (well, maybe not at the moment...brrrrrr). Beautiful car, oldgrognard.

EDIT: Love that color, Grim_Death! I really wanted a yellow CRX Si (*really* yellow, not quite as pretty as your color) back in '89, but they were wanting to deal on a red one, a special order that had just come in but someone had backed out of. I kind of regretted it later, although my next two cars were maroon and then red.

His n his. My wife is hesitant to drive the Jag. For some reason she is intimidated by it. When she has driven she doesn’t like the limited visibility with the top up. She’ll drive it but prefers her car and my Chevy Malibu. I don’t think she will even take a shot at driving the Maserati. The CambioCorsa shift system scares her.

Here’s a better picture of my red car. It is looking clean and I’m looking very scruffy.

It is a 2006 Maserati GranSport Spyder. 400 HP, 6 speed manual with CambioCorsa paddle shifting, and Skyhook adaptive suspension. Got it with 30,600 miles. Very good condition.

That's a gorgeous car, oldgrognard!

On a personal note (and I hope you take this as the sincerest compliment it's meant to be)...

This isn't the first time you've posted a pic of yourself (and yours) standing next to your car, and each time I think to myself, "That's how *I* (*we*) need to dress!" I'm just an older dude trying to find his appropriate 'style' (for the first time), bumming ideas from others.

Now I just need a Jag or Maserati convertible to complete my fashion statement!

heres mine

^ Although the Miata is more my speed (for a new car), the Camaro is second only to the current Corvette as my favorite new car, followed by the Mustang and Challenger.

I don't like the look of most new cars today, especially the requirement of having such a blunt pedestrian-friendly front end (would have never worked with the Fiero), but these retro models make the current government imposed styling work, IMO.

Absolutely beautiful color Moses. I really like that.

MarkG, thanks and I take your compliment in the spirit you meant it.

I don’t really have a style. I dress rather simply and comfortably.

I need to post a front shot showing it’s marvelous grill.

I do love that candy apple red!

+1

Styles are for women.

Well, this is my current casual 'style' [EDIT: with shorts and tennis shoes] and I figure maybe it's time to upgrade.

Yeah; that’s not cutting it. I’d change that “style” pretty quick.

Here is the front. The Trident on the grill is quite lovely. I hate having the top up, but the weather even here in Florida is quite chilly.

Very nice!

Sweet.

Yeah, great looking car OG and you wear it with style.

Only ever had one small sports car, a 1959 MGA 1600, I got it for the cost of the tow truck that towed it in, I was 14 and I was helping my father on that tow truck (breakdown wagon in English) it cost me £15 - a lot of money back in 1970

Much later ... 2004... I used to get a MG TF135 as a courtesy car when my MG ZT was in for servicing, even in winter it was a fun little car to drive.

Courtesy car on the left, my ZT in the middle and the young lad from the house next door had the mini on the right



The ZT with me driving waiting on the track clearing for a little drag race at Bitburg

And the latest trend in automotive paint colors....

I don't even know what to call it, but I see numerous vehicles in green, tan, blue etc that have no "depth" to the paint job. It's like a military vehicle flat (ie no shine) with a clear coat applied on top to give it shine but no depth.

Anyone else noticed?

Yes, that and grey. Looks like “we ran out of color paint; just clear coat over the primer.”

Grey. Yuck. My first car was grey, a rusted-out 1977 Toyota Corolla wagon, that we literally painted the hood with primer. It was a fun stick shift, but I wouldn't willingly buy a grey car these days. So drab and bland. I agree OG.

I will say, I do like the flat "naturalistic" colors on trucks, suvs and off-road types.

We own a Black and White MIniCooper S with stick shift. Black Body/White top ...License Plate MiniCop.

We own a Black and White MIniCooper S with stick shift. Black Body/White top ...License Plate MiniCop.

Exactly.

This may be anecdotal but I know many people in the Miami area who avoid buying brightly colored cars for the simple fact that it is eye-catching and draws extra attention from cops.

This new Toyota. That red and black 2-tone, it's ugly IMO. https://www.toyota.com/crown/

In the UK, you need to avoid the same colour as Snooker balls, ie red, yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black...but especially red:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/422651.stm

In our panel shop we call that colour 'Shiney Primer' There was, imo, a decent similar colour on the SR Turbo Veloster, Battleship Grey. Maybe because of the style of the car, looked pretty cool. Because i'm old and boring now, i drive an all mod cons blue i30, i call it Nana blue. Far cry from all of my old lusty V8's, but she's comfy, and never breaks down


Oh, and btw, our shop (200 on site and 400 odd in two crash warehouses) is full of boring white, dark greyand every greyscale colour in between cars. Bright colours are few and far between. It's been that way for a long time now. Mazda probably the nicest colours, reds and greens, for your mainstream cars.

Any of them a V8 Interceptor?

They, Fords, were the mortal enemy Panzer! I'm a Holden man, same as Chev v Ford over there. Have been in a few nice XA, XB (the Mad Max model) XC Falcon (chicken) Coupes in my time though. Big car for a two door. Massive 1/4 panels.

I saw this today next to me at stop light: it was fugly green.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivian_R1T

I also don't understand the popularity of pickups that are too short for a couch. Why buy a pickup if it can't do what it's designed to do: carry stuff.

The price is $73,000+. I will never buy EV!

Because a lot of people are not practical-minded when it comes to buying a vehicle. For me, my car is strictly an appliance that gets me from point A to point B.

Oh Panzer. We look at cars so differently.

I'm sure once I retire and I move to a less congested area I will get a car that will actually make driving enjoyable.