Does more black on a car make it look better or can you have too much?

I like black it is a good non color.

I like some things black – like Blackened Catfish

Some things I don’t like black – like the 2 pieces of toast I burnt that the garbage man will pick up tomorrow.

I like AC DC’s Back in Black but that’s music and we’re talking about cars so . . .

I like black cars – but I won’t touch one in the summer here.

I like black tires – any other color would look odd.

I like some black trim on cars. My gf once recommended black trim on our Corolla. So I painted it black and it looked good.

I like Paint it Black.

Fade to . . .

 it was very clean, very sleek, and completely black. It was so extremely dark that it was hard to make out the shape, and it was almost impossible to tell how close you were standing to it. Zaphod commented that the light "seemed to fall into it", and Ford said that his eyes seemed to slide off it. Zaphod repeatedly attempted to reach out and stroke the outside of the craft and feel the surface, however his hand was stopped, as it was totally frictionless. Zaphod called it "one mother of a mover".

Marvin was able to touch the surface of the ship and open up an entry hatchway, and the interior of the ship was completely black. There were black controls labelled in black, on a black background, with a little light that lit up black, which made it difficult to control the ship. The ceiling and walls of the swaying cabin were also black, as well as the seats, control panel, the instruments and the little screws that held them in place. The thin tufted nylon floor covering was black, and when a corner of the foam underlay was lifted up that was also discovered to be was black.

As somebody who dislikes washing, waxing, and hate claybarring, Black cars are evil. 

Some cars wear it very well!

Let's hear more about the white/black model with bronze wheels...

Tribute?

I like blacked out black cars with blacked out tail lights.  Or, more accurately, I like the way they look.  I don't like cleanings cars, blacked out tail lights are stupid and I live in the desert so I'd never buy one but, I like how they look.

There's a few cars that pull it off. I kinda like the idea of black-on-black on the Model 3, makes it like a threatening silent blob rapidly approaching you.

All black Miata with black hardtop but polished or white wheels looks good to me. I did not at all like it with black wheels.

yupididit said:

Nah, triple black looks good on some cars. Some cars can't be helped no matter what color they are. 

 

Note that there is still some sort of contrast.  And Buick used some seriously high quality paint on these cars, not a few flat black spray bombs.  One of the things I enjoyed about working on them was washing them when done.  The paint was phenomenal.

(I see that the image I grabbed is flopped left for right)

I'm in the camp of "It works sometimes, but it seems over done these days."

Especially as somebody that lives in the South. 

There is a reason we fight over shady parking spots in the South, even if they're far away from the entrance.

Murdered Out or black on black on black with some black thrown in for color is not to my liking, but there's an azz for every seat.  (having owned a black pickup and a black M-5, I shy away).  Every other Saab 900 has chrome door handles, somehow the black works on mine.

All-black wheels make a car look like the cheapest plastic toy car in the discount store bins.  

A satin or polished aluminum rim (and maybe center cap detail) really help.  See the GN above.  

I like black cars, and I own one, but black wheels on a black car is a bit much. I'd much rather gunmetal or bronze wheels instead of black to offer a bit of contrast. 
 

Side Note: the current Corolla looks fantastic, both in sedan and hatch form. I almost bought one when car shopping a few years ago. This package looks great with the bronze wheels. 

After my daily driver Miata was totaled by an inattentive driver, I bought 2019 GTi that qualifies as all black. 
I wasn't looking for such a color scheme -far from it, with a black body, black wheels, and (ugh) tinted windows!

But, as VW was still paying the price from dieselgate, it was marked down by about $5,500.

Nice thing is that the AC is more than sufficient to handle the Texas sun, and maybe the tint helps?  Who knows/who cares, really.  But when I look at that all black car with its dsg, it reminds of Darth Vader and his TIE fighter, as he was fiddling around with his steering yoke as I may with the paddles or buttons.  

No doubt that Darth, when chasing down Luke Skywalker, was thinking as many VW owners may, "Screw The Force.  I knew I should have gone with that Stage 2, High Torque tune, dammit!" 

I am not a fan of the all-black look, or all-anything else, for that matter.  It typically looks like the entire car was rolled into a paint booth and sprayed as a unit, or like a plastic model car that was assembled without painting any of the details.  The Corolla in question is not a beautiful car to begin with, so the monochrome look doesn't serve to accent graceful lines or elegant proportions.  It's just sort of a lump with lumps, with creases and shapes smeared across it; painting it all black or all white, painting the wheels a different color, doesn't transform the car.

Black wheels can look good, especially against a bright, non-metallic body color.  They do not always look good, and I don't often like them.  There is historical precedent for their use on small Japanese cars of a certain age, and I liked the way they looked on my AW11:

John Welsh said:

Let's hear more about the white/black model with bronze wheels...

Tribute?

Did Watanabes come in bronze?  The classic finish seems to be matte black.  The RS-8s on the front of my MR2 above had gunmetal grey centers before I shot them black.  I tried similar wheels on my AE86 and went with a gloss gunmetal finish, but I think matte black would have looked better.

Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) said:

And only idiots tint lights of any kind.

<raises hand> I have done this.

The car was a '79 Corolla liftback that was in no danger of being a once or future classic.  Laid down a layer of clear, and while it was still wet, fogged it very lightly with black, followed by more clear.  The effect was subtle, barely smoked, and pretty OEM-looking.  Nobody would claim that visibility was enhanced, but it was by no means destroyed.

Our silver Mazda 5 could really benefit from a discrete partial smoking of the enormous and awkwardly-shaped rear lamps, but I guess only an idiot...

The back of cars are required to have a minimum square inches of red reflective surface - if they have tiny taillights they need separate reflectors. I don't have a clue how every blacked out taillight doesn't get stopped and towed. 

Confession: I strongly dislike black rims with a chrome lip. 

OHSCrifle said:

The back of cars are required to have a minimum square inches of red reflective surface - if they have tiny taillights they need separate reflectors. I don't have a clue how every blacked out taillight doesn't get stopped and towed. 

Staffing, budgeting, etc. Equipment violations are a pretty low priority when law enforcement has their pick of DUIs, domestic disturbances, various property crimes, all that stuff.

My understanding is that law enforcement officially doesn't stop cars for expired registration here anymore. Hell, there are several cars in my neighborhood that have been running around without license plates for a couple of years.

For whatever it's worth, this was not the case 25 years ago when I smoked the taillights on the Corolla. I got pulled over for a good many things, including "race car driving" (heel-toe downshifting approaching an intersection, well within legal speeds), and nobody ever said a thing about the taillights. I don't think anybody noticed unless I parked next to a stocker and pointed out the difference.

I love my new GR86.  But to get a "premium" you get black wheels.  I just can't get into them, even though everyone younger than me thinks they are rad.

I had my CTS-V for about 4 minutes before someone asked when I was going to "murder it out."

Hope that trend went away.

DarkMonohue said:

Staffing, budgeting, etc. Equipment violations are a pretty low priority when law enforcement has their pick of DUIs, domestic disturbances, various property crimes, all that stuff.

My understanding is that law enforcement officially doesn't stop cars for expired registration here anymore. Hell, there are several cars in my neighborhood that have been running around without license plates for a couple of years

My car came from a province that doesn't require front plates. I have been driving without one for over a year now and been in front of, behind and approaching cops , and nothing. I was going to get a mount and install it but at this point it may never happen. I hardly see a cop these days, but since they all have plate readers now, I don't think they even look at plates anymore.