Yahoo ran a story about America's favorites, in which it said that the favorite colors for cars were white, black, and silver (in that order). I got to thinking about it and once again, it made me realize that just because something sells in huge numbers...that doesn't really mean that it's the most popular? I mean, white cars. If you subtract the number of white cars bought by police depts, ANY other government agency, and businesses for fleets, where would white rank as a favorite of car buyers? The same might also be said about black.
Give me "Arrest Me Red"!!
It simply means that's all the dealers order. They are the safe colors people will settle for when they can't get the colors they want.
My daughter recently looked all over California for a blue Nissan Altima and she couldnt' find one anywhere. She had to fly back to Texas to get a color and then drive it to Cali
Salanis
SuperDork
8/15/10 11:22 p.m.
Kia_racer wrote:
Give me "Arrest Me Red"!!
Don't forget "Come and Get me Copper", "Go Mango", or "Plum Crazy".
I must say that the Estoril Blue of my M Coupe was one of the most gorgeous colors I've seen on any production car.
I'm a loud colors person. I have purchased lessor vehicles simply because they had a better color. Funnily enough, I'm not much for Red yet I had at least 1 Red car from 2003 until February.
Green is my favorite, but can be very hard to find. Then blue, and silver.
I enjoy a dark green myself. Something like Highland Green or British Racing Green.
I LIKE white cars. I also like oddballs. I like white's ability to hide defects well. I like oddballs because no one else has the balls to drive around in a Lime Squeeze Fiesta.
We have four white cars.
Plus BRG race car and Speedwell Blue race car.
When I bought my Miata I was looking for BRG or red, but got a deal on a white one. I bought it anyway and added blue stripes. If I were going looking for another one today, it would be white. Looks good, it doesn't show dirt, and it's easy to colour match if it needed repairs. My GTI is red and the CooperS is BRG. I've got all my favourites covered.
Per Schroeder
Technical Editor/Advertising Director
8/16/10 9:11 a.m.
I'm a color guy myself. I like specific colors for specific cars....
NYG Neon,
Laguna Blue M3,
Signal Yellow MR2,
CGM Sti
and so on.
Around here, it seems like 90% of the cars on the road are some hue of silver or grey. It's just boring.
TJ
SuperDork
8/16/10 9:56 a.m.
Salanis wrote:
I must say that the Estoril Blue of my M Coupe was one of the most gorgeous colors I've seen on any production car.
+1 on Estoril blue. I haven't seen that many in that color, but I like it.
Morbid
Reader
8/16/10 10:10 a.m.
Acadia Green and I have 2 Imprezas in that color to prove it
I didn't think I had any strong preferences, but looking back I've owned five black BMW's and a black Miata. My second favorite car color must be green, as I've owned a emerald Miata and baltic green Jetta. When it comes to interiors, my clear preference is for tan leather.
I think once you take fleet and other business purchases out of the picture, white falls dramtically. But taking those out if difficult to impossible to do since so many small businesses buy directly.
With the other posters, I have certain colors i like on certain types of vehicles. My modern daily driver cars tend to group black/grey/silver with the occasional red thrown in.
With collector cars, I value the car and condition much more so than paint color, so as long as it's period correct, that wouldn't dissuade me from buying/driving the car.
However... and this is a pretty hard rule with me.... convertibles tops are either black, white, or tan.
I have owned (and still own) only one car that violates this rule... and it was a magazine custom car so I felt obliged to keep it as it was known.
I am a sucker for loud colors,evidence by my thread on the RX-3 SP I am think of picking up. Also I love white on almost any car but especially on sports cars for some reason. I am not ashamed to admit that I am also a huge fan of brown cars,but they are so rare. I would love a brown on brown 85 RX-7 GSL-SE,but thems is some rare cars. I would even settle for the off white with brown interior that was available around 84-85,but again it is a rare color combo.
moxnix
Reader
8/16/10 10:35 a.m.
I like bright colors. I don't like red cars but I ended up with an red miata instead of the blue one I wanted because it was a good deal.
My daily driver is Spicy Orange.
I had one car that was "Baby Barf Yellow." Almost traded it on another that was "Hooker Pink."
I like certain colors for certain cars.
BMW & Porsche: Silver (IMO, they are the only ones who do silver correctly. Everything else looks like a shiny gray.)
The exception is the GT3 which looks great in that bright green.
Cadillac cars: Pearl White (Cadillac SUVs: who cares?)
WRX: WR Blue
For anything else I usually prefer blues, greens, or dark reds.
cxhb
Reader
8/16/10 11:38 a.m.
I HATE red... and 2 of the 3 cars I have ever owned were red.
I love the silver-blue of classic big Healeys.
And, these are the only cars that I actually prefer in a two-tone scheme.
I like silver cars. Up until I got the black CSX, all my cars were silver, hence the screen name.
I also really like white on performance cars, and if they offered my WRX in a real white instead of that pearl white color, I would have gotten one in white.