when did color become unacceptable to use on a car?

I too have noticed a resurgence of "garage floor gray" cars again, I thought the trend had peaked before the pandemic but it's back and worse than ever. I can't think of a more boring color to put on a car:

I like black and it may not be be a loud color, but it's stunning in comparison:

You can't get reflections like this off a flat-gray car:

While looking for examples to point out the problem I ran across this article, which discusses how these primer-like colors took off because they were different...well they're very common now, so can we put them to rest?

https://www.motorbiscuit.com/really-strange-thing-about-new-car-colors/

Peabody said:

The same reason we can't buy 2dr cars any more. The less variations there are, the cheaper it is to build, and the more money they can make. If you can only get a car in a white, and it's a 4dr, then that's what you'll buy.

I don't think it's the manufacturers that are the main problem here.  They build what their customers buy.

Thing is, their customers most aren't the people who drive the cars -- most cars are ordered by dealers for inventory.  Dealers don't have the cash to buy inventory outright, so cars that sit on the lot without selling are costing them finance charges every day.  Rightly or wrongly, the perception is that it's much easier to sell a 'boring' color to someone who wants a proper color than the other way around, so they almost always order stuff in boring colors because anything else is an unnecessary risk.

We just bought a Highlander for my wife in green.  It was the only one in Northern California and the dealer had to trade with another dealer to get it.  When they called up to arrange it, the second dealer thought they were screwing with them because nobody had wanted it.

When I worked for a KIA dealership, the GM made it a habit to try and get a variety of the colours available at the time, and for more than just the show floor. We did alright for new car sales.

Made it easy to find the right car on the lot at least. 

Want colour options? Check Aston Martin. They list a lot of colours, and broken down into 6 different tabs for colour scale

In reply to David S. Wallens :

That's Florida, though. I think the majority of cars are white in FL, or at least it seems that way. 

GameboyRMH said:

I too have noticed a resurgence of "garage floor gray" cars again, I thought the trend had peaked before the pandemic but it's back and worse than ever. I can't think of a more boring color to put on a car:

 

See, I don't like all that reflectivity. I like flat colors on cars. That almost creamy texture.  Subaru and Toyota have done some nice ones.

I applaud Jeep for willing to at least have a few interesting colors, including pink.

And although not as vibrant, at least they have an interesting green. 

I'm trying to help reverse the trend:

I thought about this very subject like 2 days ago because I saw a purple 2 door Jeep Wrangler. Jeep has always had lots of colors available.

I really have nothing against colors on cars but our cars are not colorful. And I like what we have. I doubt I'd ever buy a red car.

I usually don't buy the truck I want I buy the truck that's a great deal.  I'm kinda tired of this color combo but I'll probably have 10 more years with this 2023 Silverado.

In reply to Kreb (Forum Supporter) :

I don't mind the reflectivity. But black cars hide all the detail and look like shapeless blobs. I'd much rather that 'shiny primer' grey.

I admit it's getting a bit common but it's only been around for what, 5 years?  Why isn't black played out after 150 years?

No Time said:

In reply to David S. Wallens :

That's Florida, though. I think the majority of cars are white in FL, or at least it seems that way. 

Good point. This Floridian says that white has been my first choice since the first car I bought after vet school. My wife and I were shopping for a  Crown Victoria, found a deal in the newspaper and when we pulled up to their house she said excitedly, "It's white!" 

It's a family trope ever since, and a plus for every car we buy.

While I like the look, it's not primarily about appearance, it's because I don't like climbing into a solar oven when it's been parked outside. 

maschinenbau said:

ND Miatas have also suffered from this :( 

The gnarliest color available when I bought the FR-S in 2015, was... burnt orange.  Bleh.

In reply to Duke :

Because sinister never goes out of style.

GameboyRMH said:

I too have noticed a resurgence of "garage floor gray" cars again, I thought the trend had peaked before the pandemic but it's back and worse than ever. I can't think of a more boring color to put on a car:

"Garage floor gray"?  I just call it "pavement", the perfect color if you want people to pull out in front of you.

If you ever have some time to kill, Porsche's "Preparation for Paint to Sample" catalog in the configurator is pretty extensive and has some cool old-school colors.

Also, if you're looking to track down a specific color or even some specs for a Japanese car, there's always the Import Archive.

There's even brochures you can view for pretty much every car on the site.

The good old days

There is no worse color than yellow on an older car that used to be cool.

:)

jamscal said:

There is no worse color than yellow on an older car that used to be cool.

 

:)

 

 

I'd pick yellow before the popsicle green on those 914s.

Duke said:

In reply to ClearWaterMS :

When customers ordering their own cars became less common than dealers ordering mass inventory on spec.

This right here.
That's on top of manufacturers just shipping you cars they wanted to build. Like if you wanted an impala, you got an impala but had no control over what you would get. Then the dealers themselves only get so many ordering spots for "their bestest of best customers". 🙄 That just means less spots for them to order every option 80k F150's....

Keith Tanner said:

Kreb (Forum Supporter) said:

My cousin drove past a red Ford pickup sitting outside at a dealership for the better part of a year. Then he went in and negotiated a great price, because he knew that they hate sitting on inventory that long. I guess not many people want their pickups to be red. 

In defense of this, work trucks should be white :) ...

 

I purposely went other than white to separate my company from the endless crowd of white work vehicles. Blue is the company color and it matches their uniform shirts. It has worked very well. I have two of these now and the guys driving them prefer them over the white. 

I recently replaced my Laser blue MINI Cooper Clubman S, I found a good deal on a car that I liked and the only thing that gave me pause was the color.......silver. SO tired of greyscale cars. 

But, I wound up buying it because at least in the sunlight its got an incredible sparkle to it. And, I can't see the color from the driver's seat anyway - or so I tell myself. And it was a good buy on a great car, so Ima just live with it I guess. 

I'm also completely over the three choices on interior colors - grey, black or beige. My new car is light grey, of course.....

When I worked for Audi in the 70's, the new Audi 5000 not only came in a fantastic range of colors, both metallic ($500 extra)  and non-metallic, but even more impressive was the range of colors for interior fabrics - light blue (in my 78 5000) light green, copper, red, cream, and then a whole host of leather colors too.....black and grey were not even available until the mid 80's! I def miss those choices we had......

Our Fit is this color and it makes me happy. I'm also happy when i see Jeeps in a similar color. 

Lof8 - Andy said:

The good old days

Porsche still has a good palette, they've got some great greens and blues.

To be fair, some of the '90s retreat towards greyness was probably backlash against the '80s ALL THE BLUE and ALL THE BURGUNDY and ALL THE BROWN color schemes.