A couple of weeks ago while driving I suddenly realized how dull the cars around me were. The vast majority were black, gray, silver, or white. Of the few blue ones, nearly all were either dark navy (close to black) or light metallic (close to silver.) Most of the red ones were dark red, although there were a few bright red ones of sportier models. Yellow? Forget it. I've seen maybe half a dozen in two weeks, most of them VW New Beetles.

We need more color! Bright Blue. Yellow. Orange. Two-tones even. The roads are too darned bland.

By the way, since I started noticing this, my little blue car died and I had to get a new vehicle. It's silver....

__________________
Cum catapultae proscribeantur tum soli proscripti catapultas habeant.

BTW, which country do you mean? I assume either the UK or the USA, but I suppose I could be mistaken.

__________________
As above, so below

Silver is a popular color these days; never cared for it myself. I think I read somewhere that marketing folks decided that people perceive silver as a 'luxury' color.

I saw an absolutely beautiful deep red Alfa Romeo 8C at the vintage races out at PIR today. I didn't think any of those were going to be imported to the US. And no one does red like Ferrari.

I'm kinda partial to the metallic burnt orange color, if it can be found. Not to be confused with rust.

__________________
"What you think you thought you saw you did not see." Agent J, MiB - Manhatten Bureau

Silver, White, Red and Black are usualy the cheapest colours offered as 'standard' (Well they are in Europe) Anything else is extra, it can be up to an extra £2000 depending what you want and you usualy have to wait.

Every company provided car I have drivern has been Silver, if you look around in the UK that colour outnumbers everything else put together.

__________________
All Moderation in Purple
To report a post (even this one) to the moderation team, click the reporting icon in the upper-right corner of the post:
─────────────────────────────────────────────
◄Rules For Posting To This Board ► ◄Forum FAQs ► ◄ Conspiracy Theory Advice ► ◄ Alternate Theory Advice ►

I like bright blue myself. Had to settle for dark blue on the latest vehicle.

Fred

__________________
"For shame, gentlemen, pack your evidence a little better against another time."
-- John Dryden, "The Vindication of The Duke of Guise" 1684

No one does red like Ferrari indeed. It's also a very rare example of red that doesn't seem to go pale after some years of sunlight. Though i must say that my colleaugue's very old red VW Golf 1 also still is red, not pale pink. In between the rust, that is.

__________________
To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

First noticed predominance of colour silver, in 2000/2001. This in the UK.

Hasn't particularly varied much since then. Not that that's important.
Sorry Trebuchet, raining on your car...

__________________
clear skies

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. CARL SAGAN

Mak: Pass the pepperoni please.
Fazor: "Hail, Bautainia! We pledge our hearts to thee! Science and woo, some babbling too, and astron-oh-meee!"
slang: And it made ash out of yew and tree.

Amen.

I do agree, though. The dominant color choices today are a bit bland, and that's on top of the similar styling the various makes exhibit.

Sometimes more creative colors have been offered, and been discontinued, apparently because people weren't buying enough of them. Several years ago, for example, one of the colors you could get a Dodge truck in was purple (not very dark but not very bright). It's no longer offered, and I haven't seen any. A type of car I was interested in was also available in orange, but isn't anymore, and I haven't seen any (although in that case I admit I didn't like the shade of orange they were offering, so I can understand).

What I don't get is why they discontinue colors that seem to be popular. The PT Cruiser palate originally included a dark purple, and lots of them on the road now have that color, but you can't get a new one in that color anymore. (...although you can get one in a loud shade of blue.) And Chevy & GMC pickup trucks in the late 1990s often came in a darkish but shiny bronze color, but over the years the company starting making it lighter, more yellow/beige and less brown, and then decreasing the saturation so it was paler and less of an intense stand-out yellow and more of a wussified sandy or pine-woody color that blends in with all of the white, off-white, and beige cars. You'd never imagine a connection now with the original bronze if you hadn't been watching the evolution over the years.

You could have it repainted. Whatever vehicle I get next, I might have it redone in yellow or purple.

I was at a big car meet two weeks ago and took a bunch of photos. If you like colorful cars, feast your eyes on these: http://gallery.me.com/emarsh#100312

I have never understood why a car has to be one colour - why not a harlequin collection of different colours?

I have also been told by a car dealer that green cars have a much lower secondhand value than identical ones of a different colour. Why does nobody like green?

__________________
γνῶθι σεαυτόν

yah....biiig car meet....

__________________
clear skies

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. CARL SAGAN

Mak: Pass the pepperoni please.
Fazor: "Hail, Bautainia! We pledge our hearts to thee! Science and woo, some babbling too, and astron-oh-meee!"
slang: And it made ash out of yew and tree.

I like silver/ grey cars. My car is silver. Just keep it that way.

__________________
What brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart

Traditionally green race cars were considered bad luck. There may have been a carry over into the mainstream.

I needed a new car in a hurry, having just trashed the bright-blue Jeep. Also, finances were tight at the time. Well, maybe next time.

Fred

__________________
"For shame, gentlemen, pack your evidence a little better against another time."
-- John Dryden, "The Vindication of The Duke of Guise" 1684

Non-obtrusive colours are much better for society. Why is it some folks need to be assaulted by more lights, more noise, more bright colours.

This move away from shiny-in-your-face colours has been most welcomed in our natural areas, parks, etc. One can focus more on Nature and less on what appears as gaudy Christmas bulbs bobbing all over the place.

If one has the need for attention or 'look at me', then get your crayon-box coloured car...or, if you can't afford it, then wear a shocking lime green hat.

With or without a propeller?

Fred

__________________
"For shame, gentlemen, pack your evidence a little better against another time."
-- John Dryden, "The Vindication of The Duke of Guise" 1684

These cars were semi-popular in parts of Europe about 10 years ago.

The only people I personally knew who drove them were three women with extremely low self-esteem who wanted to prove to the world how creative they were.

Needless to say, they never really caught on.

Neither did the cars.

__________________
The only ones that hate an elite are those who know they will never belong to one.

Thanks for that, the photo answered my question. Terrible idea.

__________________
γνῶθι σεαυτόν

cars are generic in color because most people just buy whatever the dealer has in stock on the day they are looking for a car. as a result, a lot of silver or dark blue cars are sold- which leads the dealers to think those colors are popular, which leads them to order more of them, which means more silver or blue cars on the lots, which leads the consumers to think they are popular, which leads them to buy them.
also, insurance companies charge more for some models of cars that are painted a catchy color- a red Camaro or Mustang or Challenger costs more to insure than an equivalently equipped dark blue Camaro or Mustang or Challenger.
then add on that some wingnuts want to ban the sale of darker colored cars because they might require the air conditioning to be run more during the summer- despite the fact that the ac is going to be run all the time during the hot months by most people in certain parts of the country no matter what color the car happens to be- and you wind up with bland cars on the roads.

__________________
"blacker than the blackest black... times infinity."- Nathan Explosion
The.. Best.. Thread..Ever...

I like the colors on the Brazilian Obvio.

__________________
I want to go back to the moon.
I don't care which rocket you use, whichever one you pick, I'll like it, I swear.
"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek

Eh? What about "British Racing Green"? Lotus did "quite well" in it...

__________________
To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

The green car superstition was only a US track racing phenomenon. It was dispelled when Jim Clark won the Indianapolis 500 in a green Lotus.

__________________
"Everybody's playing the Game
But nobody's rules are the same
Nobody's on nobody's side." (Tim Rice)
No matter how strong, or brave, or pure of heart you may be; sometimes the dragon wins!

I got a white car once. I chose it via a process of elimination, not the color. When asked if I liked the color, I said that it would hide the fact that I didn't wipe the snow off. The salesman went around the office telling everyone while I was there, trying to make me look like an idiot. I guess he didn't understand satire. Well, he was a used car salesman.

__________________
"What you think you thought you saw you did not see." Agent J, MiB - Manhatten Bureau

I like Green. We have a green Jeep Cherokee. Up until the mid 1960's, green cars were very popular. Then with the coming of no wax perma-shine paints it was difficult to finish a body in 'green'. Most metallic green cars from the 70's and 80's were custom paint jobs. From about the mid 90's the technology was refined for most manufacturers to offer green cars again.

If the sales person tried to make me look foolish , i would have taken my business elsewhere ...

I have a green landrover and while it started out green , its mostly faded paint and the clear coat is gone from too much washing from the previous owner i guess ...So its kinda white ... in places ...Oh yea ..land rovers colors are messed up ...The paint color says avalon blue , but its green ...

__________________
Stuff i have ...LX90 8in.sct with antares 80mm raci finder on a wedge std. field tripod ....lxd55 5in.achromat ota. with a etx60 finder on a celestron CG5 goto mount...And a bunch of eyepieces

But in some ways silly on the road.
Would you actually rather want people to overlook your car while you're driving?

__________________
‘To those who regard “crime fiction” as some sacred icon which must follow a rigid formula, I will always be the man who writes 18-syllable haiku.’Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

Not only new colors, but different body styles. Too many American cars look alike these days...