Don’t take my monochrome away
Silver, black, white, and grey = boring, says Lynn:
Are people’s tastes really that dull or is it just that those are the colors most available or best priced? We bought two white vehicles in a row and our latest is dark gray. Our choices were based on the prices which were significantly less than vehicles in the colors we preferred and we were quite annoyed with the lack of color choices.
The advantage of this greyscale stuff, I’ve always felt, is comparative invisibility: sports cars, perhaps, should be in colors like Arrest Me Red, but I’d just as soon not attract attention on the way to Point B. (This can go too far, I suppose: consider Wonder Woman’s aircraft.)
One of Lynn’s commenters notes:
I like a white car because the stuff in the trunk stays cooler. (White reflects the heat.) Good for beer, good for musical instruments.
Also cooler: the folks in the actual seats, though when it’s 105° out there (41°C), it’s only a small improvement.
And apparently there are motor-noters who take Lynn’s side. A letter in the January Car and Driver:
The cover of the October ’09 issue shows a yellow Mazda 3, but yellow isn’t an option for the 3.
Old cranky Ed. ‘fessed up:
Good eye. We Photoshopped the Mazda yellow to add some color to an oversupply of silver cars.
Under the circumstances, I don’t blame them.
fillyjonk »
9 December 2009 · 6:58 am
I have a white car. I would buy a white car again, because of the temperature issue.
That said, if I lived somewhere that had a lot of snow in the winter, my car would be a different color. White cars blend in when there’s snow, just like grey cars blend in in the fog.
And some cars are just hard to see. My dad had an early-70s Maverick that was sort of a deep green color. After getting in a minor accident for the third time, where someone said, “But I just didn’t SEE you,” he took it to Earl Scheib and had it painted almost school-bus yellow.
fillyjonk »
9 December 2009 · 7:12 am
“Any car, any color”.
Does my heart good to know that Earl Scheib still exists, even if it’s a lot more expensive to get your car painted than it used to be.
Dwayne "the canoe guy" »
9 December 2009 · 8:07 am
Back in the 70′s there was a report that a grey or silver car was MUCH more likely to be in an accident because of blending in during fog, rain, twilight (no, not vampires) conditions
Lisa Paul »
9 December 2009 · 8:54 am
When I bought my Prius (one of the first to roll off the line), it only seemed to be available in a a particularly electric green. Which was kind of appropriate. Since then, the available colors have become more muted. Although I would have suggested they could have upped the fun factor by making it available in a rainbow of jujube and M&M candy colors.
And I know, some readers will say there is NO fun to be had in a Prius.
fillyjonk »
9 December 2009 · 10:16 am
If I were going to buy a Prius, I think I’d take it to a paint shop and have it painted Hello Kitty pink. Or a similar color. Just because.
CGHill »
9 December 2009 · 10:26 am
Something like this?
Cary »
9 December 2009 · 11:20 am
Wait. Is that really Dwayne the canoe guy? The real one?
Dwayne "the canoe guy" »
9 December 2009 · 11:29 am
yup, it is me. Was I missed?
Cary »
9 December 2009 · 11:36 am
Well I can’t speak for everyone but I’m guessing the canoe
and kayak crowd are happy to see you.
fillyjonk »
9 December 2009 · 12:28 pm
Mmmnnn, that’s more of a Barbie pink. Hello Kitty pink is a bit paler and softer.
fillyjonk »
9 December 2009 · 12:36 pm
It occurs to me that my concept of a color and the car-painting-guy’s concept of a color may be very different, considering some of the prior “color” discussions I’ve had with men.
(“Teal? What the hell is *teal*?”)
CGHill »
9 December 2009 · 1:11 pm
I’m not sure, but I suspect it isn’t this.
fillyjonk »
9 December 2009 · 1:23 pm
Nooo. That’s ICE blue, not TEAL blue.
Honestly. (Though I admit to having a greater “color sensitivity” than most people. Still, I doubt most folks would accept that as teal.)
Kay Dennison »
9 December 2009 · 1:27 pm
My dear lil’ Miss Ruby is a color my daughter calls “Hello Officer red” since red cars get stopped most often by the constabulary, Not a problem for me because I drive like the old lady I’m becoming and I had her a couple years now and never have said, “Hello, officer.” The best part is NO ONE can say they can’t see her. I don’t recall ever having a grey or white car — boring,
Jeffro »
9 December 2009 · 1:44 pm
What – is Mary Kay handing out Prii now?
CGHill »
9 December 2009 · 2:28 pm
I’ve gone through Almost Teal (though the repainting job was dubious), the aforementioned Hello Officer Red, burgundy, hunter green, “Mojave Beige,” and now this antiseptic Kelvinator White.
Dwayne "the canoe guy" »
9 December 2009 · 3:07 pm
I would be happy to produce the letter I sent to Saturn pitching the idea of “color-changer” cars that become different colors based on the temperature. (I also have their “Thanks, but no thanks” reply)
& I hope the canoe/kayak guys are happy to see me since I fought the fight for legal 14 ft canoes.
Cary »
9 December 2009 · 3:25 pm
Were the canoes in some kind of trouble?
Suzette »
9 December 2009 · 4:08 pm
I think people (like me) are very interested in coordinating interior and exterior colors. The only choices for interiors now are shades of grey and shades of beige, the latter of which are almost always pukey. The top colors are the ones that best match a grey interior.
Personally, I’m waiting until they reintroduce a turquoise car wrapped around a white interior. I missed my chance in 1972.
CGHill »
9 December 2009 · 4:16 pm
Definitely true on the interiors. When I bought my second 626, there were only two interior colors available: cheese-mold grey and butterscotch pudding. (I got the latter.) The Infiniti has a slightly darker grey, not exactly complemented by some of the least-persuasive chemoplanking ever extruded.
fillyjonk »
9 December 2009 · 8:30 pm
Wow, a color changing car. That would be awesome.
Except, in Oklahoma, in the summer, it would just be stuck on the color indicative of the hottest temperatures.
Or they could do a mood car, like a mood ring – maybe have sensors in the steering wheel, and then it would trigger the car color to suit the person’s mood. And it would be a safety thing! You could avoid people whose car color indicated road rage.
CGHill »
9 December 2009 · 9:09 pm
Awful lot of black on the Northwest Distressway, I’d bet.
Lynn »
14 December 2009 · 8:28 am
I don’t know about other guys but my husband knows what teal is.
That reminds me – my favorite car color ever was called Mystic Teal Metallic. I only saw one once. It was some kind of sports car. It was very teal but depending on the direction you were looking it had sort of a purple haze over the teal.
Since I probably can’t have a pick-up in that color (and since my husband would never let me have a pink pick-up) I want a bright yellow one.