Somebody posted this on the other site, thought I’d link to
The age of average by Alex Murrell https://www.alexmurrell.co.uk/articles/the-age-of-average
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Lead paint. The only way to get these vibrant colours that last a long time is by adding various Pb compounds.
In the late 80s an Early 90s, they started using other chemistries, which is why the vehicles from that period had such terrible fading and flaking.
They finally got it right in the 2010s, but by that time, people had settled on monochromatic or boring colours.
When you do see colours, they are usually Navy Blue, Jungle Green or Burgundy.
oh there’s an actual answer and it’s not just capitalism this time. That’s rare.
Capitalised Science bought us TetraEthyl Lead and all the colours of the Lead Paint rainbow. True Science made us aware that aerated heavy metal fumes and particulate paint chips were not the best for our brains.
TIL
Resale value. Monochromatic colors retain the highest resale value, which is why you see so many of them. It’s boring and awful. My car is orange because it makes me smile and I can easily find it in a parking lot.
On top of this, a lot of cars come into circulation through vehicle hire and corporate fleets. They get driven for a year, then sold on the used market.
Vehicle hire companies also all want specifically white/silver/grey cars for the same reason - they are inoffensive and unobtrusive to the people renting them, and they sell better afterwards too.
My orange Veloster was a corporate fleet car, though I get the point. It’s also a turbo and a manual, so they might’ve added it to the fleet particularly for the people that like a bit of fun.
Just to build on that a bit, I think it’s more so that resale value is considered higher because more people today aren’t trying to be as colorful as previous decades.
You see it in clothing, too, which people aren’t buying with the intention to resell. 1980’s clothing was a lot more colorful and flashy. In winter, everyone had those colorful windbreakers and ski jackets. Today, when I go out during winter and look at what kinds of coats people on the street are wearing, it’s basically just a sea of mostly black and beige in various styles.
A Washington Post color analysis of D.C. found shades of gray permeate neighborhoods where the White population has increased and the Black population has decreased.
Obviously. White + black = gray.
(/s because I’m sure someone needs that for this.)
Oh, for sure. Trying to find my black coat on the coatrack at work is always a pain. I miss the fun colors of the 80s. Still a huge fan of that teal.
Looking at video games right now, which is one of the largest cultural touchstones of this age, I think that’s going to change soon. Right now, there are so many games using vibrant colors. Two examples that come to mind are The Finals and the upcoming Marathon.
This style is different than the past though. It isn’t color everywhere. It’s mostly white (or other neutral color) with very vibrant accents. It’s the style Mirror’s Edge (many of the devs now work on The Finals) did so long ago, but it didn’t stick. Now it looks like it’s going to stick around for a little while at least.
To take it further - cities and towns. Most cities have a fairly dull color palette (browns and greys). There are of course exceptions to this but most people live in very bland, non-offensive environments from cars, to clothing, to the houses and office buildings where they live and work.
I’ve always wondered why humans both love color and are scared of it at the same time?
But clothes you mix and match. I got a pair of comfortable and flattering trousers so I got a pair more in a different colour. And it’s a sort of grey green that I thought would be fine but somehow it clashes with almost everything I own.
You sure about that? I bought my Volvo impulsively in part because it was the fully equipped model in blue instead of any other color which was readily available…
It seems we’re cut from the same cloth. Unfortunately, the majority of people are boring.
https://www.kbb.com/car-advice/what-are-the-best-car-colors-to-buy/
I can also say, coming from a place that gets snow in the winter, I can see why white cars have an edge over others, which is that they’re better at hiding salt. They put salt on all the roads to melt snow and ice, but then it sticks to cars and shows up very noticeably on anything with darker/bolder colors.
I had a black mica Barina that never showed dirt. The mica in the paint had just the right amount of reflectivity that any additional dirt or dust just looked like more mica.
I’m working on restoring a car so I have the original color sheet. So many more options 56 years ago. Today you get like 5-6 options and half cost quite a bit more.
Article goes into the broader behavioral picture, but the reason dealers stock mostly black, white and gray cars is that in practice more customers who come in looking for a specific color will settle for black, white or gray if they get a “good deal”, but will walk away from more distinct colors.
A lot of it is due to the dealership model. The dealership doesn’t have room for infinite inventory, so they only order vehicles that will appeal to a wide audience. Some buyers will not take a yellow car or a blue one, but very few people will reject a grey car that otherwise meets all their requirements. So we end up with: white, white-grey, off-grey, grey, dark grey, bold grey, charcoal, and black.
Interesting to note, if you go look at the ‘build your own’ options on a manufacture’s website, they do still offer colors. But it can be surprisingly difficult to get, as you ultimately have to order through the dealership. The dealership is much more motivated to sell you what’s on the lot today, rather than let you order a car that will arrive in 6 months.
Also, my mother calls this year’s grey “mud grey”, which I find very funny for some reason.
And the colours cost extra…
Maybe 5 years ago (at least in the US, go figure) gun-metal grey was the popular color
Now we’re getting that weird “clear coat over primer” effect. No metallic flake at all, a flat color that’s probably an earth tone and then high gloss that makes it look like the car is made out of modeling clay.
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Because it was and is cheaper than using bright colors.
It is not a choice of the consumers.
It is a choice of consumers. If it is cheaper to make boring colors, and consumers actually care enough about color to pay extra for it, then manufacturers would sell more brightly colored cars.
But they don’t. A car buyer goes to the lot and says “I want a car like x, y, z, and I want it to be bright red!” The dealer doesn’t have red, because most people don’t want red, so they say “okay, we can have that car for you in two months. Or you can drive off the lot today in this black car for $X less.” The buyer realizes they don’t actually care that much, and buys the black car.
The buyer can always then go to a paint shop and change the color. But they probably won’t do this either, since, again, they don’t care that much. Sure, they’d like a red car - but then they’d be without it for a few days while the painting was done and it would cost a bunch of money.
Just bought a used car specifically just cause it was a bright orange box. It was priced low because it was a bright orange box with a stick transmission and nobody wanted it.
I love it.
But my last vehicle was a generic silver SUV. Hated it but when I fell upon hard times and had to live in it I was quite happy that I looked like every other car on the road. Best not to draw attention to yourself if you need to sleep in a parking lot or on the side of the road in a residential area.
That article was fascinating - excellent journalism
I took your advice and read the article, IT WAS A GOOD ARTICLE. Thank you!
I am sad about the lack of fun colors. I used to own two orange cars (a subaru crosstrek and a lotus elise), but now I’m stuck in a boring white truck.
It’s not just cars. I buy women’s glasses because all men’s glasses are black, brown, grey, or silver.
It’s so annoying that the only way to get colorful men’s glasses is to buy $1000 designer fashion brands but you can get good colorful frames in the women’s models for a tenth of the cost at pretty much any glasses store
I asked if they had anything more colourful than the frames they were offering me. The salesperson sort of shrugged but the person behind the counter suggested, “show him the ‘Feature’ line.” They led me to the other half of the store.
And what happened to shapes?
Shapes has a bit more logical of a reason. Pedestrian impact standards basically dictated that the nose of a car be “flatter” so you don’t chop a persons legs off at the shins. Sadly it leads to a very common style since there’s only so much you can do with that. Couple it with the SUV craze and everything starts looking similar.
The boxy style actually leads to more pedestrian injuries due to reduced visibility and sharp angles.
The best design is a gentle slope. That is why most modern cars have a gentle grille angle, sensors in the front bar and pyrotechnic actuators in the bonnet hinges.
They loosen and push the back of the of the bonnet up so that when the victims head hits the bonnet, there is some give and they are less likely to receive debilitating head injuries.
Still, there is no substitute for driving more slowly and paying attention to your surroundings.
My number two rule of the road is to assume that every person on the road as complete idiot and is going to make mistakes, including yourself.
also leads to the terrible wall-of-death tall flat front that everything has now with horrible visibility, with the bonus that the LED headlights will blind the person you’re about to run over so they can’t even try to evade you
pedestrian safety standards have become a joke
Wait what does that have to do with led headlights? That’s always a problem if you have
- Too bright headlights
- The lights are aligned too high
- Aftermarket light bulbs that are not meant for the headlights
Led headlights themselves are just lot better than the older tech since their lifetime is massively longer and they’re rather cheap
It’s to do with the drag coefficient too. There’s only so many ways you can bend the bodywork of a car around its contents in an aerodynamic way.
I’m not disagreeing but it’s annoying when a 20+yr old box shaped car gets the same economy and looks 100x better.
I think some of that is still marketing. You can pack a higher power engine in a more aerodynamic package with the same economy, the extra 5-10Hp will make it sell better. Also helps to standardize assembly lines across models.
There’s always the matter of following a trend and appeasing the business people’s expectations to consider.
Especially with electric cars becoming more popular. It’s cheaper than ever to go a certain distance. Now that I can use cheap power, give me less efficient and more interesting designs. (yes range is affected too, but it is negligibly cheap to recharge)
Noticed this several years ago, but color is coming back, in America at least. Maybe it’s my perception fooling me, but I’m seeing more and more colors on the road, even bright colors. LOVE the latest gray-blue color, whatever it’s called. Dead sexy.
Here are your color choices.
Mine is “Bristol” blue (a light time) and has a little more than a year.
I had a bright orange Polo a while back. I loved the colour and the nicest thing about it is you can easily locate it in a car park.
Looked down a road yesterday and every parked car was white. I went another way.
