Any colour you want, as long as it’s black

March 8, 2019 2:24 PM

From the dawn of motoring through the 1920s, cars were painted in a full spectrum of colours, often in vivid combinations. The world’s first motor vehicle, the 1886 Benz Patent-Motorwagen was green, with its fully-exposed engine finished in bright red. At the Villa d’Este or Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance one sees a veritable riot of colour that would likely be a bit shocking to today’s consumers: black with orange, yellow with orange, dark and light blue, dark and light green, red with blue, maroon with red; the palette was limitless.
posted by Lanark (33 comments total)

I had an early '90s teal Honda Accord and I loved it for its weird, dated color (it was a good car! I may still be driving it now had someone not totaled it!). When I was shopping for my latest car (a used Chevy Spark), I really wanted one of the weirder colors (there was a light yellow, a bright blue and a lilac) but in the end, the one that worked out was red. It is, at least, a really cute red, and I like having a car that's a color in a sea of white/silver/black cars.

More fun colored cars!
posted by darksong at 2:37 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]

I would like a lilac Porsche 911 please
posted by nikaspark at 2:45 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]

Oh man I'd do one in Gold Zinger but our COA would sue me.
posted by condour75 at 2:59 PM on March 8, 2019 [11 favorites]

My orange Subaru Crosstrek looks awesome in front of my green and purple house. I had to order it and wait six weeks to get that color but it was worth it.
posted by elizilla at 3:04 PM on March 8, 2019 [7 favorites]

Very much enjoyed my first car: a 1969 Plymouth Valiant in baby blue!

Man, I miss that honey...
posted by darkstar at 3:05 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

My first car was a blue Valiant as well, but a darker blue. My Aunt gave it to me after she won a tan Cadillac in the church raffle. I loved that car, and the many happy trips to the Jersey Shore my friends and I took in it. I have had several blue cars, the latest a bright blue Honda Fit. I think cars should come in many colors, a purple car would be cool. Why are car colors so boring?
posted by mermayd at 3:18 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

Why are car colors so boring?

Chemistry, from what I understand. The problem with the old paints is that they didn't wear as well as the modern metallic finishes.
posted by NoxAeternum at 3:36 PM on March 8, 2019

I never owned a car, but if I do, i want it to be in an utterly fugly colour so it's easier to find in parking lots, and possibly less stealing-worthy.
posted by farlukar at 3:38 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

I remember whitewall tires. Sigh.
posted by Splunge at 3:42 PM on March 8, 2019

The problem with the old paints is that they didn't wear as well as the modern metallic finishes.

I think that issue was solved long ago, metallics are still more expensive to repair and more difficult for 3rd party body shops to colour match so perhaps that incentivises manufacturers to use them.
posted by Lanark at 3:59 PM on March 8, 2019

Why are car colors so boring?

To match with today's boring architecture.
posted by jjj606 at 4:34 PM on March 8, 2019 [6 favorites]

I saw a hot pink Chevy SUV on my drive home tonight.
posted by Autumnheart at 4:51 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

Why are car colors so boring?

To facilitate stealthy evasion of road rage pursuit by blending in with the herd.
posted by fairmettle at 4:53 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

Modern car designers love Ani DiFranco?
posted by clawsoon at 4:57 PM on March 8, 2019

Why are car colors so boring?

Because everyone insists on treating everything like an investment and are only concerned about resale. So, boring cars, boring houses, neutral colours, because the next person might not like something that is too individual.

Bleurgh.
posted by fimbulvetr at 5:08 PM on March 8, 2019 [14 favorites]

Historically Porsche has had some of the best colours, though I’m partial to BMW Techno Violet.
posted by a halcyon day at 5:36 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]

Somewhere I read that truckers refer to the colors of grey vehicles on the highway as "fog, cement and asphalt."
posted by TrishaU at 5:53 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

The brochure that came with my "Blue Danube" 1970 Citroën DS21 laid out a display of color and fabric options so goddamned glorious that I have never since forgiven the United States for being such a dreary hole of rolling oatmeal and aesthetic tragedy.
posted by sonascope at 6:57 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

Green is usually one of my least favorite colors of things, but that Aston Martin DB4 is gorgeous.
posted by invitapriore at 6:58 PM on March 8, 2019

I had a rust colored '76 Celica and that turned out to be a good color to camouflage the constant body rot that infected that car.

Now all cars look like rental cars.
posted by octothorpe at 8:00 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

My first car was also a blue Valiant which I bought from someone who had bought it from the East Bay Area water utility EBMUD fleet done in EBMUD blue which seems a quite different blue from the others I have seen. Custom? Folks, I drove that car into the ground, but it took me 10 years.
posted by cultcargo at 8:37 PM on March 8, 2019

Here's the article I think many are citing about why cars are such boring colors. (previously) In short, longer ownership periods, evolving technology and environmental regulations. We recently bought a second hand car, and while I wouldn't have chosen its particular shade of blue if I was buying new, I am glad it is a color.
posted by St. Oops at 10:18 PM on March 8, 2019

My dad owned one of these for a while. Pretty easy to find no matter how crowded the lot was.
posted by freakazoid at 5:53 AM on March 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

Also brightly colored cars are probably safer in bad weather. People don't know to turn their lights on, and there's always some gray car I can barely see against the gray road and the gray sky.

(I have a boring-ass black car. It was yellow when I first saw it, though, because it was hanging out in the lot at the dealership under a tree that let out lots of pollen.)
posted by madcaptenor at 8:59 AM on March 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

Previously.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 10:48 AM on March 9, 2019

My car also is super-boring black. As in, you have no idea how many black Altimas there are in the world until you try and find yours in a parking lot. I need to just get it Fact-o-Baked purple, but then people would think I’m a Ravens fan.
posted by wintermind at 12:08 PM on March 9, 2019

I have driven bright blue, cheerful Honda Fits since 2007. I've often yearned for the orange or yellow or purple ones when car-buying, but have generally been overridden by the other people I'm jointly car shopping with or unable to find one.

One day.

one day I'm gonna drive the most fuck-off sparkly bright hatchie I can find and it's gonna be GREAT.

In the meantime, at least I've got a nice beetle blue color to roll with.

omg they brought back the orange fury color, if only I didn't live in Austin which makes it irritatingly charged
posted by sciatrix at 12:21 PM on March 9, 2019

I drive a Kia Sorento that's the color of wet cement, with a real subtle sparkle. The interior is dark gray. While I was shopping, they showed me one with a red leather interior and I really wanted to like it, but it was hideous. It's our "finish raising kids" vehicle (their early years were spent being driven around in a Dodge Magnum and I still miss it) and I plan to get something with more personality after that. The Soul comes in fun colors, though, and I would have taken a Sorento in Alien 2 or Mysterious Blue if they offered it.
posted by danielleh at 5:44 PM on March 9, 2019

My last car was a purple Honda Fit. It wasn’t the most exciting purple but it was rare enough when I got it that I would get excited to see one just like it. None of the owners of my car twin ever honked and waved back at me though :(

I was pissed upon trading it in to learn that the color reduced its trade-in value. I don’t blame people for staying with grey now. Cars are such a massive investment, maybe it’s the millennial in me that worries about money and making poor decisions constantly but there seems little use for joyful car colors if it means being dinged $500–1000 off your trade-in.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 6:45 PM on March 9, 2019 [2 favorites]

Around here, most cars are some variation of oatmeal-colored. Not necessarily ugly, just universally boring.

The only car I have loved was my robin's egg blue, 1974 Karmann Ghia, which looked just like this beauty that for reasons I can't begin to imagine was up for sale last December.
posted by she's not there at 7:06 PM on March 9, 2019

I really wanted to buy the red version of my Honda Civic, but they only made it with a baby-poop tan interior that I could not see living with. So I got the blue with grey interior, which is at least a color. Otherwise they had black, white and like three shades of gray. And a muted green, I think. It was so sad.
posted by tavella at 11:05 PM on March 9, 2019

I hate boring car colors! I don't really even care what color my car is, but not grey/silver/black/blend in with the herd.
posted by mkuhnell at 9:01 AM on March 10, 2019

When I was growing up, my parents had a 1996 purple Dodge minivan. We called it the Iris. It was a good 'un.

My car now is a Civic in Cosmic Blue Metallic. I really wanted a vanity plate that said TARDIS, but alas.
posted by basalganglia at 11:49 AM on March 10, 2019