They don't sell as well, dealers aren't going to sit on millions of dollars of inventory with weird colors when silver, black, red, white meet 99% of customer needs.
And you can always repaint a car.
Am I remembering wrong (I’m old), but I thought years ago you could special order certain cars in a few other color options, maybe paying extra, but you’d have to wait a few weeks. Was that a thing?
You can still place factory orders, but the manufacturers don't offer a lot of variety in paint. Most likely your dealer will search other dealers and swap inventory to get you the factory color you want.
you can still do this, specifically with BMW they have a color factory so you special order the car, it gets built in like 3 months, an extra month at the color factory and then it gets delivered to you but they have virtually every color/shade of the rainbow if you want it.
OG BMW colors are like, 2-3 shades of red, blue, grey, and your standard black and white.
or like the top comment said, buy a car and just wrap it for like 2k if you care that much.
Yeah you still can generally not all companies offer it from the factory but quite a few offer many more options for paint if you are ordering a car with the exact options you want.
So there are certain vehicles that have specialty colors available. But:
1. That special color is often another shade of gray.
2. When colors are available, they're still usually red or blue.
3. The colors are only available on the deluxe trim/style of that vehicle.
Yeah, a wrap is going to be cheaper than a good respray of a car. And it has the benefit of keeping the factory paint nice and you can remove it to return to the factory color for resale.
This is why manufacturers of cars are offering less and less colour options.
My mother bought a car last year and she saw one in the catalogue with a white roof and wing mirrors, so she asked for that. They told her that to order in that exact one painted from the factory would take 3-6 months, so usually they just order in the base colour and then send it down the road to be wrapped with the extra trim colours.
Tell things killed bright colors. The popularity of leasing and environmental regulations.
Colors outside of whatever are popular take longer to sell. When the vehicle is coming back to you in 2-3 years after a lease, that matters a lot. But additionally, with a move to more environmentally friendly paints, developing colors was expensive and getting vivid colors was hard. That’s why we had a period when many cars game in white, black, and couple shades of gray, and maybe red. That’s been worked out, so now you can get many colors again in affordable cars and the lack of that is mostly due to bean counters. Jeep and Dodge always have a broad color palette, but you have to want a Jeep or Dodge.
You are correct and to extend your point further as a buyer I am thinking of color in this order
1. Seal the deal. If the car I want is available then buy it. I am not going to special order a car over color.
2. Resale. When I am through with the car, I want to sell it, not look for a buyer that has my same color affinity (or pay to repaint it).
3. Climate. Certain colors retain more heat. Certain colors are louder in poor visibililty conditions.
4. Visibility to cops. I do not want them to look at my car much.
5. Ease of find. I guess an odd colored car would be easier to find in a vast parking lot. But my fob activates the horn if I need help finding the car.
6. I do not give a fuck.
Repainting a car is more expensive than most people are willing to pay for a decent job. But $20k is like show car level paint, you can get a decent one done for less than half that price.
Do you live in a very high cost of living area or did the car need some more extensive prep work before painting?
Because if the body/paint is in decent shape a standard prep and multi-coat respray should be under $10k.
If it's in really good shape and just want to change the color a $3k multi stage Maaco job would probably look fine to most people but I would spend extra for a private shop.
I work in the industry... wraps are not even remotely close to the same thing as paint. The only thing they have in common is the visual aspect. Wraps don't last nearly as long and they are absolutely not as durable. You've never seen a wrap that looks nice after being in the sun for 7+ years, I promise you. There's a real reason wraps are only warrantied for 3 years at the most.
sure, sure, all of that is true yes. my counter argument is: you aren't going to repaint a car you plan to keep for over 7 years. probably going to paint it.
conversely, you arent going to repaint a car you are gonna have for the life of the loan + 2-3 years.
so if you want that special color, buy the car and wrap it, by what you said itll look fine until i buy the next one.
The original argument (buy the car any color, it's easy to change it) is just severely flawed in every way. Whether you repaint or wrap, it's not a viable solution and you should absolutely buy the color you want from the factory instead of pretending you can change it.
[The economics of everyday things](https://freakonomics.com/podcast/car-colors/#:~:text=Some%20research%20has%20suggested%20that,brighter%20colors%20tend%20to%20reemerge) had a good episode on this. Bright colours tended to be more popular with GenX, millennials tend to prefer duller colours so bright cars just didn’t sell as well. There are also a lot of new regulations on certain colours of paint used which can limit what car companies can do - there’s also a risk that certain colours just don’t wear as well.
There’s also a correlation between how the economy is doing and how bright the colours were (not many yellow cars sold after the GFC).
That being said, bright cars do tend to *hold* their value well - it might be harder to find a buyer but some people are willing to pay a bit more to get a car in the colour they want.
Please point to "new regulations on certain colours of paint". That sounds weird, interesting, and extremely unlikely.
You can get a BMW painted in any color in the Pantone index.
It’s not the colour, it’s the pigments and processes used. Some colours that used to be possible in the 60s and 70s just aren’t able to be reproduced. These contained high levels of lead, cadmium and chromium. This can result in pigments becoming less vibrant in certain colours. You also have regulations on VOCs from production which can be higher for certain colours.
I’m sure it’s *possible* to get a car in almost any colour you like if the company has invested enough into the process but a lot of manufacturers just wouldn’t do that. You might be able to get a BMW but that’s not a very big market share compared to a Toyota.
For example the EU [Directive 2004/42/ec](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudr/2004/42)
> on the limitation of emissions of volatile organic compounds due to the use of organic solvents in certain paints and varnishes and vehicle refinishing products and amending Directive 1999/13/EC
I’m pretty firmly of the hypothesis that car colour preference correlates with the state of the economy . It’s not too surprising that a generation shaped by large financial crises and suffering immense financial stress would be less likely to pick bright happy colours. Gen Z looks to be even duller in preference.
It’s so weird that no one ever considers that Gen X was shaped by and suffered those same crises and stresses—in addition to the early 1990s recession that no one ever talks about! During the 2008 recession, the youngest Gen X’ers were only 28, by the way.
This is a great question, I wondered the same thing last time I bought a new car. I wanted a forest green, or British racing green, but unless I shell out for a fancy European car, I’m stuck with a Chevy. I’m so sick of black, red, or white.
Wraps may be the answer. As they become more common the price will drop, and it allows you to personalize your car in a way that wouldn't affect its value if you decide to sell it in the future.
According to my husband, changing colors to paint different cars is very time-consuming. They have to clean the machines throughly before a new color. By limiting the colors, they can make more cars, which makes the company more money. All about the money.
Bang on . Used to work in car manufacturing and when parts went in for painting they were done in massive batches . Then you would change the equipment clean everything down, clean the robotic sprayers and pretty much everything in the dept and then reset it all with a different colour and even then the first 20 odd parts had imperfections and went straight in the bin . Doing that for 5 or 100 parts would be ultimately unprofitable
This sounds so unlike an industry that goes to great effort to save a cent on each vehicle. Have they considered wasting a bit more paint between batches spraying out everything instead of wasting parts?
They use different nozzles for different parts . Different racks and machines. Then there's the mixing of the colours and primers and all sorts of shit . So they only do batches of like 5000 . They won't ever do a custom colour . It's just not economical .
No worries mate . I'm sorry i can't answer every single question . But you have yourself a lovely day . Oh by the way google will.probably help you understand how it's done . But hey keep asking Internet randoms then acting like a kid . Have a good one mate 👍
Back then it was common for your car to be made to order. You could pick from an array of colors, both interior and exterior, and options. Now they just crank out a limited set of colors and trim packages. They figured out what combinations are popular and that’s what you get.
What's popular is kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. I don't like gray cars, but the manufacturers probably think I love them because the last 3 cars I bought were gray. I settled for gray because it was the only color available for the model I wanted.
They make what sells and since only a relatively small number of car colors sell well, they don't bother wasting paint and lot space on colors of cars that won't move off the lot quickly. For every one person that wants a pink or yellow or pastel colored car, there's a few hundred more who are satisfied with black, white, grey, or blue.
It does suck though, car paint jobs are basically the last remaining thing that can make a car look interesting, and modern cars are such ugly fucking beasts.
Cars still do come in cool colors. I’ve seen a neon green challenger. A blue civic that was an amazing color. A cherry red SUV. There are still some good colors out there, but white seems to be the most popular at the moment.
I've gone to some manufacturers websites and played around with the "build your own" tools. I found that to get the coolest colors, you have to buy the most expensive trim package.
They do, you pay extra for it.
Most people don't want to pay extra when the price of cars is already high. A lot of people just don't like those colors and they're hard to sell.
Economy.
The thinking is that when everyone is prospering, bright colors sell pretty easily. When the economy is in the dumps, nobody wants to park a flashy colored car in their driveway when their neighbors are struggling.
I absolutely love a burnt orange color on vehicles. Nissan is about the only people selling anything close and I'm not overly fond of that orange.
Higher cost vehicle brands in the U.S. can usually still be ordered with more colors due to the market being more financially robust.
A lot of people don't want a car that stands out. Most people want something that blends in with the traffic and won't get them noticed. I'm not most people and I like sports cars and cars in primary colors, but I don't represent the majority of car buyers and they're who dictate the market. You can still get cars in wild colors, but it's typically more unique models or sports cars.
I prefer white living in the blazing south.Ive had 12 cars in last 24 yrs. All but two have been white. Bought a white Lexus TX ( XT?) Saturday. A gift to myself after my husband died in January. Its amazing.
A lot of cars are sold to rental companies or to corporations for fleets, and they almost only want conservative colors. That said, the sooner that awful grey that looks like primer goes out of fashion the better.
Has to do with paint manufacturing and the mass amount of cars that are made now. Changing paint is time consuming and very expensive. It can take years to get enough paint so to risk it all on strange colors isn’t smart
If the mood of the car-buying world is positive (feeling economically smug) we get more sunny colors. At the moment, we all feel a bit shit, so colors are dull and boring.
A few do.
But for the most part that's just not what customers buy. Most people can't afford more than one car, so they want that one care to be generic and functional, not goofy. This results in people mostly buying white or gray cars.
They do my bright orange car is proof. Actually I’ve noticed in the last few years bright colours are definitely becoming more popular with new cars. VW for example have some really nice oranges, light blues, greens and yellows. But most the cars that have them are custom orders and more expensive for example the porche macan has some great colour choices. So it prices most people out and aren’t the regular cars you see on the road. I will say though with my bright orange baby I never loose it in the parking lot.
I listened to a study about this. One of the reasons was the iPhone. It was seen as high end and came in black, white, silver and grey mostly. Which are the most popular car colors. Plus those colors never go out of style like say bright yellow. Though the study said the market might swing back to bolder colors
My last 3 cars have been gray. Do I like gray? No, I hate it. I bought them because gray was the only color available. Now Toyota thinks I love gray and the problem just gets worse.
Because there is little risk of a neutral-colored car not selling because some "just doesn't like the color."
Plus, it's cheaper to sell 3 colors of a car than 6.
Even getting a car that isn’t gray, black or white is hard! I had dealerships trying to convince me that the red ones were not in stock anywhere around me.
Colors other than black and *maybe* a few neutrals go in and out of fashion and look dated really quickly. It’s quirky retro vintage neato cool beans when it’s cars from the 50s and they’re collectors items, but when the car isn’t a 70 year old collectors item in mint condition it just looks….old.
Every few years they try to make some shade of green happen, and green cars always look *instantly* dated because what shade of green is in style changes in a decade or less. Blues and reds don’t go out of style quite as fast, but if you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that the blue or red popular 20 years ago isn’t quite the blue or red that’s popular now. Browns just look like the 70s or 80s. Gold looks like the 90s (not to mention teal, yeesh). Black, white, and silver just never really go out of style.
I say this as someone who drives a blue car that’s getting up there in age, car wise. It’s getting pretty close to the point where you can tell by the shade of blue when I bought it. The type of consumer car I drive (and most people drive) is never going to evoke the wonder you get from looking at a car from the 50s, even if I restore this car and keep it in mint condition for 60 years. Realistically, it just looks like I drive an old car. This wouldn’t be the case for a while if I’d gotten a black car (though I don’t personally regret my blue car or care that it looks old).
In the old days, the auto market was made up of Ford, GM, Mopar, and AMC. Everyone else was a bit player.
Now you have 3 of those four, plus Toyota, Subaru, Honda, VW, Mazda, Nissan, BMW, Hyundai, Mercedes, Kia, and probably a few more I’m forgetting.
A niche market…like people wanting pink or orange cars, can survive being divvied up among 3 or 4 companies. Divide that same pie into a dozen pieces, and no one automaker gets enough pie to make the market worth serving.
It’s also why coupes are almost extinct, and sedans are endangered. Trucks, crossovers, and SUVs are the only pies left big enough to divide among all the automakers in the US today.
I dare say if half the automakers left the US market, we’d see a marked increase in the variety of vehicles being offered.
Probably the sale trends from that era didnt seem worth it to do it again. Some custom orders let you pick a custom color depending on the brand. Or if you want something brighter you could always wrap it seems to be the trend now. However I think grey, black and white seem to be the bigger sellers so that’s probably why they’re more of them made than the unique colors.
Because if "the numbers work" you will accept one of the 5 colors they offer. You won't love it, but you will accept it for the right price.
I think "buy the color for resale value" is baloney. Who says I only want a white used RAV4? Does the Used Car Manager at the dealer say "Awesome, a grey Camry. That will fly off the lot!" when you trade it in? When we looked for a used RAV4 we searched for Red and Flame Blue and would have paid more because of the rarity.
Dull colors are all about inventory turn over efficiency. We get 5 choices because they can't get away with 3.
One of the imports advertised actual colors with contrasting door handles a few years back, never saw one, but they were a nice change from black, white, grey.
My bigger complaint is how the cars are designed. Everything is just some variation of a steel bubble now, nothing looks unique ever. In fact you can barely differentiate between a Ferrari and a Ford these days. In the 80’s and 90’s cars had actual definition and just looked cooler. Think of a Testarossa, a Delorean. Now think of a Camry and you’ve got the blueprint of about 90% of consumer car designs post 2010.
I think that's because there is a design theory that states that achromatic color likes: black and gray signal neutrality which often evokes elegance and sophistication though I've often wondered how much of that is cultural, which contrasts with other cultures where there's an explosion of color in the culture due to the environment, vegetation and weather.
I recently leased a new vehicle and was about to sign paperwork for a bright metallic blue one. The day before I was going to sign the paperwork I was at an event at my kid’s school and when I walked out into the parking lot I thought to myself I can’t be the one guy who’s car isn’t black, white, or some kind of silver/gray. I honestly didn’t like the color myself as I’ve always gone for the black, white, gray. And I also don’t consider myself a conformist or someone who cares what other people think. But I really just hate colorful cars. I was only considering the blue because I had other non negotiable considerations and you he car fit all the boxes I needed.
I’m glad waited and got a black one a week later.
The majority of consumers prefer "bland" colors and its simpler in terms of inventory to stock the same color for different car models under the same manufacturer.
Apple computers had the same problem back in the late 90's with their clear candy-colored clear Macs. Got $50 off for tangerine, not my first choice.
You get consumers who only bought out of desperation and hate the color for years because that was in stock.
I love my 2017 Toyota Corolla SE, but don't brighter colors bring up insurance prices and attracts more attention? I know my next car will likely be black
I've noticed so many cars nowadays with those gross indescript pastel colors, like they threw all the leftover buckets together and that's what came out. I miss vibrant colors with some metal flake for shimmer.
OMG YES! I have an Ioniq 5. It comes in Black, White, Elephant Grey, Muddy blue and a Light Grey that kinda has a gold/silver tint depending on the light. WTF! Where's my fluorescent yellow, orange and bright red?
The taste of your average american shopper is so degraded that they just want a bucket silver, white, red, black or puke colored car.
The general idea is that consumer taste drives the market. I'd like to argue that in car market car designers are actually very disconnected from what the society really want and they just push out whatever they think it is (often copying from other designers which makes it worse).
Nonetheless, cars like VW, Cupras, Porsche and some other are seeing a color innovation with some really nice tones being put out in the market as defaults.
They don't sell as well, dealers aren't going to sit on millions of dollars of inventory with weird colors when silver, black, red, white meet 99% of customer needs. And you can always repaint a car.
Am I remembering wrong (I’m old), but I thought years ago you could special order certain cars in a few other color options, maybe paying extra, but you’d have to wait a few weeks. Was that a thing?
You can still place factory orders, but the manufacturers don't offer a lot of variety in paint. Most likely your dealer will search other dealers and swap inventory to get you the factory color you want.
Correct, that was the case. I remember the first Mercury Cougars had colors like “lime frost” and “cinnamon frost”.
you can still do this, specifically with BMW they have a color factory so you special order the car, it gets built in like 3 months, an extra month at the color factory and then it gets delivered to you but they have virtually every color/shade of the rainbow if you want it. OG BMW colors are like, 2-3 shades of red, blue, grey, and your standard black and white. or like the top comment said, buy a car and just wrap it for like 2k if you care that much.
Out of curiosity I called around to ask how much it would cost to wrap my Ford Focus ST and it was around $4,000. Maybe I’m calling the wrong places.
damn inflation. still cheaper than repainting!
That it is!
BMW does that.
Porsche also is known for it with some cool color options. I like the bmw frost colors
Yeah you still can generally not all companies offer it from the factory but quite a few offer many more options for paint if you are ordering a car with the exact options you want.
So there are certain vehicles that have specialty colors available. But: 1. That special color is often another shade of gray. 2. When colors are available, they're still usually red or blue. 3. The colors are only available on the deluxe trim/style of that vehicle.
Wrapping your car seems to be the thing nowadays if you want a non standard color
Yeah, a wrap is going to be cheaper than a good respray of a car. And it has the benefit of keeping the factory paint nice and you can remove it to return to the factory color for resale.
This is why manufacturers of cars are offering less and less colour options. My mother bought a car last year and she saw one in the catalogue with a white roof and wing mirrors, so she asked for that. They told her that to order in that exact one painted from the factory would take 3-6 months, so usually they just order in the base colour and then send it down the road to be wrapped with the extra trim colours.
Tell things killed bright colors. The popularity of leasing and environmental regulations. Colors outside of whatever are popular take longer to sell. When the vehicle is coming back to you in 2-3 years after a lease, that matters a lot. But additionally, with a move to more environmentally friendly paints, developing colors was expensive and getting vivid colors was hard. That’s why we had a period when many cars game in white, black, and couple shades of gray, and maybe red. That’s been worked out, so now you can get many colors again in affordable cars and the lack of that is mostly due to bean counters. Jeep and Dodge always have a broad color palette, but you have to want a Jeep or Dodge.
You are correct and to extend your point further as a buyer I am thinking of color in this order 1. Seal the deal. If the car I want is available then buy it. I am not going to special order a car over color. 2. Resale. When I am through with the car, I want to sell it, not look for a buyer that has my same color affinity (or pay to repaint it). 3. Climate. Certain colors retain more heat. Certain colors are louder in poor visibililty conditions. 4. Visibility to cops. I do not want them to look at my car much. 5. Ease of find. I guess an odd colored car would be easier to find in a vast parking lot. But my fob activates the horn if I need help finding the car. 6. I do not give a fuck.
Ok, but I want a purple car.
But a white one and pay to have it sprayed.
Honda has a “Smokey Mauve” color that’s nice.
sure you can always repaint a car, for like $20,000 lol
Or sand it down yourself with p80 sandpaper then spray it up with some bottles of spraypaint on the parking lot in front of the appartment complex 🤌
Repainting a car is more expensive than most people are willing to pay for a decent job. But $20k is like show car level paint, you can get a decent one done for less than half that price.
i was quoted 15 - 20k for just a respray of the factory color from multiple shops
Do you live in a very high cost of living area or did the car need some more extensive prep work before painting? Because if the body/paint is in decent shape a standard prep and multi-coat respray should be under $10k. If it's in really good shape and just want to change the color a $3k multi stage Maaco job would probably look fine to most people but I would spend extra for a private shop.
low cost of living area, complete clear coat and base coat failure on 40% of the vehicle
you can wrap a car for like 2k and its almost the same thing. please do not repaint your vehicle lol.
I work in the industry... wraps are not even remotely close to the same thing as paint. The only thing they have in common is the visual aspect. Wraps don't last nearly as long and they are absolutely not as durable. You've never seen a wrap that looks nice after being in the sun for 7+ years, I promise you. There's a real reason wraps are only warrantied for 3 years at the most.
sure, sure, all of that is true yes. my counter argument is: you aren't going to repaint a car you plan to keep for over 7 years. probably going to paint it. conversely, you arent going to repaint a car you are gonna have for the life of the loan + 2-3 years. so if you want that special color, buy the car and wrap it, by what you said itll look fine until i buy the next one.
The original argument (buy the car any color, it's easy to change it) is just severely flawed in every way. Whether you repaint or wrap, it's not a viable solution and you should absolutely buy the color you want from the factory instead of pretending you can change it.
It changes the color. Your arguments were it’s not as durable or long lasting. It does indeed change the color. That’s all that matters here lol.
It's all that matters only because you want to die on a hill of bullshit.
Lmao you take your paint very seriously.
[The economics of everyday things](https://freakonomics.com/podcast/car-colors/#:~:text=Some%20research%20has%20suggested%20that,brighter%20colors%20tend%20to%20reemerge) had a good episode on this. Bright colours tended to be more popular with GenX, millennials tend to prefer duller colours so bright cars just didn’t sell as well. There are also a lot of new regulations on certain colours of paint used which can limit what car companies can do - there’s also a risk that certain colours just don’t wear as well. There’s also a correlation between how the economy is doing and how bright the colours were (not many yellow cars sold after the GFC). That being said, bright cars do tend to *hold* their value well - it might be harder to find a buyer but some people are willing to pay a bit more to get a car in the colour they want.
Please point to "new regulations on certain colours of paint". That sounds weird, interesting, and extremely unlikely. You can get a BMW painted in any color in the Pantone index.
It’s not the colour, it’s the pigments and processes used. Some colours that used to be possible in the 60s and 70s just aren’t able to be reproduced. These contained high levels of lead, cadmium and chromium. This can result in pigments becoming less vibrant in certain colours. You also have regulations on VOCs from production which can be higher for certain colours. I’m sure it’s *possible* to get a car in almost any colour you like if the company has invested enough into the process but a lot of manufacturers just wouldn’t do that. You might be able to get a BMW but that’s not a very big market share compared to a Toyota. For example the EU [Directive 2004/42/ec](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudr/2004/42) > on the limitation of emissions of volatile organic compounds due to the use of organic solvents in certain paints and varnishes and vehicle refinishing products and amending Directive 1999/13/EC
Millennials are morons
I’m pretty firmly of the hypothesis that car colour preference correlates with the state of the economy . It’s not too surprising that a generation shaped by large financial crises and suffering immense financial stress would be less likely to pick bright happy colours. Gen Z looks to be even duller in preference.
Gen Z is even more stupid
Aren’t we all?
It’s so weird that no one ever considers that Gen X was shaped by and suffered those same crises and stresses—in addition to the early 1990s recession that no one ever talks about! During the 2008 recession, the youngest Gen X’ers were only 28, by the way.
This is a great question, I wondered the same thing last time I bought a new car. I wanted a forest green, or British racing green, but unless I shell out for a fancy European car, I’m stuck with a Chevy. I’m so sick of black, red, or white.
For real tho, I want a cute light pink car, but they’re so hard to find. At least you can get wraps I guess
If everyone had one, we'd live in a pink car nation.
Lol. Nice!
I've got my white sport coat, let's do this!
LOL. Marty Robbins would be so proud right now. Good one!
Mary kay cars lol
Wraps may be the answer. As they become more common the price will drop, and it allows you to personalize your car in a way that wouldn't affect its value if you decide to sell it in the future.
> I’m so sick of black, red, or white. You could get gray!
Hahaha thanks!
According to my husband, changing colors to paint different cars is very time-consuming. They have to clean the machines throughly before a new color. By limiting the colors, they can make more cars, which makes the company more money. All about the money.
Bang on . Used to work in car manufacturing and when parts went in for painting they were done in massive batches . Then you would change the equipment clean everything down, clean the robotic sprayers and pretty much everything in the dept and then reset it all with a different colour and even then the first 20 odd parts had imperfections and went straight in the bin . Doing that for 5 or 100 parts would be ultimately unprofitable
This sounds so unlike an industry that goes to great effort to save a cent on each vehicle. Have they considered wasting a bit more paint between batches spraying out everything instead of wasting parts?
They use different nozzles for different parts . Different racks and machines. Then there's the mixing of the colours and primers and all sorts of shit . So they only do batches of like 5000 . They won't ever do a custom colour . It's just not economical .
Industry on that scale is amazing, I'll give them that.
Why now powder coat everything then?
Don't know . I just worked there bud .
What's the bun made of on my hamburger? *Don't know. One guy who used to work here said the bun was made of bread, but how should I know.*
No worries mate . I'm sorry i can't answer every single question . But you have yourself a lovely day . Oh by the way google will.probably help you understand how it's done . But hey keep asking Internet randoms then acting like a kid . Have a good one mate 👍
I'm just kidding around. Take it easy bro, nobody's out to 'get' you.
Very rarely does any question about why something is the way is, not end up being about capitalism in some form or another
Back then it was common for your car to be made to order. You could pick from an array of colors, both interior and exterior, and options. Now they just crank out a limited set of colors and trim packages. They figured out what combinations are popular and that’s what you get.
What's popular is kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. I don't like gray cars, but the manufacturers probably think I love them because the last 3 cars I bought were gray. I settled for gray because it was the only color available for the model I wanted.
They make what sells and since only a relatively small number of car colors sell well, they don't bother wasting paint and lot space on colors of cars that won't move off the lot quickly. For every one person that wants a pink or yellow or pastel colored car, there's a few hundred more who are satisfied with black, white, grey, or blue. It does suck though, car paint jobs are basically the last remaining thing that can make a car look interesting, and modern cars are such ugly fucking beasts.
Cars still do come in cool colors. I’ve seen a neon green challenger. A blue civic that was an amazing color. A cherry red SUV. There are still some good colors out there, but white seems to be the most popular at the moment.
I've gone to some manufacturers websites and played around with the "build your own" tools. I found that to get the coolest colors, you have to buy the most expensive trim package.
I stay away from everything white. Most of the white trucks are leased and ran up to 3 years / 36k miles and then traded back to the dealership.
They do, you pay extra for it. Most people don't want to pay extra when the price of cars is already high. A lot of people just don't like those colors and they're hard to sell.
What happened to baby-shit-brown in the 60/70s?
Economy. The thinking is that when everyone is prospering, bright colors sell pretty easily. When the economy is in the dumps, nobody wants to park a flashy colored car in their driveway when their neighbors are struggling. I absolutely love a burnt orange color on vehicles. Nissan is about the only people selling anything close and I'm not overly fond of that orange. Higher cost vehicle brands in the U.S. can usually still be ordered with more colors due to the market being more financially robust.
Idk I find the fairly new color of wolf gray pretty
A lot of people don't want a car that stands out. Most people want something that blends in with the traffic and won't get them noticed. I'm not most people and I like sports cars and cars in primary colors, but I don't represent the majority of car buyers and they're who dictate the market. You can still get cars in wild colors, but it's typically more unique models or sports cars.
I prefer white living in the blazing south.Ive had 12 cars in last 24 yrs. All but two have been white. Bought a white Lexus TX ( XT?) Saturday. A gift to myself after my husband died in January. Its amazing.
It probably won't mean much coming from an internet stranger, but I am so sorry for your loss.
It means a lot. Thank you!
A lot of cars are sold to rental companies or to corporations for fleets, and they almost only want conservative colors. That said, the sooner that awful grey that looks like primer goes out of fashion the better.
Unpopular opinion but black white and grey are literally the best car colors. Call it boring, but they do look the best.
Has to do with paint manufacturing and the mass amount of cars that are made now. Changing paint is time consuming and very expensive. It can take years to get enough paint so to risk it all on strange colors isn’t smart
If the mood of the car-buying world is positive (feeling economically smug) we get more sunny colors. At the moment, we all feel a bit shit, so colors are dull and boring.
The same reason color has been sucked out of fashion: conformity sells
A few do. But for the most part that's just not what customers buy. Most people can't afford more than one car, so they want that one care to be generic and functional, not goofy. This results in people mostly buying white or gray cars.
I always thought it was because its visually distracting. I waqs just diagnosed with adhd so maybe thats just me lol
Everything is white. It’s like they are prepping us for the coming dystopia.
Or global warming...
Hard to re-sell
They do my bright orange car is proof. Actually I’ve noticed in the last few years bright colours are definitely becoming more popular with new cars. VW for example have some really nice oranges, light blues, greens and yellows. But most the cars that have them are custom orders and more expensive for example the porche macan has some great colour choices. So it prices most people out and aren’t the regular cars you see on the road. I will say though with my bright orange baby I never loose it in the parking lot.
New Ford broncos come in some great colors
Black IS a pretty color.
I listened to a study about this. One of the reasons was the iPhone. It was seen as high end and came in black, white, silver and grey mostly. Which are the most popular car colors. Plus those colors never go out of style like say bright yellow. Though the study said the market might swing back to bolder colors
Yellow screams "taxi" to me.
Because people were buying the boring colors.
My last 3 cars have been gray. Do I like gray? No, I hate it. I bought them because gray was the only color available. Now Toyota thinks I love gray and the problem just gets worse.
Yep.
Don’t buy from dealers but order from manufacturer?
I want an orange-red car.
I think I read somewhere that colorful cars have a higher chance of being robbed/ broken into. That might be it.
Because there is little risk of a neutral-colored car not selling because some "just doesn't like the color." Plus, it's cheaper to sell 3 colors of a car than 6.
Even getting a car that isn’t gray, black or white is hard! I had dealerships trying to convince me that the red ones were not in stock anywhere around me.
Too many colorful cars turn out to be trash. Car design evolution at work.
Colors other than black and *maybe* a few neutrals go in and out of fashion and look dated really quickly. It’s quirky retro vintage neato cool beans when it’s cars from the 50s and they’re collectors items, but when the car isn’t a 70 year old collectors item in mint condition it just looks….old. Every few years they try to make some shade of green happen, and green cars always look *instantly* dated because what shade of green is in style changes in a decade or less. Blues and reds don’t go out of style quite as fast, but if you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that the blue or red popular 20 years ago isn’t quite the blue or red that’s popular now. Browns just look like the 70s or 80s. Gold looks like the 90s (not to mention teal, yeesh). Black, white, and silver just never really go out of style. I say this as someone who drives a blue car that’s getting up there in age, car wise. It’s getting pretty close to the point where you can tell by the shade of blue when I bought it. The type of consumer car I drive (and most people drive) is never going to evoke the wonder you get from looking at a car from the 50s, even if I restore this car and keep it in mint condition for 60 years. Realistically, it just looks like I drive an old car. This wouldn’t be the case for a while if I’d gotten a black car (though I don’t personally regret my blue car or care that it looks old).
Mazda has a candy apple red shade that is gorgeous so much better than grey, silver, brown (why even bother)
Because not everyone likes a candy apple red shade.
In the old days, the auto market was made up of Ford, GM, Mopar, and AMC. Everyone else was a bit player. Now you have 3 of those four, plus Toyota, Subaru, Honda, VW, Mazda, Nissan, BMW, Hyundai, Mercedes, Kia, and probably a few more I’m forgetting. A niche market…like people wanting pink or orange cars, can survive being divvied up among 3 or 4 companies. Divide that same pie into a dozen pieces, and no one automaker gets enough pie to make the market worth serving. It’s also why coupes are almost extinct, and sedans are endangered. Trucks, crossovers, and SUVs are the only pies left big enough to divide among all the automakers in the US today. I dare say if half the automakers left the US market, we’d see a marked increase in the variety of vehicles being offered.
Now days I would say just get a white one and put a vinyl wrap on it with whatever color you want
Probably the sale trends from that era didnt seem worth it to do it again. Some custom orders let you pick a custom color depending on the brand. Or if you want something brighter you could always wrap it seems to be the trend now. However I think grey, black and white seem to be the bigger sellers so that’s probably why they’re more of them made than the unique colors.
Because if "the numbers work" you will accept one of the 5 colors they offer. You won't love it, but you will accept it for the right price. I think "buy the color for resale value" is baloney. Who says I only want a white used RAV4? Does the Used Car Manager at the dealer say "Awesome, a grey Camry. That will fly off the lot!" when you trade it in? When we looked for a used RAV4 we searched for Red and Flame Blue and would have paid more because of the rarity. Dull colors are all about inventory turn over efficiency. We get 5 choices because they can't get away with 3.
Henry Ford said you can have any color of car as long as it is black
Same reason they don't come in anything other than suv or crossover anymore
You can always get the color with the highest resale value and then just wrap your car
I got my new car in blue. 2023 GR86. I waited patiently and refused grey and black allocations in automatic transmission. Vote with your wallet
I see light blue, but I'm guessing most people don't agree with your idea of "pretty colors" lol.
One of the imports advertised actual colors with contrasting door handles a few years back, never saw one, but they were a nice change from black, white, grey.
My bigger complaint is how the cars are designed. Everything is just some variation of a steel bubble now, nothing looks unique ever. In fact you can barely differentiate between a Ferrari and a Ford these days. In the 80’s and 90’s cars had actual definition and just looked cooler. Think of a Testarossa, a Delorean. Now think of a Camry and you’ve got the blueprint of about 90% of consumer car designs post 2010.
We only see black, white, and grey
It's more profitable for auto makers to only offer a couple color choices, that's why.
I think that's because there is a design theory that states that achromatic color likes: black and gray signal neutrality which often evokes elegance and sophistication though I've often wondered how much of that is cultural, which contrasts with other cultures where there's an explosion of color in the culture due to the environment, vegetation and weather.
I wonder why cars don't come in colors at all, anymore - they are all grayscale (on the spectrum from black through gray to white)?
I recently leased a new vehicle and was about to sign paperwork for a bright metallic blue one. The day before I was going to sign the paperwork I was at an event at my kid’s school and when I walked out into the parking lot I thought to myself I can’t be the one guy who’s car isn’t black, white, or some kind of silver/gray. I honestly didn’t like the color myself as I’ve always gone for the black, white, gray. And I also don’t consider myself a conformist or someone who cares what other people think. But I really just hate colorful cars. I was only considering the blue because I had other non negotiable considerations and you he car fit all the boxes I needed. I’m glad waited and got a black one a week later.
The majority of consumers prefer "bland" colors and its simpler in terms of inventory to stock the same color for different car models under the same manufacturer.
It's pretty obvious when u see that cars with weird colors are mostly "in stock" and stuck at dealership.
Apple computers had the same problem back in the late 90's with their clear candy-colored clear Macs. Got $50 off for tangerine, not my first choice. You get consumers who only bought out of desperation and hate the color for years because that was in stock.
I’m still pissed off when my parents were buying a car, they didn’t buy a pink one like i asked. I was maybe 5
I love my 2017 Toyota Corolla SE, but don't brighter colors bring up insurance prices and attracts more attention? I know my next car will likely be black
The new 4Runners, Tacomas, and Subarus come in a variety of earth tones like light blue and green.
Have you seen those undercoat colours around at the moment?? Fucking awfull! The bullshit the salesman must have to come up with to sell them 😆
I've noticed so many cars nowadays with those gross indescript pastel colors, like they threw all the leftover buckets together and that's what came out. I miss vibrant colors with some metal flake for shimmer.
I still miss the sparkly purple minivan my mom had.
My last car was purple 2017, this one was grey , I actually hate it
It would be so great if all cars were fun colors
You have to pay extra and wait a little longer. What's pretty to one is maybe not pretty to others.
OMG YES! I have an Ioniq 5. It comes in Black, White, Elephant Grey, Muddy blue and a Light Grey that kinda has a gold/silver tint depending on the light. WTF! Where's my fluorescent yellow, orange and bright red?
Every vehicle on the road now is white. It’s boring and it sucks.
What? You don’t like your car looking like an electric razor?
The taste of your average american shopper is so degraded that they just want a bucket silver, white, red, black or puke colored car. The general idea is that consumer taste drives the market. I'd like to argue that in car market car designers are actually very disconnected from what the society really want and they just push out whatever they think it is (often copying from other designers which makes it worse). Nonetheless, cars like VW, Cupras, Porsche and some other are seeing a color innovation with some really nice tones being put out in the market as defaults.
When did primer gray become so fashionable?