When did color fall out of favor?

[SfanGoch]

This is a result of zombie urbanism. People's aesthetics are conditioned by what government and corporations wish to project as safe, non-threatening, friendly and, at the same time, bland. This is seen in everything from building design, the branding of neighborhoods and other locations to the products we buy, including cars. It's a subliminal way of socially engineering people to conform without being overt about it. Take a look around wherever you happen to live. It's there; you just don't notice it. Look it up if you don't believe it. 

[Harry P.]

Art is right... color comes into fashion and then falls out of fashion... lather, rinse, repeat. For whatever reason, today's consumers favor white and silver cars (the automakers offer the colors that their research tells them the consumers prefer). Back in the '50s people wanted much brighter and bolder colors in their cars. And in the '70s, for whatever reason, Avocado and Gold became very popular colors for kitchen appliances. When was the last time you saw an Avocado or Gold stove at the store? Or a pink and black tiled bathroom, also very popular in the '50s.

[SfanGoch]

When was the last time you saw an Avocado or Gold stove at the store? Or a pink and black tiled bathroom, also very popular in the '50s.

 My ex-girlfriend's bathroom.  I tiled the master bathroom with Italian Rose and Negro Marquina granite after her family bought a new house in 1989. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Art is right... color comes into fashion and then falls out of fashion... lather, rinse, repeat. For whatever reason, today's consumers favor white and silver cars (the automakers offer the colors that their research tells them the consumers prefer). Back in the '50s people wanted much brighter and bolder colors in their cars. And in the '70s, for whatever reason, Avocado and Gold became very popular colors for kitchen appliances. When was the last time you saw an Avocado or Gold stove at the store? Or a pink and black tiled bathroom, also very popular in the '50s.

Vibrant color still finds its way into contemporary interior design, but it's not mainstream...

       

        

          

                                                         

 

 

Edited August 16, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[SfanGoch]

That's classy. Even has a water fountain.

[Richard Bartrop]

And a little reminder that "distinctive" is not necessarily the same as "good"

[martinfan5]

 

Now here’s a piece of art Neil Buchanan would be proud of. The Peach State Challengers (a Dodge car club from Georgia, USA) had such an eclectic colour palette of Challengers at a recent meet, they decided to weave 76 of them into a colourful V8 rainbow lattice.

Pretty, innit? And fair play to the person who painted theirs pink. You took one for the team there.

 

Edited August 16, 2016 by martinfan5

[peteski]

And a little reminder that "distinctive" is not necessarily the same as "good"

YUCK!  I always wondered what were they thinking when they approved this vehicle for production.  The more contemporary frog-eyed Nissan Juke seems to be in the same category as Aztek.

[Merkur XR4Ti]

YUCK!  I always wondered what were they thinking when they approved this vehicle for production.  The more contemporary frog-eyed Nissan Juke seems to be in the same category as Aztek.

I read somewhere that the Aztek was built based on customer feedback and needs, and given what kinds of utility were available in it, GM expected it to be a big hit.

 

I've sat in a few of these, and inside they were pretty cool, had lots of thoughtful touches. And of course you couldn't see the outside from the inside! They did become more tolerable on the eyes when they went with the monochromatic look later in the model run as opposed to the early run with the gray plastic cladding two-tone look.

[mademan]

I checked at Frigidaire's website. There are options for drawers. Nothing for colors, except the previously mentioned options. not even avocado green, fer Pet's sake! 

 

Samsung, washers and dryers are available in burnt orange, ruby red, and royal blue metallic. Sold lots of them working at a furniture store in town.

[SfanGoch]

Can't say that their fridges and ranges do. Black, white, stainless and black stainless.  

[Xingu]

Some people want to be seen, some people want to blend in with the crowd. The sheep far outnumber the adventurous. I have owned a few orange cars and a pea green station wagon with an air foil on the back. Apparently it needed the additional down force. Manufacturers will cater to the masses and sometimes offer a color or option that is out of the ordinary, but you usually have to pay a premium for it.

[Joe Handley]

And a little reminder that "distinctive" is not necessarily the same as "good"

Come on now, that not a darn thing wrong with that color......the vehicle it's applied to on the other hand.....................

[Ace-Garageguy]

... The sheep far outnumber the adventurous....

Yup. 

This'll never happen...      

[fumi]

The boring same-same colors on most of the cars today are simply the resulting herd-think that they will have better resale value when you dump them, period. Consumer 'experts' have endlessly repeated this, and it's sunk in to the car buying psyche en masse.

For me, it's always a treat to see something new in a bright or interesting color that the buyer chose for his (or her) own enjoyment rather than for the ease of palming it off on the next guy down the line. Reminds me of an earlier time.

My first car was a lime green Fiesta.  A niche colour on a niche (in here) car.  I loved it, everyone loved it.  It was fun, beautiful, and really stood out from the boring white and silver crowd.

So imagine how popular it was when I tried to trade it in for a new car.   Some dealers knocked 30% off the trade-in price.  Most dealers flat out wouldn't take it.  Same thing on the private market.  Ended up selling it to a friend, who just happened to be in the market for a car.

Someone else can pick a bright or interesting colour for their enjoyment.  I am sticking to the boring colours from now on.

[horsepower]

Its always been that way, cars have always looked very similar between makes.    I can clearly tell a Mercedes from a Toyota,  but you know that Toyota is Lexus right?,  and may Lexus branded cars are Toyota models re-branded right?

Its funny, but in late 2009 we were on a trip and had stopped for gas in the middle of the night and when I went to pay for it there was a sleek looking four door sedan parked in front of the mini mart part and I was thinking that's the sharpest looking car I've seen in a long time. Imagine my surprise when I walked up to it and discovered it was a new Kia Optima, now almost every manufacturer has a four door sedan that has almost the same identical silhouette, and until you can see the emblems or the grille it's almost impossible to tell them apart. I've owned a '11 model, and a '15, and now the new '17s are hitting the dealer's and they have copied the Toyota Camry nose it's going to be harder than ever to find a different style. 

The ironic thing is they offer two whites, one a tri-coat pearl that the Tamiya clear pearl matches almost perfect, but the two rarest colors are the dark cherry, and the bright blue metallic pearl. Mine were a bronze for the '11 that was harder than black to keep clean, and the extra cost snow white pearl because I like their pearl, and it wasn't impossible to keep looking good, but the interiors were both generic tan and black for the '11, and the generic super light gray and black for the '15 and were both almost impossible to keep looking good, the showed up if a fly landed on the light color. The sad thing is they had a really nice pearl orange in '14 but had dropped it when we decided to get a new car, they have some really good looking colors but they were ONLY available on the Soul, an ugly little toaster shaped box.

[horsepower]

Yup. 

This'll never happen...      

I don't know about that, don't they resemble the above posted picture of all the new Challengers?

And that pink Challenger IS a factory option, it's the modern version of Panther Pink, I don't remember the name but AMT released a pre-painted version of it.

[Xingu]

I don't know about that, don't they resemble the above posted picture of all the new Challengers?

And that pink Challenger IS a factory option, it's the modern version of Panther Pink, I don't remember the name but AMT released a pre-painted version of it.

I believe the most popular colors for the new Challengers has been black and graphite gray. I also think black and gray are the 2 main interior colors. I do like that they offer the old school vibrant colors as an option, but it is the minority that actually buys them.

[iamsuperdan]

I work in the industry, and it's not the manufacturers. Most car makers have a wide colour palette. However, dealers order what sells, and a bright red truck or a yellow car will typically sit on the lot for quite a while. The only cars somewhat immune are "fun" cars like the Mustang or Challenger, or cheap tiny cars favoured by the elderly or certain other demographics, like the Chevy Spark or Hyundai Accent. People have become boring and safe. 

Another factor that plays in is resale. When I worked for Porsche, 6 of every 10 cars we sold were silver. Of the remaining 4, 3 would be black. Everyone was concerned about resale in a few years. I used to give people BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH about it. Are you ordering for you or for someone else? then get what you want. It's a Porsche, people will buy SMurf blue or Camry beige. Doesn't matter. 

 

It's the same with life in general now. Try to find coloured appliances. Look at guitars. Most people will go with blacks, whites, or maybe a sunburst.

 

Screw all that. Yes my daily driver is white, but also I've had two purple cars in the last two years. My project truck is red. I have guitars that are pink, Smurf Blue, neon green, and orange. My phone is green and my stapler is red. Life's too short for boring choices. 

[Merkur XR4Ti]

 

Screw all that. Yes my daily driver is white, but also I've had two purple cars in the last two years. My project truck is red. I have guitars that are pink, Smurf Blue, neon green, and orange. My phone is green and my stapler is red. Life's too short for boring choices. 

[Snake45]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Dam it feels good to be a gangsta!

[Ace-Garageguy]

                                           

Edited August 17, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[SfanGoch]

There's no such thing as a non-conformist. In order to be accepted by your supposedly like-minded peers within your social circle, you have to follow certain standards in behavior which are specific to that particular group. In short, you are required to conform.

[Ace-Garageguy]

... In order to be accepted by your supposedly like-minded peers within your social circle, you have to follow certain standards in behavior which are specific to that particular group. In short, you are required to conform.

Probably why I'm universally reviled. 

[Richard Bartrop]

Its funny, but in late 2009 we were on a trip and had stopped for gas in the middle of the night and when I went to pay for it there was a sleek looking four door sedan parked in front of the mini mart part and I was thinking that's the sharpest looking car I've seen in a long time. Imagine my surprise when I walked up to it and discovered it was a new Kia Optima, now almost every manufacturer has a four door sedan that has almost the same identical silhouette, and until you can see the emblems or the grille it's almost impossible to tell them apart. I've owned a '11 model, and a '15, and now the new '17s are hitting the dealer's and they have copied the Toyota Camry nose it's going to be harder than ever to find a different style.

That's the other thing.  Sure, the carmakers don't like to take risks because they might fail (which is why it's called a risk), but when they do take a risk, and it succeeds, everyone else copies that winning idea, and before you know it, that bold new idea is now the new normal.

Remember how radical the Taurus and Sable looked when they first came out?  They made all those square looking cars that were the norm look like antiques, and people bought them.  Then GM and Chrysler scrambled to make their versions of this radical new vision, and pretty soon the roads are full of these futuristic jellybeans, and people are complaining that all new cars look the same.

So, even if we did do like some people have suggested, and go back to building multicolour pastel rocketships, and I would be okay with this, it wouldn't be long be before we get moans about how everything on the road looks like a multicolour pastel rocketship.