Beating that Ol' Dead Horse - Color

[Lunajammer]

1 hour ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

I wonder how they differentiate between "gray" and "silver".

FWIW, I only counted metallics and nothing darker than charcoal gray (a medium dark silver). If I included grays, which I considered solids, you can expand that list by several more skews.

[Lunajammer]

3 hours ago, Jordan White said:

Were you able to find a green you liked?

Sort of. There were only two greens, both very dark. I could live with Emerald Green Metallic and will probably go back for. Just gotta come to terms with spending the price of the kit on a paint can.

[TarheelRick]

1 hour ago, webestang said:

Edmunds says..............   https://www.edmunds.com/most-popular-car-colors/

Something else about this chart that I found interesting was a large percentage of the states preferred the Ford F-series as most popular vehicle.

[Jordan White]

3 hours ago, Lunajammer said:

Sort of. There were only two greens, both very dark. I could live with Emerald Green Metallic and will probably go back for. Just gotta come to terms with spending the price of the kit on a paint can.

Yeah the price is getting outrageous, I’ve only bought a couple cans over the last few years because of it. I remember back when they were only about 7-8 bucks a can, and it’s now double!

[sfhess]

17 hours ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

Interior color is always one of our biggest considerations when deciding on a new car color combination, although options are extremely limited.

I refuse to buy a car with a gray interior!

I can't think of anything more depressing than driving around in something surrounded in gloomy, monotone gray!

 

Our blue Honda S-2000 has a blue interior, and our pearl white Acura MDX, an "Espresso" interior.

 

 

 

 

Steve

My 2023 Outback is silver (looks blue in certain light) with the grey-accented interior.   I like it a lot better than all black.

[Lunajammer]

6 hours ago, webestang said:

Edmunds says..............   https://www.edmunds.com/most-popular-car-colors/

How ironic that those are exactly the colors you get to choose from on the car lot.

"Hi, I have these options I'd like on my new car. Can I have that in teal? Oh. How about powder blue? No? Well, then what do you have? Silver huh? Ugh, fine, I guess I'll take silver."

On 1/15/2024 at 7:42 PM, iamsuperdan said:

Silvers, greys, black, white...all of those neutral colours are far and away more popular.

 

[iamsuperdan]

12 hours ago, Lunajammer said:

How ironic that those are exactly the colors you get to choose from on the car lot.

"Hi, I have these options I'd like on my new car. Can I have that in teal? Oh. How about powder blue? No? Well, then what do you have? Silver huh? Ugh, fine, I guess I'll take silver."

 

 

I know where you're going with this.

Are people buying neutral colours because that's what is on the lots? Or are dealers stocking those colours because that's what people ask for?

And the answer is...both.

When given a choice, most customers will pick a neutral colour, while the more interesting colours sit. As a result, dealers will order more of the neutral colours because that's what moves quickly. And dealerships don't want to pay the interest charges or overhead of having vehicles sitting for 30-60-90-120 days. 

That's also why you won't find a lot of base model zipper vehicles on the lots. People tend to want features, so the more loaded vehicles move, while the basic models sit. Again, dealers order more of what sells quickly.

 

What a lot of people don't realize is that they can factory order a vehicle. Go to your dealer and order what you want. There is no upcharge for it, and any dealer that tells you otherwise is lying. Of course, most dealers will be more agreeable with discounts if it's something sitting on the lot, so I guess technically you might pay more for an order. But not by much. And you'll get exactly the features and colours you want.  And if you order the "unpopular" colours or features, there's a very good chance your vehicle will get built faster than the most popular spec. For example, everyone wants black trucks. Not many want red. But the factory only builds the red trucks when they have enough orders in the system to justify a run. It's usually only 10 units. So order your red. You'll most likely see your vehicle serialize and start production pretty quick.

[Brudda]

I paint 1:1 cars for a living. There are soooo many beautiful colors out there but when you look in the parking lot, it’s boring. I loved the mopars of the beginning of 1970. The crazy colors . Some I did not care for but it added excitement in the parking lot and the road. Which I loved because it wasn’t boring. Cars today are like a refrigerator. People need them, that’s it. Some of us love cars, but it’s not like the 50’s and 60’s. Pick the colors you like. Not for resale. Believe me when you sell, someone will buy it. The car salesmen always say” there’s a a.. for every seat”

[Ace-Garageguy]

8 minutes ago, Brudda said:

I paint 1:1 cars for a living...

So you're aware that for every boring color, there seem to be at least 25 "variants" too.

What fun we have.   

[Lunajammer]

39 minutes ago, iamsuperdan said:

What a lot of people don't realize is that they can factory order a vehicle. Go to your dealer and order what you want. There is no upcharge for it, and any dealer that tells you otherwise is lying. Of course, most dealers will be more agreeable with discounts if it's something sitting on the lot, so I guess technically you might pay more for an order. But not by much. And you'll get exactly the features and colours you want.  And if you order the "unpopular" colours or features, there's a very good chance your vehicle will get built faster than the most popular spec. For example, everyone wants black trucks. Not many want red. But the factory only builds the red trucks when they have enough orders in the system to justify a run. It's usually only 10 units. So order your red. You'll most likely see your vehicle serialize and start production pretty quick.

That's an interesting explanation and I appreciate the insider info. My whole rant pretty much comes down to whether a person believes demand drives the supply or supply drives the demand. Your answer that it's both, while unsatisfactory, is probably correct.

[Ace-Garageguy]

35 minutes ago, Lunajammer said:

That's an interesting explanation and I appreciate the insider info. My whole rant pretty much comes down to whether a person believes demand drives the supply or supply drives the demand. Your answer that it's both, while unsatisfactory, is probably correct.

That's the way it works.

I don't remember exactly when the car "experts" began their narrative push that "neutral colors are worth more in trade or easier to sell on the back-end", but it's been decades.

Anyone who's a long-term car-market watcher knows this. It's nothing new.

The car-buying market responded by buying increasingly high percentages of boring colors, so the dealers, not being complete idiots, tended to stock what most people seemed to be buying...so people who came in wanting something from stock drove away in boring colored cars.

Wash, rinse, repeat ad infinitum.

[StevenGuthmiller]

1 hour ago, Lunajammer said:

That's an interesting explanation and I appreciate the insider info. My whole rant pretty much comes down to whether a person believes demand drives the supply or supply drives the demand. Your answer that it's both, while unsatisfactory, is probably correct.

"What's good for General Motors is good for America".

 

We get what we get because that's what they give us.

 

Not like say 1970, when Dodge offered you a choice of 27 different colors for your new Charger, and let the consumer decide.

Now, it's more like, "here's what you're gonna get, 'cause we say so".

 

What it al boils down to in my view is that it's so much easier for the manufacturers to offer "packages" instead of allowing the consumer to pick individual options as you could in years past, and likewise, it's much easier for them to offer 6 color choices than it is to offer 27.

It all comes down to stream lining the production process and producing as many drab toasters as possible to make as much money as possible.

I guess that they're businesses like anyone else, so you can't begrudge them that.

 

 

 

Steve

Edited January 17 by StevenGuthmiller

[Muncie]

We kind of tell them we want fewer colors in other ways by what we spend. More colors make every car cost more.

This is much too simplified... Handling more colors mean more complications for production in the paint shop.  More space, more people, more paint equipment, and some way to efficiently sequence cars with different colors thru the paint shop.  it all costs money. It is simpler and less cost to manufacture more vehicles with fewer colors.  While it is probably not going to create a price reduction to the customer to have fewer colors, lower cost can lessen the next price increase out the door and onto the dealer's lot.  In the end, simplifying things with fewer colors keeps a manufacturer more price competitive.  As I understand it, the paint shop is one of the larger expenses in producing vehicles.  Beyond that, we know price is one of the factors that customers look at to choose a car.

We still see some very low production colors on some models, but they are available at a very premium price. 

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

28 minutes ago, Muncie said:

...It is simpler and less cost to manufacture more vehicles with fewer colors...

As a fella named Ford once said "you can have any color as long as it's black".

https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/how-cars-went-from-any-color-as-long-as-its-black-to-a-rainbow-of-hues/

[Perspective Customs]

I think one of the issues is that most people look at cars as an appliance, a tool to get from point A to point B. Look around your house and see what colors most of your appliances are. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

47 minutes ago, Perspective Customs said:

I think one of the issues is that most people look at cars as an appliance, a tool to get from point A to point B.

Yes, true now. But it didn't used to be that way. Getting a new car was a big deal. People would get excited to see the new models when they were introduced each year, often going around to different showrooms just to gawk. Getting a license used to be a big deal too. It meant freedom.

Now we have a couple generations to whom driving is largely a bother, who'd rather use Uber than deal with car ownership, prefer to get their food delivered rather than actually going somewhere, and who have zero interest in anything mechanical.

Times, as I'm so often lectured, have changed.

 

[Tabbysdaddy]

5 hours ago, Perspective Customs said:

I think one of the issues is that most people look at cars as an appliance, a tool to get from point A to point B. Look around your house and see what colors most of your appliances are. 

My appliances are the same color as a DeLorean. 

[Brudda]

On 1/17/2024 at 7:45 AM, Ace-Garageguy said:

So you're aware that for every boring color, there seem to be at least 25 "variants" too.

What fun we have.   

This is soooo true

[Brudda]

7 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Yes, true now. But it didn't used to be that way. Getting a new car was a big deal. People would get excited to see the new models when they were introduced each year, often going around to different showrooms just to gawk. Getting a license used to be a big deal too. It meant freedom.

Now we have a couple generations to whom driving is largely a bother, who'd rather use Uber than deal with car ownership, prefer to get their food delivered rather than actually going somewhere, and who have zero interest in anything mechanical.

Times, as I'm so often lectured, have changed.

 

I totally agree. I wish some of the old ways were back. I miss them. Like girls being girls and boys being boys……sorry went off subject. 

[1930fordpickup]

It is what is in, just like every other era. Not like the 50s will every be back in paint schemes.  Younger drivers don't care that much for the look at me paint on their car, they do that with tattoos on themselves.

[Richard Bartrop]

On 1/20/2024 at 11:49 PM, 1930fordpickup said:

It is what is in, just like every other era. Not like the 50s will every be back in paint schemes.  Younger drivers don't care that much for the look at me paint on their car, they do that with tattoos on themselves.

This stuff goes in cycles.  We already had one two tone revival in the late '70s/early '80s, but you can be sure that if the '50s colour palette comes back, people will be griping about how much they hate it.

Edited January 23 by Richard Bartrop

[peteski]

3 hours ago, Richard Bartrop said:

This stuff goes in cycles.  We already had one two tone revival in the late '70s/early '80s, but you can be sure that if the '50s colour palette comes back, people will be griping about how much they hate it.

Some new SUVs have 2-tone paint. Usually the body is one color and roof is black (not a full glass panel roof either - painted black).  I have seen some Kia Souls which were black/red.

[Ace-Garageguy]

12 hours ago, peteski said:

Some new SUVs have 2-tone paint. Usually the body is one color and roof is black (not a full glass panel roof either - painted black).  I have seen some Kia Souls which were black/red.

Yeah, there's stuff out there where the plastic body "cladding" or fender flares or whatever are some kind of dull metallic gray or black too.

I think some of 'em look pretty good...until you have to repair them, and of course the textured ones can't always be matched perfectly, so you throw the scratched part away and pay thru el noso for a new one (which may not be obtainable anyway).

Then there are these.

  

  

  

Judging by the gold/black Toyota and the Minis, there's most likely going to be some trickle-down to more mainstream cars as well.

 

Edited January 23 by Ace-Garageguy

[tim boyd]

On 1/15/2024 at 8:42 PM, iamsuperdan said:

Yeah, no one makes bright and interesting colours anymore.

 

 

And this isn't even getting into the exotics, such as Porsche or Lamborghini or McLaren that do all kinds of wild and crazy colours.

/devil's advocate 😈

 

 

 

I get what you're saying, and mostly agree. The colour palette was definitely more interesting back in the 50s and 60s. Heck, even into the 70s and 80s. 

But as someone in the sales side of the automotive world for about 25 years...guess which colours sell the least. 

If you guessed the loud and interesting ones, you'd be correct.

Silvers, greys, black, white...all of those neutral colours are far and away more popular.

 

For the record, I love the crayon colours.

 

Dan speaketh the truth here. 

I was always a strong advocate for brighter (and in some cases, repeats of heritage) colors in my career at Ford.  But the truth was that silvers, grays, and whites were almost always the fastest sellers while the more expressive colors tended to sit on the dealer lots waiting for the one buyer who appreciated something different (with the dealer paying monthly floor plan expense in the meantime).  At the assembly plant, colors with a low sales mix added complexity and complicated the loading/flow through the paint booth.  All of which help to explain why they are so uncommon.  Of course, for cars like the Mustang, brighter colors were/are a lot more viable as a product offering.  But not so for most mainstream cars and SUVs/CUVs.    

For my 2024 Mustang GT, I had to order the car well before the color swatches were available to view.  I have always like bright blues, so I ordered a new color called "Vapor Blue" (Whisper Blue on Lincolns).   When I finally saw the color palette, Vapor Blue was in reality a medium blue gray with pearlized/metallic clearcoat.  I don't like it at all.  But it is the 100% thing people first comment on when they see the car, and everybody (and I mean EVERYBODY) loves the color. Go figure.   

Interestingly enough, and while I can hardly believe I am saying this, on a future 2025 car I just ordered last week (not a Mustang) that I will take delivery of sometime late summer, Silver has been dropped from the color palette.  First time in what, 30 or 40 years?   Maybe there is hope  for some of us who prefer more expressive colors after all.  TB 

[peteski]

29 minutes ago, tim boyd said:

For my 2024 Mustang GT, I had to order the car well before the color swatches were available to view.  I have always like bright blues, so I ordered a new color called "Vapor Blue" (Whisper Blue on Lincolns).   When I finally saw the color palette, Vapor Blue was in reality a medium blue gray with pearlized/metallic clearcoat.  I don't like it at all.  But it is the 100% thing people first comment on when they see the car, and everybody (and I mean EVERYBODY) loves the color. Go figure. 

That brings up another item  left in the past.   Remember when dealerships had printed brochures describing a new car?  Many mid-price car ones ones had actual paint chips in them for color selection.  Not some printed representation of the colors (which is never really "close enough", especially with metallic color), but actual pain chips!  That way you could get a good idea what the color of your car would be.  Now all you have is virtual previews of the vehicles on the Interwebs.  Not quite the same.