Drab Rides

While driving around last week I thought how drab our personal cars are these days.   Ninety percent of private vehicles on the roads, it seems, are silver, white, or black, and now nudging into the picture a "bronzy" color that's also pretty nondescript.  In between, you'll catch sight of an occasional green, red (usually more "burgundy"), blue or yellow.  Then I noticed local columnist John Kelly's recent column on the subject, plus a follow-up piece, so I guess I'm not the only one to notice.

In the second piece especially, Kelly looks for explanations for color-avoidance but I think many of the old ones, which we've all heard, are no longer valid (if they ever were).  Were cops more likely to track, and pull over, red cars for speeding?  Even if you think this might have been the case in bygone decades, speed cameras and radar guns are color-blind now.  There may be something to the suggestion that in these bad economic times, more people pick somber colors.  But my own guess is that people may go with the basics because they don't want to stand out on the highway - they prefer not to be identifiable, for security reasons.  They know they're going to do stupid things - cut someone off, sit forever at a light while on the phone, and such, and they don't want their vehicles to be "memorable."  Dealers may also lean toward stocking a high percentage of cars that blend in with asphalt, knowing that they could end the model year taking a bath on those bright yellow models they inventoried.   Blandness spreads further if people who might like a more colorful paint job have to wait to get it.

My own color chronology has been more varied.  In the 60s, I ended up with a hand-me-down 1954 Nash Ambassador in a bright green color as my first car.  In 1968 I rammed that into the back of another vehicle, bent the frame, and had to junk it.  Next came a white Chevy.  After the army I bought my first new car:  Tan.  From there it was white again, briefly; a "blue" that could barely be distinguished from gray; burgundy, teal, and currently silver.  So I still have lots of options:  a real blue, red, or even yellow.

Especially considering that cars all look stylistically alike now (all sedans in existence nowadays share a single, boring profile, and all SUVs another one), maybe it's time to expand our palette.

Comments

[Mark]

It may be that form follows function and that as a technology matures all manufacturers gravitate toward a narrow set of design choices. If you look at film cameras from their beginnings as mass market items (after 1900), these came in many different styles and some were quite quirky in their design and in some of their unique features. There were also many different film formats. This continued through the 1950's, but by the 1970 all cameras really looked the same and there really was only one film format - 35mm. When digital cameras came out, it opened the opportunity again for designers to experiment again and there were some interesting designs but now these too all look pretty much the same.

[Fan Assembly]

Next time I get a car, I would love a color green. Dark green most probably, but not too green.

[Clint Moore]

There are actually lots of colors we can use on our cars, but most people prefer to be conservative with their cars, so the more conventional colors are usually the popular choices. Another reason today's cars look dull is the changing paint technology. The brighter acrylic lacquers, which were popular in the 60s, are being replaced with more durable polyurethane-based paints. No wonder the 60s and 70s vehicles looked groovier than their counterparts today. You rarely see cars with loud colors like tangerine or neon green.