Buyers of new cars are so dull | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

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Fri 17 Jan 2020 13:02

Buyers of new cars are so dull - gordonbennet

Colour choice is an odd thing, if i could have my way my cars would be the darkest bottle green one can find, however such colours need to be kept pristine, clean and scratch free or they look awful, and many people still have a superstition about green, wonder why?

Many of us look for colours that are either practicle for our use, silver is ideal for my use, or a shade that is considered fashionable, not only to 'fit in' which is understandable because standing out from the right on consensus of the moment isn't advisable and anyway there's always resale to think of, so something fashionable but bland is a good bet.

Personally i much preferred the 70's in many ways as well as colours, ok the cars weren't great but there were lots of really interesting colours, ranging from oranges through yellows and lime green to all shades of the spectrum, almost no one had white cars, and black was for govt/drug dealers/hoods, and as i recall our own fair maidens were a delight in those better days when people didn't take themselves quite so seriously.

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Fri 17 Jan 2020 13:21

Buyers of new cars are so dull - alan1302

or a shade that is considered fashionable, not only to 'fit in' which is understandable because standing out from the right on consensus of the moment isn't advisable

Yes, if you are a sheep

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Sat 18 Jan 2020 22:25

Buyers of new cars are so dull - ifekas

I think the other problem is that some manufacturers offer limited colours in their ranges, presumably for efficiency in production. So while you can get say a Ford Fiesta or Focus in a multitude of colours, if you wanted say a KIA Picanto (excluding the XLine and GTLine), you are restricted to five colours.

The orange/red one seemed promising on the web, but didn't look nice in real life. When I got the previous car, it was black that was available, and while I wasn't mad about it initially, I grew to really like it; so we chose black for the Picanto which we thought was the best 'colour' of what was on offer.

In the past I have had two green cars of different shades, but green seems to have gone out of fashion on mainstream cars. White used to be the poverty colour but that is no longer the case. Interestingly the newer police cars where I live are no longer silver but a dark blue.

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Sat 18 Jan 2020 23:50

Buyers of new cars are so dull - Bolt

I think the other problem is that some manufacturers offer limited colours in their ranges, presumably for efficiency in production

they might offer limited ranges but they can change a colour on the fly with no need to change spray nozzles, IIRC VAG are one that does it on the line and have done for years

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Sat 18 Jan 2020 23:54

Buyers of new cars are so dull - alan1302

I think the other problem is that some manufacturers offer limited colours in their ranges, presumably for efficiency in production

they might offer limited ranges but they can change a colour on the fly with no need to change spray nozzles, IIRC VAG are one that does it on the line and have done for years

They have to pay for all the colours though - and they want efficiency so don't want to have lots of options as most of the time there is no point.

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Fri 17 Jan 2020 13:37

Buyers of new cars are so dull - Mincey

the cars weren't great but there were lots of really interesting colours, ranging from oranges through yellows

Oh my - you just gave me the most awful flashback to my Dad's yellow (Sand Gold I think it was called) Austin Princess which was followed by a yellow (can't remember the name, but it certainly attracted swarms of greenfly that summer - 1978?) Chrysler Alpine.

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Fri 17 Jan 2020 13:47

Buyers of new cars are so dull - Bolt

Personally i much preferred the 70's in many ways as well as colours,

My mate years ago had a 70s Ford Corsair, its actually still in his garden with no floor pan in it, the rest you can guess

in its day it was fully customised with a picture along one side of the moon over the desert, I dont know who painted it but it was just like a 35mm print

He put a V8 in it then had the other side painted I think it was an Owl in the woods all the way along the O/S, he took it to car shows a lot but I only saw it once at a show, otherwise it was outside his place

One colour I really hate is green so never had a car that colour anything else is fine :)

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Fri 17 Jan 2020 13:04

Buyers of new cars are so dull - Leif

Not just cars. The in colour for a sofa is grey. It's not to my taste, far too industrial, I like some colour.

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Fri 17 Jan 2020 14:36

Buyers of new cars are so dull - groaver

We don't see enough ox-blood leather interiors in cars nowadays.

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Fri 17 Jan 2020 14:52

Buyers of new cars are so dull - oldroverboy.

I must be boring,, (No digs please)

current car is grey.. but actually metallic silver.

previous Kia red, Kia blue, Cruze silver, Epica steel grey, Rover 75 Blue MG ZT BRG, and others before.....Blue, Grey, Blue, Blue, red, red,red, that funny pearlescent bluegreeny rover 400 in the late nineties,

Colours have been always what was available at the price i was willing to pay

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Fri 17 Jan 2020 15:09

Buyers of new cars are so dull - Engineer Andy

I must admit liking Minis with their patriotic Union Jack roof design alongside a red rest of the car, or the deep blue with a central white stripe (Ford) or the colour and paint style of Starskey's car from the TV series.

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Fri 17 Jan 2020 15:06

Buyers of new cars are so dull - Engineer Andy

My current car (from 2006) is silver, but my previous (only other) one was a lovely metallic dark green (not quite British racing green, but close). I like the new slightly darker Mazda metallic red. I'm also partial to 'Subaru blue' (with gold-coloured alloys) and dark metalic blue, even white, on the right car. Black is great when brand new, but afterwards...

Never grey though. Reminds me too much of John Major.

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Fri 17 Jan 2020 16:21

Buyers of new cars are so dull - Sofa Spud

As long as I can remember there has always been a fashionable 'default' car colour. In the 50's that was black, which gave way to cream or white in the 1960's and 70's. I recall a time in the 1980's when every second car seemed to be some shade of red, but that didn't last long. Then came the long, boring silver era, which has now given way to grey and black. Given that so many of the latest cars have fussy, inelegant styling, black is probably a good colour to go for. OK, someone will say black is not a colour, but for the purpose of car paintwork choice it is!

Edited by Sofa Spud on 17/01/2020 at 16:24

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Fri 17 Jan 2020 16:32

Buyers of new cars are so dull - Dag Hammar

Top Trump by me. I once owned a 1960 model Vauxhall Victor with two tone paintwork.

Burgundy and grey ( plus quite a bit of brown rust)

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Fri 17 Jan 2020 16:41

Buyers of new cars are so dull - MGspannerman

I remember in the 70s a friend of mine had an Escort in silver, maybe it was silver fox? Anyway Fords of that colour shed the paint in spectacular fashion, as did his. Jagged sheets of paint just used to peel off. Ford of course completely ignored their customers when they complained.

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Fri 17 Jan 2020 17:19

Buyers of new cars are so dull - corax

The really old cars from the early 1900's were always black, apparently because colour wasn't a major concern to manufacturers at the time, and it was the cheapest colour. And also because other machinery was painted black.

I like it - it doesn''t make them boring because the shapes at the time were interesting. They must have been like furnaces in the summer though.

I have owned one grey car, and I will never own another if I can help it, it sucks the soul out of you.

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Fri 17 Jan 2020 17:24

Buyers of new cars are so dull - corax

I think my favourite colour is the one I have now - Subaru blue with a graduated tint of road filth along the bodywork, just seems to enhance it.

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Fri 17 Jan 2020 23:41

Buyers of new cars are so dull - drd63

Mustang - Red, 124 Spider - Red, Aygo - very blue. Some cars work in bright colours, the majority don’t.

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Sun 19 Jan 2020 08:52

Buyers of new cars are so dull - craig-pd130

There are some vivid colours available today - especially in Citroen's range, and I see quite a few cars in the 'metallic gold' (which looks to me more like 'frothy micturate sample').

But to my eyes, some cars look good in grey. BMW's mineral grey in particular suits their cars.

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Sun 19 Jan 2020 21:53

Buyers of new cars are so dull - drd63

Agree that some cars look good in grey and that tends to be the case with most saloons. I was however very surprised to find Fords new Puma looking so good in the showroom in Solar Silver, so good in fact that the Aygo, whose lease is just about up, is going to be replaced by one. Just a quick word about the Aygo - it has been fantastic and faultless. Just need a bit more space.

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