... so popular on Honda Civics? I couldn't help noticing how singularly unattractive this colour is on seeing a couple of cars so marred during a lengthy examination of oncoming vehicles the other day - while I was waiting patiently in a jam caused by a 'shuntette' to the west of Oxford on the A40 during Thursday's evening peak. (And there were loads of Civics; Honda must be very pleased with themselves.)
While I'm about it, you can get a VW Beetle in a solid colour that must be called Mushroom Soup. And MINI do Pepper White. More like Full Fat Milk.
Any other colours that you can't fathom why anyone would have chosen them?
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Rover in the mid-90s did something called Kensington Green that was the colour of the scum on my pond. It was about the time you could have paisley pattern seat fabric in your 400 too. And people wonder where Rover went wrong!
And while we're doing Honda, what about that pale metallic pink you can have on a Jazz?
Five years ago, I'd have put Volvo's Maya Gold into this category too. These days I rather like it. But for a while, you could have your S60 in Dawn Blue, which wanted to be a sophisticated Audi-esque silvery blue but wasn't. It didn't last long.
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Beetroot with parsnip upholstery. Popular with Austin Vandel Plas models.
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When the Honda Jazz was introduced in the UK it was only available in a few colours pink not being one of them.
I was on a trip to Japan where they had been available for some time, I was "horrified" to see examples in pink and thought it was it just a Japanese thing to have them in that colour along with the fluffy furry dash which was all the rage at the time.
On my return to the UK I called in to my local Honda dealers and mentioned to the staff that the Jazz was available in pink in Japan, they sad they would never be available here in that colour. Well not long after they were, and a long time after they confirmed that not one had been ordered in that colour which is why I have only ever seen two in my area!.
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There's a house in Lancing with 2 pink Jazzes.
Personalised plates on both ending PNK.
Each to their own, but it heartens me to know that some people don't take life too seriously!
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While I'm about it you can get a VW Beetle in a solid colour that must be called Mushroom Soup.
I had a circa 1980 Escort in Taupe, which should have been called Mushroom Soup. In retrospect I can't think why on earth I chose that colour.
--
L\'escargot.
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I prefer all the colours mentioned here to the incredibly tedious metallic silver that most people opt for these days! The Rover green was very attractive IMO and I'm really starting to like white again!
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I prefer all the colours mentioned here to the incredibly tedious metallic silver that most people opt for these days
>>
Walking down a local residential street the other day, I nnoticed that six consectutive houses on one side had a car outside. Every one was silver. How boring!
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I recently specced a car that someone is hunting out for me - it was easy really, all I gave was the make and said any colour but Silver lol
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I've still got a pot of touch-up paint in the shed for an Austin Maxi I had in cow-pat green (officially called Limeflower). Oddly enough I saw one yesterday in that colour, it was even clean under the door sills.
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Before the war and for a while after black cars were in the majority. Anything else tended to be considered a little, let us say, unprofessional. My father had a black and maroon Humber 16 - I clearly remember the right hand gate change - but afterwards fully conformed.
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I prefer all the colours mentioned here to the incredibly tedious metallic silver that most people opt for these days! The Rover green was very attractive IMO and I'm really starting to like white again!
Utter bunkum, of course. Silver, athough ubiquitous, looks smart and never dirty and is readily visible at night and furthermore is a colour most suitable to the fact that most cars are not garaged nowadays, spending much of their life in the outdoors with all that throws at it.
My friend has just ordered a new VW Jetta Sport and guess what? He's ordered it in that dreadful dated old colour, Maroon, or what VW describe as 'Spice'. I tried my best to dissuade him but he wouldn't have it. He, like the majority of you, out there, thinks that Silver and similar shades don't do a car justice (misguided soul, that he is).
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>Silver, athough ubiquitous ... is readily visible at night...
Maybe at night but it's alarmingly inconspicuous in the grey, drizzly weather that characterizes the British Isles for eight months of the year. Drive along any motorway on such a day and count the number of silver cars showing no lights - if you can see them, of course!
The conspicuity issue is bothering me more and more. Mrs dB's fire-engine red Fabia isn't a problem, and it still looks smart and modern despite its seven years. But you wouldn't want that colour on a big car. (Although Citroen's vivid metallic red looks terrific on the C5 estate.)
My Volvo is dark ('Scarab') green, which gives it a good outline in drizzly weather but is a problem on bright days with deep shadows - I always put the headlights on when driving on tree-lined B-roads on sunny days and I wish more drivers would do the same. I had a couple of double-take moments in our sunny April (remember that?) when I suddenly noticed a dark-coloured car on the shaded side of the road that I should have noticed sooner. (And if Micky's reading this, my optician is more than happy with my vision. (---8{ )
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My god! SWMBO & I were commenting about the exact same thing the other thing the other day!! What a tedious, boring colour. Why choose the robocop Civic if you're going to opt for a dull colour??!
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The popularity of silver is something i just cant understand. Its sooooo dull ! To me it looks like primer.
Colours I would never pick are:- silver (obviously), white, solid red, yellow, orange, beige, brown.
Best colours :- British racing green, dark blue, dark metallic grey, jade green, black.
But then thats just me! ;o)
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The best one was the lighter dog poo metalic brown that BL used. By best one I mean of course the worse by some considerable way.
Yes sliver is getting boring. Hence i have ordered Black for the Altea.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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All car colours lack imagination. We need someone with the vision to return to two-tone, chrome bumpers and grills and vinyl roofs. And a stripe along the bonnet two.
--
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Agreed. There was some lovely MG magnette ZB "varitone" models produced.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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We need someone with the vision to return to two-tone chrome bumpers and grills and vinyl roofs. And a stripe along the bonnet two.
And a proper sized spare that is easy to access and white walled tyres and.....
A style to copy ?
tinyurl.com/ywleuq (easier than 289 chars)
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my mate had an allegro in a shade of what i can only describe as the colour of the contents a babys nappy, similar to a lot of bathroom suites as i recall
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>>similar to a lot of bathroom suitesas i recall
Avocado?
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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I can only assume it's becoming a popular and fashionable colour given a similar recent appearance on the Focus CC. These are two arguably "style"-led products sporting brown...
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Brown is no colour for a car, style led or otherwise.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Seen at least four of these this afternoon whilst on a townside potter.
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My father's boss had a 1957 MG Magnette Varitone in a very fetching maroon and cream combination - like the railway carriage colour scheme of the same era which was known to trainspotters as 'plum and custard'.
If there's a really nice similar one out there somewhere for no more than 5 grand my chequebook is open...
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MG Magnette varitone (1958) - Used Cars on RTÉ Motoring powered by ...
Magnette varitone. Engine:. 1.5 Petrol. Bodytype:. Saloon. Transmission:. Manual. Price:. ?14500. Year:. 1958. Colour:. Maroon/fawn. Mileage: .
There you are !
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bit more than 5k though !
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For those fed up with repmobile silver, this is how a paintjob should be done -
www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C17423
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My father had a 56 ZA magnette. (non varitone)
Lovely car, leather, real wood dash, twin su' carbs.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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My father had one of those in Black - lovely car a true mass market posh little car.
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My Dad had a ZA Magnette too... 20 years before I was born though.
I know what it is and in its era it was a lovely car. He can't even remember what colour it was now though.
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Black seems to be the new silver though, there are more and more black cars on the road. Five in a row six cars were lined up outside my office door yeserday, a Micra, tatty Touran and basic Leon all looked incredibly bland and downmarket, but it did suit the E-Class and shiny new S-Max. Trouble is, unless kept impeccably clean, black can look very dull on a car and I personally don't think it really suits anything smaller than Mondeo sized cars.
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Gulp! I once turned down a tidy one at 200 quid.
I bet there's one out there at nearer my price though.
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My father's boss had a 1957 MG Magnette Varitone in a very fetching maroon and cream combination - like the railway carriage colour scheme of the same era which was known to trainspotters as 'plum and custard'.
Actually, that's referred to as 'blood and custard', but I understand what you mean... :-)
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I just knew there would be a gricer out there somewhere to correct me if I mentioned anything about trains...;-)
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Colours are a fashion item, with the possible exception of BRG. Watch any filum from the 1970s to see horrors, but very much of the time. Better still, acquire a 1970s issue of Custom Car and admire the images.
I like lime green.
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Didn't Honda get stuck with some old model Type R - the red or black sold well, but not silver.
Mrs V's Montans Mx5 looks verrrry smart, in Garnetred. This is pearlescent & has a wide variation of appearence, depending on time of day & lighting conditions. Also as it's one of Mazdas limited edition runs, only 250 in the UK, so sort of rare, too.
& my first car was attractive duo-tone, Vauxhall Victor 102, 1965, similar to british racing green, body colour & light green roof. Looked great. They also did a mudnight blue & sky blue roof, version, too.
& now I've the Omega estate in Magic grey mica metalic, again not too usual.
First & current car from the same make & size - SCAREY!!
VB
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& my first car was attractive duo-tone Vauxhall Victor 102 1965 similar to british racing green body colour & light green roof. Looked great. >> VB
No Vauxhall Victor ever looked attractive, let alone great...! :-)
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Saw my first Altea XL at the weekend in what was supposed to be a dark red, but it looked brown to me and my wife and neither of us is colour blind.
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the old polish guy over the road from me hand painted his reliant robin with gloss paint ( post box red ) as i recall, i wonder if the chemicals in the paint affected the fibre glass?
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Seats colour offerings (for altea) are dull, bland, boring and uninspiring. They have two decent colours, a rather nice non metalic red, or metalic black. I have chosen the black.
The rest of the seat model range is little better, with the nice yellow on offer being the only bright spot.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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In response to wildebeeste, when I was considering a Volvo S60 I was actively looking for one in Dawn Blue metallic - lovely colour, reminded me of Ford's Paris Blue metallic that you used to get on 84/85 Ford Capris.
Incidentally, my favourite car colour is met blue, preferably light
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Can anyone else remember the Fiat (I think) paint job about 15yrs ago.
Every panel was a different clashing colour. I vaguely remember reading about it, I think I can remember seeing one, and I'm sure I took the mickey out of our sprayer at the time. Or have I been dreaming ?
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Can anyone else remember the Fiat (I think) paint job about 15yrs ago. Every panel was a different clashing colour.
that was a special edition polo
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Can anyone else remember the Fiat (I think) paint job about 15yrs ago. Every panel was a different clashing colour.
>that was a special edition polo
Indeed, a Polo Harlequin. I still really, REALLY want one!
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Can't think when I last saw one. Perhaps as ordinary cars become more particoloured with age, so Harlequins become more uniform until both types settle on a sustainable number of mismatched panels. A bit like the way old bread gets harder and old biscuits get softer.
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Of course the most amusing ones are people who buy cars with "character", then buy the silver one.
With the base-spec diesel engine.
Yup, loads of "character" there.
At least the person who buys a car in shocking pink is prepared to make a statement about themselves -- even if it's "I'm as fruity as a Christmas pudding".
So yes, I'm with the "silver is dull" camp :)
In fact, in all honestly the all-conquering combination of silver, red, black and metallic blues that make up probably 95% of the cars on the road is enough to send anyone to sleep.
Unfortunately my car is both as dull as ditchwater (1.8l Primera) *and* a crappy boring colour (metallic burgundy). Ah well.
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Back in the 1980's my local paper ran a spooky story, with before and after photographs, about a metallic gold Maxi that's colour would change to white whenever it rained. I had one that did exactly the same when it was a few years old.
A bad batch of metallic paint, I guess.
Clk Sec
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All in the eye of the beholder.
Back in the sixties everything was brown or beige. Brown walls, brown trousers, brown shirts (or was that Mosley in the '30s) brown baths, brown cars. Maybe that was the golden age for Honda owners and they still love it.
Wait long enough and it will be back in fashion. Then we'll all laugh at the obsession for silver paint and silver plastic of the noughties. Silver cars, silver tellies, silver audios, solver pens, silver 'puters...
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You're right there Flynn, it isn't just cars, silver has taken over the world. I have a hi-fi system with black seperates and trying to find a replacement for the ageing CD player that matches is almost impossible.
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Matches? Hi fi's not supposed to match, RR! You're allowed two speakers from the same maker but everything else must look as ill-assorted as possible - preferably with wires sticking out at all angles and connected with plugs that are too stiff to pull out even if you did want to untangle them. Worry about matching and you're on the way to Planet B&O - and you wouldn't want that, would you?
}:---)
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preview.tinyurl.com/2ybv78
a cracker and end of line so its cheap
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My first car in 1966 was a Mk11 Ford Zodiac in Canary yellow over white - not much brown on it. - my 1965 Mk3 was in metallic gold
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Silver is beginning to get a little bit passe in some areas of the electronics world -- shiny "piano-key" black, and iPod white are taking over.
If you're bothered about colour, maybe do what a friend of mine did with his beige PC which was used as a media-centre in the living room, and paint it silver with a tin of spray paint :)
The problem with silver electronics is that nothing ever matches anyway -- no two manufacturers have the same opinion on what is standard silver. It's a bit like cars -- "ooh, I've just bought a silver car with a hint of blue in it -- ain't that original and cool?" Yeah, in the same way that bottled water with a "hint" of peach flavouring is cool.
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I once owned a Renault 20 with worn-out laquer on its marron glace (metallic brown!) paint that used to go white when it rained. I thought it was funny - hardly spooky.
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>>>Back in the 1980's my local paper ran a spooky story
>>>I thought it was funny - hardly spooky.
That was the slant my local rag put on it. They even ran the story on the front page of their Saturday edition - Can't have been much happening in the world that day!
Clk Sec
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Had a brownish Cavalier once, can't remember what Vauxhall said it was but the females called her Bisto and the boys reckoned it was just jobby brown. Good point was that it was absolutely low-life proof.
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