Author: Kim du Toit

This article got my attention:

Why is grey the most popular car colour for the fifth year running? How subtler shades have dominated the market for a decade — and the reason brighter tones have fallen out of favour.

The reason, as any fule kno, is simple:

Consumers are concerned about a bright colour ‘driving down the resale value of their car’.

Which is fine, I guess.  Certainly, if I were buying another car today, I might not accept that ghastly bronze-y color of a decade back — even if the thing was really cheap because of it.

The problem, of course, is that car colors can date a car, e.g.

Haven’t seen too many modern cars looking like that, have you?  (I’m talking about the color, of course — although that applies to its styling too.)

And let’s be honest:  as much as they are the boring same-ol’-same ol’, black, gray, white and silver cars do carry over the years (and even decades), whereas brown, bronze, “champagne” and so on do not.

The latest color craze I see nowadays is that ghastly “putty”- or “cement” gray:

Ugh.  And the trend towards matte finishes should be halted by legislation.

Interestingly enough, there are non-bland colors that stay popular:  red, yellow, dark blue and dark green (a.k.a. “British Racing Green”), but that really depends on the car, of course, e.g.

…but even I might draw the line at a purple Dino, especially if I had another choice:

Ah-ha! white and silver, just like the article suggests.  But even for a Dino, I’d never take one of these:

…because, you see, I live in Texas — where the last thing you want is a black car which turns your car into an oven (against which the Dino’s puny lil’ Italian a/c unit stands no chance).

That’s not a problem they have in Britishland, of course.