I've always wondered why I see certain cars out on the road that usually come in maybe 1 or 2 commonplace colors. For example, I swear that almost every minivan I see (Ford Windstar, Town & Country) is either dark green or dark blue. If you want to talk about sedans like the Passat and the S-class, and convertibles like the Celica, any shade of silver seems to be the color of choice for those cars. Yellow is more of a rare color since not every manufacturer makes it. What happened to diversity in color choice for cars?

 

It's called being CHEAP....for the same reasons you don't see many two-tones anymore either, outside of a few SUV's. Auto manufacturers offer as few colors as possible to keep costs down by not having to order and stock as many different paints and not having to clean the robot paint guns out as much.
So....they are going to offer what THEY think will sell...or what actually DOES sell, which in most cases is white, silver / gray, dark blue, dark green, burgundy, gold /beige, and black.

You're preaching to the choir here.....I also would like to see MANY more colors offered......but cost effectiveness is what rules today. You DO see yellow, by the way, on some sport sedans, trucks, and sport cars. I have a bright yellow IS300 myself.

 

I think some is trends too. It seems nowadays, silver is the color. Look at how silver/platinum/white gold has replaced yellow gold as the jewerlry of choice. Colors are not really in with fashion right now. There are so many shades of silver now, even the Altima has a graphite gray. It is now more than ever to copy what looks expensive. Whereas before orginality was in.

Remember how in the early 90s, HUNTER GREEN was THE color to have! And how gold emblems were in. Now its about silver emblems or even black.. I think Beige was the in color in the late 80s.

 

In the late 80's, beige did have some popularity, but teal, aqua, turqouise, and other shades of blue-green was what ruled back then. Metallic candy-apple red was also popular then. Dark ( or forest ) green then replaced the blue-green shades. Then, for several years, white was in first place. Now it silver and light-to-medium gray (as you note).....primarily because of the present metallic-look craze. This is also being caried over into interiors......practically every vehicle on the road now offers SOME kind of brushed-metal interior trim.
The brushed-metal look is not my cup of tea, ( I like both wood and carbon-fiber) but there is no doubt it has tremendous popularity today.

 

ferrari...red

 

I would think companies research what colors people buy with certain types of cars and simply cut the slow sellers. It does make sense though. I think it would be fun to see what colors CL members would buy. I for one like Silver, White, Blue and Black. I would never buy Red or Yellow.

 

It's interesting. Some cars just seem like they HAVE to be a certain color.

Ferraris=red
Old Accords=dark green
MB=silver
etc

It's nice when niche cars like Corvettes, M3s and the like have specialty colors, it really adds character to the car IMO.

Oh and mmarshall, about the two tone thing, a big reason all the SUVs are two tone is due to the ugly plastic lower cladding.

James

 

Some are plastic or vinyl cladding and some are actually two-tone paint....depends on the model, trim level, and the perceived use of the vehicle. The later RAV4s and the newer Subaru Outbacks are actually two-tone paint.
The RAV4 used to have plastic, but enough customers complained that Toyota switched over a few years ago.


I can understand the plastic (even with its ugliness and cost-cutting) on a vehicle that is going to be driven off-road or on sand /salted roads frequently with debris on them. It prevents (or minimizes) paint damage.