When I pre-ordered my 2003 Nissan 350Z, they were available in black, pearl white, dark silver, light silver, dark red, bright red, a really vibrant blue, and this one: Lemans Sunset.
(Not my actual car.)
My first reaction was, “Hell, no! There are no other cars that color.” Then when I thought about it a while, I realized, “Hey! There are no other cars that color!” So I got it. And I loved it for the decade I owned it.
Since then, Nissan and other makers have released other models in that coppery color, or something similar, but I think the Z was the first mainstream car with that look.
When I first saw a Z in Daytona Blue in the flesh, I was a little sorry I hadn’t chosen that, because in person it has a real pop that the brochure and even this picture don’t quite capture. But there are lots of blue cars. My Lemans Sunset was unique.
I have been a fan of that copper / subdued orange family of colors since the very first such car I saw, which was an otherwise boring Nissan Murano family wagon. I think Nissan pioneered it, but many other brands have since produced their own variations.
My immediately previous car was in BMW’s interpretation of that color. And yes, to find the car I wanted in that color I had to buy it from a dealer 2000 miles away.
My current car is a very dark gray; it’s a rather more interesting and refined color than that description implies and it really fits the model it’s applied to. But damn I miss my copper shining in the sun!
I’ve noticed the recent spate of creamy gray cars, in a world of subtle differences. And I find them oddly appealing, in the way that Youtube videos that come up when you search “satisfying” are appealing. I expect them to massage my gums or something.
But, wow, are they going to look like crap after a few years on the road.
For me it’s always been blue, since I graduated college at least. Got a 2013 Civic SI in 2018, but all they had (entire state) was yep one in battleship grey. I sprang for a custom paint job, choosing a Porsche metallic blue. Zero regrets despite the 4K cost; just last month a lady complemented me on it.
Some people just prefer less flashy, more conservative colors. I would no sooner buy a red car than I would a red suit.
Of my last 10 vehicles, half were custom ordered from the factory. 4 of those were black and one was pewter. The other 5 were bought off the lot. 2 of those were black, one white, one grey and one pewter.
When I had to go emergency car shopping last year I ended up with a 2014 Nissan Juke. (Yes, it’s ugly but it’s a cute ugly. I love my Juke.) I was thrilled that after 26 years of white cars I had one in a kind of weird metallic navy blue. I’m still thrilled.
For those interested, here’s the stats for car color popularity in 2022 vs 2017 at least. In 2022, white/black/grey/silver made up 78.6% of the most popular car colors. In 2017, those colors comprised 76.2%, so – at least according to that source – we’ve gotten even less colorful since 2017.
Now, we have a white car and a silver car, because that’s what was on the lot it. My wife likes white; I like colors, so I’m not wild about my Mazda 3’s silver paint job. I would have taken that red-burgundy type of color that was popular at the time, but I wanted a gently used stick shift (and gentle it was with less than 1K on the odometer), and that was all I had to pick from. I hate the neutrals. I like color. I like being able to find my car easier in the parking lot. Blue, green, red, I don’t much care. They all can look great. I’d take orange for even easier parking lot spotability.
I wonder if part of the equation isn’t simply that cars as a whole aren’t as ostentatious as they used to be? Think of a typical car from 1959 (Cadillac, DeSoto, Impala, etc.) Typical features will include: fins, lots of chrome, curved windshield - and bright pastel colors. But we haven’t been making cars that way for ages. Cars, like planes, have sort of settled into a formula. They’re no longer a status symbol. Perhaps this is one reason why there are fewer paint options?
I would argue that this can cause one safety issue - in my experience a white or gray car can be harder to see on the highway on an overcast day.
Here’s a related thing that would interest me: I have an affinity to North American cars from the 1973 to 1977 model years. I get the impression that this is not a very popular generation of cars among afficionados, but I like it as it reminds me of the older cars that were still kicking around when I was growing up. The thing is, cars in this period often had very dull, indeed completely MATTE finishes. So there was for example a big four-door Chevelle in my neighborhood (ca. 1976 model year). It was all this light almost olive green, and completely dull. What could have spurred this matte aesthetic?
My HR-V is black and, for the first few months I owned the car, I thought every smaller black SUV was mine until I noticed I couldn’t unlock the doors. There a a gazillion black SUV’s out there. LOL
This explains much of the proponderance of “neutral” hues on cars. What it comes down to in the end is most people want white, silver, beige or gray vehicles, because they’re so much easier to find in parking lots.
/sarcasm
When I was looking for a particular model several years ago, I wanted it in the nice shade of blue they were advertising. The only model on the lot with manual transmission (which was also a desired feature) was dark gray. It was discounted and I didn’t want to wait forever for a factory order, so that’s what I wound up with.
This graph is fascinating, it shows the distribution of colors over the last 30 years. Unfortunately it’s for Poland, so it doesn’t represent the whole automotive industry, but I think there’s still some good takeaways. Green has been almost totally squeezed out (remember all those green Ford Tauruses back in the day?) and white/silver/gray/black have greatly increased their dominance. In the North American market you’d see a lot more beige going back to the 1990s and early 2000s. In fact I seem to recall that “brown of some sort” (i.e. brown, beige, and any off-white) was the most popular car color in the US in that time period. It was the “bland and inoffensive but superficially ok-enough color” that wouldn’t turn anyone away. Now that’s some version of white/silver/gray/black. After a quick look I couldn’t find a graph for the US that goes back before 2000, which would be very informative.
As I drive my black GMC truck to and from the Y, I often maintain a “black pickup truck count” in my head. It is not unusual for me to pass by 8 or 10 similar black pickup trucks.
I don’t mind blending in with traffic though, so it suits me fine.
They were not dull when they left the factory. They were quite shiny. Paint from that era doesn’t age well 50(!) years later. It gets dull.
Admittedly there were some “interesting” color choices then as the industry moved away from more primary or pastel colors into the more intermediate shades. Like the olive green which is really green with some brown mixed in.
You’re quite right that fins and extensive chrome are passé. Although every car today has a curved windshield. Fancy cars are still status symbols.
e.g. if you look at a 2023 Cadillac, you’ll still see lots of features meant to be eye-catching and stand out from the crowd. You’'ll also see that every model of Cadillac is a variation on the same consistent aesthetic theme. I personally don’t care for Cadillac’s current branded look, but I do find it utterly distinctive; at a glance you can tell it’s a Caddy, with all the status symbol baggage that label does (or doesn’t) mean to you.
What has changed, is that now a lot more “ordinary” people buy new or nearly new cars. In 1959 new cars were for upper class people only. So I’ll suggest that what we have now is a lot more cars designed to a price point as working-class transportation. Those cars are not (primarily) status symbols and so those cars generally lack overt exterior styling and ornamentation. They’re deliberately “designed down” to leave room for their other higher lines that are “designed up”
Two of the other things that have changed are a) crashworthiness & pedestrian safety standards, and b) aerodynamics for fuel mileage. A lot of the protrusions common on the frankly baroque 1955-1965 era cars are prohibited today for one of the above reasons. So newer cars are still stylish, but not garishly so.
Tell me about it. My wife’s car is a white Hyundai Ioniq and I have twice walked into another person’s car when a similar white car parked alongside me. First time was at the shopping plaza—I popped into a 7-11 and popped right back out to “my” car (unlocked), say in the drivers seat, and then was confused for the moment as everything just seemed much cleaner than I remembered it being. And … wait … where are the car seats? Oops.
Second time I picked up my kid from school and ran to where I thought my car was left, opened the back door, stuffed my kid in, only to have someone peer right back at me from the driver’s seat. Oops again.
I didn’t even have the right make of car — one was a Toyota, the other a Honda.
