I don’t remember, but I’m thinking you’re correct, and it’s when the windshield wipers are on. That way it’d also be true for very heavy fog.
Headlights on in the rain is also FL law. Usually followed, but not always.
Automatic headlights have been pretty mainstream stuff for 10 years now. Soon enough the cars driving in the rain blacked out will be elderly beaters only.
Subaru headlights turn off when the key does so I just have my lights on all the time. The only problem with daytime running lights is that they normally don’t include turning on the tail lights and it’s awfully nice in really sloppy conditions to be able to see the car in front of you via their red lights. Windshield wipers should turn on all lights associated with normal night time operation. It just makes sense and ought to be standard.
This just makes no sense at all.
“the dealer wants to stock neutral colors” is almost certainly the reason cars look so dull these days.
Sigh. I like light colors. Dark-colored cars get too hot in the sun. But white/silver/light gray are so very dull.
But what with supply chain problems, maybe I’ll end up ordering my next car, instead of buying something off the lot.
That seems backwards to me.
FYI a friend just had GMC cancel his order for a fancy but otherwise ordinary pickup truck with an ordinary gasoline engine. The order was 14 months old when they finally admitted defeat that they were never going to be able to deliver the truck. Not in the model year he ordered, nor even in the next one.
I think that for the next couple of years, car buying will be almost entirely “bird in the hand, not phantom in the bush.”
There is a Jeep I see around town that is an incredibly bright yellow green. Or green yellow. I’m guessing it must be a custom paint color.
I had just read this thread before heading out for a quick errand, so I paid a bit more attention. This is a small town in western Michigan, for background.
Definitely, mostly grayscale. Throw in an even more boring color: beige (sorry, “champagne”) and you have the vast majority of cars. A few dark navy, some bright blue (all newer model Hondas and/or possibly Mazda) and way more dark maroon than bright red, though not too many of either. A couple of orange/copper, all very much newer model styles.
My car is a 2012 Ford Fiesta hatchback in “Lime Squeeze”.
(Not mine)
It was the first car I bought new and I had to order it because the dealership didn’t have it in stock. Maybe because I bought it with the plan of keeping it at least ten years, but if I’m spending nearly $20,000 on a car (then; much more now!), why wouldn’t I order exactly what I want, as long as I have a current working car until it comes in?
My mom has always been a fan of black cars and she said I’d get sick of it. Nope. I love my lime green car and it’s always easy to find my car in the parking lot.
The Lime Squeeze Fiestas seem to be forming a club, to my delight: about 1/2 or 2/3s of the times I encounter another on the road, I get a wave and a big grin. I love it!
Ugh. Every time I see one of those, my brain says “Hush Puppy.” The suede shoe, not the fried dough.
When I see that gray color, my brain says, “That guy’s car looks like they forgot to paint it after they put on the primer.”
As an outsider I love this thread. I am all of y’all’s worst nightmare - the consumer that actually prefers dark grey 
. Always have. When I was a little kid and first saw a dark grey car, back when dark grey was far less common, I thought that was the neatest colored car I’d ever seen. Of course I also grew up with a lot of 1970’s vintage family cars that were typically colors like puke green or faded dogshit brown.
I once ended up with a bright red car for exactly the same reason and I did not like it. For some reason the universe has decided to piss on us both when buying cars but in opposite directions 
.
At the end of the day, I’m actually pretty tolerant of car colors. White is a non-starter as are those odd pearlescent champagne colors. Probably no bright yellow either. But if it became necessary I’d mostly take what I could get that was readily available for what I wanted in features.
But my current car is dark grey, the first one I’ve owned that color and for the very first time in my life I got exactly the color I wanted.
No argument needed. Studies have been done for decades that say that silver/grey/white can be almost invisible during the day, and black disappears at night. The %s of accidents for those colors are surprisingly high.
We walked past a black GTI and I told my wife I’d like one for Christmas. She said “Well, maybe, if it comes in red… you need to be visible.”
Then we turned the corner, where I knew there’s always a red one parked. Still don’t think she’s getting me one…
But please, no one tell her the safest color is that “Highway Worker Vest” Fluorescent Yellow-Green.
.
eta: I just realized the other day, after decades of dissecting automotive designs and analyzing minute color differences… that when I’m driving, I’m not looking at my car!
So I should be more concerned about the look of the dashboard than the “post-modern euro-swoop of the B-pillar geometry in a proprietary Turquoise Candy Flake…”
Red pretty well disappears in the dark as well. That’s why a lot of fire departments have switched to white or
Yes, but when it’s you inside the car the “post-modern euro-swoop of the B-pillar geometry in a proprietary Turquoise Candy Flake…”, that makes you look maaahvelous.
And that’s really the whole point of cars: to look maaahvelous while driving them.
I too lament the dearth of colorful cars on the roadways. My first car was a bright pumpkin-orange Fiat Spyder. I loved that car. After it was totaled in wreck I got another bright pumpkin-orange Fiat Spyder. Over the years I had a few other sporty cars, all brightly colored and fun to drive. My last sporty car was a Nissan 350Z. I bought it from a private seller with low miles and a good price. But, it was boring white. Loved the car; hated the color.
Interesting backstory of the fellow who sold me the Z: Bill was a great guy with a keen sense of humor. We became good friends. We fished and bowled at lot together (he was a great bowler who kicked my ass consistently on the lanes. But, I out-fished him, so it evened out). I introduced Bill to my ex-girlfriend Trish (with whom I remained on good terms). They got married and had 3 daughters. Then, they divorced. We all remained friends. By then, Bill was no longer in financial straits and wished to buy his Z back. I sold it back to him for a good price (I got tired of having a white car).
Trish was a unique girl. She was the black sheep identical twin in her family (she hated her twin). She was very attractive but ultimately too wild for both me and Bill. After she divorced Bill, Trish became a long-haul big-rig trucker. She married a man born with no hands, so Trish did all the driving, while hubby kept her entertained in the passenger seat. They stopped by my house in their rig whenever they were in town. They were happy together and loved trucking cross country. Bill was happy with primary custody of his daughters. I was happy I introduced them, resulting in 3 great girls coming into the world and 2 happy (though separate) parents.
Then I got married, had 2 daughters and traded in my last sports car for an ugly brown mini-van. Then, I got divorced, got primary custody of the girls and got another ugly mini-van. Then, my father died and I inherited his ugly white mini-van. I can’t win.
Besides boring contemporary car colors, I also lament the passing of stylish car bodies of the cars of yesteryear in favor of the ultra-aerodynamic styles of contemporary cars. I would happily pay a few extra cents per mile in gas to drive a stylish ‘56 T-Bird, or a ‘65 Shelby Mustang.
Although I enjoyed the rest of your post, as another former 350Z owner (see post above) I just have to point out to those who may not have seen it in person that the Pikes Peak White had a really nice pearl clearcoat that made it much more interesting and attractive, especially close up, than your ordinary white car. Yes, it was white, but it was an interesting white.
All of the Z colors – even the “boring” white, black, and grays – had a depth, usually with some metallic sparkles, that raised them above the ordinary. IMHO.
You’re right, the Z Pikes Peak white was quite nice as far as white goes…but, I wanted pumpkin-orange. 
JK, but Redline Red or Daytona Blue would have been nice.
In about 1998 my friend Diana and I went over to the Fox River Mall from Wausau. I drove. I had, at the time, a white Corsica. We left the mall, looked at the parking lot and stopped dead. It was a sea of mostly white cars. My friend said “maybe I should have driven” as her car was dark gold.
Took a bit to find my car.
I have suddenly been seeing bright cerulean blue cars all over! Its a nice change, but maybe theres only 2 and The Committee is following me around. (Not intended to be taken seriously)