There is new car talk around here, some guy over the cubicle wall is buying a new car because his old car won’t pass the smog test anymore. So I got the new car bug as happens to everyone once in a while and started looking around at the car sites. The car I’m looking for: four-door generic family sedan. Think Toyota Corolla or Camry, or Mazda3 or Mazda6, or Honda Civic, or Volkswagen Jetta. Something simple like that. I want a manual transmission. Other than that I have no special demands. Except that I want ayellow car. That’s right, yellow. Why can’t anyone make a yellow car? Or something besides the boring black, gray, silver, white? Some companies are bold and offer a red version. Ooooh! Well I don’t red. I want yellow. Or maybe green or purple, something that sticks out (you can use this as a reference: wikipedia’s list of colors by shade). When I go to the manufacturer’s “build your own car” site, I expect to see yellow listed as an option! Or green! Or sky blue!
So who makes a brighly colored car that’s not red? Someone has to! Or do they really expect me to go down to Home Depot, buy a couple of cans of Ralph Lauren yellow and a paintbrush, and slap it on myself? :mad:
“No demand” in this context = insufficient demand. If the car manufacturers found that 50% of their customers preferred pink cars with green polka dots, they’d be supplying cars painted like that.
So, Giles, you’re saying that the problem is not with the car manufactures, but with you guys. Well get with the program! Demand yellow! And how will the companies know if people want yellow when they don’t offer it as an option? Riddle me that!
Well, they have other ways of finding out what customers want, e.g., surveying a small random sample, feedback from car dealers, etc.
Once upon a time, Henry Ford offered cars “in any color as long as it’s black”. Eventually, even that opinionated curmudgeon got the feedback that customers wanted their Model T Fords in other colours.
There is a story a rich guy wanted his car the same shade of red as his wife’s nail polish. He could not find a paint that matched so he bought the polish in bulk and got someone to paint the car with it. Might be an urban legend.
I was SO disappointed when the Dodge Neon came out in such boring colors. I mean, here is a car called “Neon.” It should come in some wild NEON colors. But no. The usual boring black, white, gray/silver. Shouldn’t there have been a neon green, bright orange, shocking pink, chartreuse?
Chevrolet offers their Aveo in yellow, both as a 5-door and a sedan. I’ve also Chevy’s Camero and Cobalt coupes in yellow, but I think they are both special editions.
Edit: the Honda Fit is called the Honda Fit in the US, but yellow doesn’t not appear to be an option here.
Yes. Yes I do. When I go places like New York City or San Francisco, people usually ignore me. I feel like the invisible man. I would be much happier to see smiling happy faces and people waving at me when I drive by.
Where did you see that? I went to the “build your car” portion of the site, here, and I tried 3 or 4 models. I didn’t see yellow as a choice for any of the models I chose. I didn’t try them all because the site was acting very slow for me.
In any case, the first car I bought (back in my student days) was a used Chevrolet Chevette, automatic. That car was so terrible it would take a lot to convince me to buy another Chevrolet. Especially with all the problems GM has been having lately. On the plus side, my Chevrolet Chevette, which I got really cheap, was lime green.
