During the 70s, 80s and even the 90s, automakers offered many cars in various shades of brown. But now, I never see this. I see a sort of grayish-tan color a lot, and that’s the closest thing to brown that I see now. I certainly never see the kind of dark, deep brown, or burgundy, or “burnt umber” that so many Buicks, Oldsmobiles and other large American four-door cars used to be colored. Has brown officially been “retired” as a car color? Is it just too out-of-style and drab-looking for people in the cool and colorful 2000s to go for?
And if so…why exactly was brown more popular in past decades? What was it about the 70s and 80s that made brown a popular car color, and why exactly did people get sick of it?
As for why brown was more popular in the past than now … well … like everything else, colors go through periods of fashion. In the 70s (and it really goes back further than that, but for the sake of argument, let’s say the 70s) “earth tones” were popular. Browns and tans and oranges and some yellows and greens. So, it’s only natural that cars would also pick up those colors. The auto industry follows color fads and fashions like every other design industry.
Yeah, the '70s were big on Earth tones. The first Earth Day was in 1970. It seems to me that in the '70s people were moving away from hippiedom and into a ‘harmony with Nature but still comfortable’ stage. I remember lots of heavy wood, stone walls, and macrame. I also remember that people said brown was good because it didn’t show the dirt as much.
I remember an episode of Wings where the ‘serious’ brother says to the other, ‘Do you know why I don’t have a Ferrari?’ The ‘hip’ brother replies, ‘Because they don’t come in brown?’
Silver doesn’t show its age. Light scratches tend to blend in, and silver cars don’t look dirty when they are.
I’ve seen deep purple, more like “eggplant”, on some fancy SUV the other day. Dodge used to have a color called “rosewood”, a brownish purple, on their minivans. I think the Ford Flex comes in a dark-brownish.
The Mustang came in a “clove brown” back in the eighties. Mustangs tend to cycle through the less popular colors; for example, gold was last offered in 2000, it’s available on the 2010s.
I just did a search on one of those car-trader websites for all cars within 500 miles of my location meeting the criteria: Brown. The newest one I saw that looked brown (not tan or beige) to me was a early 2000’s Pontiac minivan.
Good Lord, that was like the only color I’ve seen them in. Browns and tans were unusually common among Oldsmobiles. I always thought of brown as an “old man” car color.
Green disappeared for a while int he 1980s and early 1990s, but then reappeared. However, the light green that was popular in the 1970s never came back.
If you mean that vile snot green that Datsun B210s came in, thank God.
Yeah. It DOES seem to me that car colors haven’t been cycling for a while. We’ve been stuck with a sea of white, silver and black cars for an awful long time. The road looks like a parade of major kitchen appliances, particularly with the number of SUVs. OK, we don’t need to revive Datsun B210 snot green (or bile yellow), but a little actual color would be nice.
I just bought a nice bright ORANGE Honda Fit. I love it. Everyone who sees the car either loves it or… well, they say things like “At least you won’t have any trouble finding it in the parking lot”.
I have a purple Nissan pickup (with teal highlights). I can find my vehicle with but a glance in every parking lot I have ever placed it in. I hope you continue to love your Fit for many years to come.
White remains the most popular car color. White, black and silver./QUOTE]
I’m seeing quite a few cream-coloured cars here now (UK). Maybe it’s the first baby step from white to a full-on brown revival. I wouldn’t mind, I like that 70s bronze look.
I’ve seen a BMW Z4 in brown. Looking at the “build your own z4” section of the bmwusa.com site, I see they call the color “Mojave Metallic.” It’s brown.
