I am seeing a LOT of a color on trucks & cars nowadays- a kind of primer grey, but gloss. And on different manufacturers.
Anyone have any idea of where this is coming from?
Like, where does gray come from? Where goes car paint come from? Why gray is more popular lately?
This article explains a lot.
Basically, it started with fancy cars like Lamborghini a couple of decades ago, then filtered down to cars like Audi, and now has finally made its way down to the lower level common cars.
It’s purely a fashion thing. There’s no benefit to that style of paint other than the looks of it.
There’s a clear detriment as the currently fashionable grey is the opposit of “hi vis”. It’s positively dangerous.
When I worked at Nissan the color changes came from the regional product planners every couple of years. Their job was to survey customer survey trends and the competitions feature set. Color changes are an easy way to make an old model look fresh.
And many just follow what everyone else is doing. Color alone was easy to change, but when they added in trim textures, special badges, new roof racks and grill changes it became a painful dull task.
It does look like primer. A lot. I just saw a car today with that grey color and my first thought was primer.
There’s been several new colors out the last few years that I describe as quite different from the past but not unattractive.
Gray has been a very common fashion color on new vehicles for 10 years now. e.g. Kia has a very pretty Dove gray they’ve been selling for 6 model years now at least.
I’m surprised the OP is just now picking up on this trend.
I don’t remember what they called my '07 GMC color. Something like “Storm Grey”. I like it because it doesn’t show dirt.
The first time I saw that color, it reminded me of the gray color of some US military staff vehicles, except for the gloss.
Weird.
When I bought my grey Jeep in 2021 the color was relatively unique. At first it was easy to find the car in a parking lot. Now not so much.
That is a great article, thank you. Tells me what I need.
Right.
I just recently saw so many of these “Lunar Grey” or whatever vehicles, that i finally made a thread to ask. I have been seeing them for a while.
Maybe this is a region thing, grey metallic has been fashionable in the UK on cars for as long as I can remember, aside from certain brands that make colour a marker of brand difference (eg Mini).
When I went to Istanbul a few years ago, it was striking that 90% of the cars were pure white. It looked like everyone was driving a taxi.
Guess who became a “fashion leader” nearly ten years ago? 
In my view the gray paint scheme is ugly and also vaguely menacing compared to the previous white colour scheme which I guess was deemed a bit too friendly-looking …
I have a white car that I love except for the color; it’s a Nissan Leaf, and I love my first electric car-- especially loving it when gas was $4.25/gallon. But Really hate the white, to be honest. It is about the last color I would have chosen-- no, I would have picked that over grey, or any shade of brown (chocolate, tan, whatever). Have had a couple of blue cars (my favorite color), and a red car (not my fave, but liked the car). Those were the easiest things in the world to find in parking lots.
Finding the white car is like looking for a particular piece of hay in a haystack. I mean, goddam, but it seems that more than half the cars are white. There were 7 in a row yesterday outside the optometrist. And none was mine.
Mine does have the “make me honk” feature on the fob, but I have to be sort of close already, and it’s an obnoxious sound. I wouldn’t like to be standing next to it when it suddenly goes off. I try hard to avoid using it. When I can, I park next to a cart corral, or the far-most handicapped space. It’s not always posible.
Yes, I know repainting is an option, but not over paying rent or insurance.
Maybe I can just repaint the hood.
There are probably a few different paints being discussed here.
I think the OP is talking about the solid (not metallic) gloss paints that really do look like clay. Paints are odd things, and the 3D structure makes a difference as the way light reflects makes them look different in real life to pictures.
The canonical solid grey appears to have a common name amongst German manufacturers as Nardo Grey. The name is supposed to be derived from the colour of a particular race track when it was wet. BMW sell it thusly:
The avant-garde uni paint once again proves that the colour grey doesn’t have to mean conformism: on the contrary, Nardo Grey is a statement of its own.
I see a lot of new sporty BMWs in it. Can’t say I like it. But if you feel the need to make a statement, I guess it ticks the box.
The ubiquitous metallic silver/grey of the last few decades might be releasing its grip. But only slowly. That isn’t Nardo Grey
True matt paint is another matter. Ages ago I read an article in a car magazine about a very wealthy Porsche enthusiast who was ordering one of their race derived road cars. He saw the testing mule pull into the facility. It was a mess of mismatched body parts and painted flat black. He insisted that his new purchase be painted to match. Maybe this was a progenitor to a trend for some high end sports cars to be offered in matt paints.
Nowadays you can spend ridiculous amounts on a custom matt paint on most very expensive cars. I have seen a few around where I live. They are striking and do stand out. There was even an option on my current car to get an approximation such a finish at a higher price. I saw one in the wild some time ago and was quite underwhelmed. Yes it looked interesting, but not enough to spend money on. And the maintenance downsides are significant. A matt black Lamborghini looks special, but at the same time just wrong.
Back in the '80s, I wanted a ‘battleship grey’ car. They didn’t exist back then (in my personal observation).
No, this is grey non-metallic. Like this:
That’s the one. It seems like almost every Kia and Hyundai around me has that color, plus other manufacturers (I came this close to buying a Volvo electric car with that color, but decided I didn’t really need a new car).
Locally, I’ve noticed a distinct uptick last year, especially with the Chinese brands.
Either that (Nardo) grey, or a greige like a 90s Pentium, or a greenish ash grey.
I hate them all.