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Yes.
Sick of the gray in cars, clothing, buildings, etc. etc. etc.
Paging through the 80s and 90s car colour options for somewhat mainstream cars like bmw is crazy in comparison to today. Sure they were the expensive paint option but there were hundreds.
There’s some awful colours today (eg you can get 3 shades of grey, red, or the precise shade of yellowish green that a newborn infant leaves in their diaper for a Prius). I say - at least it’s a colour.
Proudly owns a blue car in a sea of boring.
I had one bright blue one for a few years. It was beautiful. Then management caused issues with the leasing and I had to give it back. Now it's back to gray.
I wanna buy one so bad, but people who owns it says that, is a pain in the ass to repaint and resell just because of the freaking color. Society is so boring sometimes (-_-)
I know a guy that only buys white pickup trucks because white has the best resale value. He is just as boring as he sounds.
Never heard that tbh and had metallics blended seamlessly on blue in the past. Sounds like excuses for ability tbh.
Concerns for resale are a non-issue surely. I bought mine because it wasn’t a boring colour and I’m far from the only one.
I have tried so hard to own an orange or a blue car. I owned a blue one for a beautiful four months before somebody rear ended me and totaled it. Since then it’s only been ugly, boring silver.
Not just the color. Each make and model used to look distinct and unique. Now they all have the same vague SUV shape. It makes sense aerodynamics and safety standards are a thing but it still feels so corporate and almost dystopian.
But SUVs are neither aerodynamic nor safe (for others)...*
*In comparison with normal cars.
There are also things like safety standards and whatnot, there’s more nuance here beyond some shape conspiracy lol
It's largely roll over protection safety requirements have increased dramatically. So you get massive pillars that have to distribute force into the rest of the body.
Which also has to handle that load, or prevent intrusion laterally from side impacts.
It's largely driven by safety designs.
safety standards are bs, tho. they still say more blinding headlights are safer than less blinding.
The funnier interpretation IMO is that they’re all trying to be either wagons or minivans while maintaining plausible deniability.
No it’s an SUV! Right right…
There are far more sedan shapes over SUV ones on the road, but with that said I agree with your reasoning. It’s natural that the most efficient shapes are adopted en masse so everyone can benefit. Same with other things like safety standards/regulations.
It's carsinisation but for cars. Everything evolves into a type of SUV. It makes sense since physics kind of dictates how aerodynamics works and engineers just have to work around that.
I'm looking forward to the day when we don't have rear-view mirrors and just use cameras. Kind of surprised we haven't just gone that direction already. Screens and camera tech has gotten good enough that we can do that pretty efficiently.
The issue I have with some of the more "modern" cars is getting rid of the door handles on the outside. These pop-out things are just a hazard for people in colder climates or places where dust and other ingress can cause problems opening the door. Although, it would be nice to have my kids walk up to the door and not jerk on the handle 2-3 times before I can get the keys out to unlock it.
Mirrors just work. No electricity, no lenses to get covered and blocked.
Cameras are good for the places mirrors can't see, but otherwise it's more shoving electronics in places were it's not needed driving up cost, complexity, and decreasing repairability.
I like function over form for safety items. Simple, reliable, and imo there is beauty in something clearly being designed for a purpose.
Another factor that seems to get ignored with mirrors vs cameras is depth. A mirror is still a 3D reflection and there’s usually enough depth information to judge distances pretty well. You lose all sense of scale and distance with a lens and screen.
objects in mirror are closer than they appear
(i still have zero idea what this means...is the object closer in the mirror or is closer irl?)
That label is used for convex mirrors that show a wider area at the tradeoff of shrinking things. You get some depth perception in a mirror (unlike a camera, as otacon pointed out), but the shrinkage in a convex mirror throws that off. The object itself (not the reflection) is physically closer to you than what your depth perception on the reflection would indicate.
I suppose cameras can give you a better field of view than a mirror can though.
Sure but if they break, it's a more expensive repair, one that I may be able to do myself whereas replacing a mirror or mirror housing isn't that hard.
I want less computerization of cars, personally. Or at least a repairable, customizable, and FOSS system, if I have to have computers in my car.
"If they break", oh yes, let's fund a strawman.
Go see what a broken mirror costs today.
Glass alone, if heated (many are) $100+. Actual motorized mirror: $300+. Then there's painting to match.
Cameras would be smaller, less likely to get damaged, and are pretty commodity tech these days.
It ain't the glass that costs. It's the sleek custom designed shape of the housing that costs all that money. Not the mirror.
A plain round simple mirror that is externally mounted is cheap and easy to replace. But it won't make your car look as fast or as cool.
"If they break", oh yes, let's fund a strawman.
...you don't think car parts break? Or are you the type to just get a new one every few years so you've never experienced it?
Glass alone, if heated (many are) $100+. Actual motorized mirror: $300+. Then there's painting to match.
Who exactly is the one building a strawman, here? 🤔 sources, please
Cameras would be smaller, less likely to get damaged, and are pretty commodity tech these days.
Fair, debatable, and fair. Definitely not cheaper than a mirror, though. Maybe on a luxury car, absolutely not on anything more common.
They do, but know what works better? A single panel in front of you with all the views - you don't even have to turn your head.
As someone who's raced, "Wink" mirrors demonstrated this fantastically: multi-panel rear-view mirrors where you could see everything behind and beside you in a single mirror.
I used one in my daily driver when I had a neck injury (whiplash) and could barely turn my head for 2 years. Way easier to see all around you, and better too.
The tech for a camera system has been available and trivial since the 90's. A single 4" tall wide screen on the dash, or built into the center rear view would work.
Clearly you've never driven in rain, snow, fog. Side mirrors are very problematic. Cameras can be better protected, and done right even deal with rain and ajow a lot better.
I know of those mirrors and surprise, I have driven in adverse conditions.
I'm not saying there aren't better ways. But cameras in their current implementation isn't the answer.
There becomes a point where there is too much in front of a driver. I also believe the frequent "feedback" from driving assists causes me, at least, to take my eyes off the road to figure out what it's beeping at me for and it's usually because the system doesn't recognize a bend in the road or the car in front of me is turning.
One of my cars is a Chevy Bolt EUV. The rear view mirror, in place of the classic switch to change between day and night mode, has a switch that alternates the view between reflection and camera.
I can't remember which car magazine did it, but about 6-8 years ago, the cover was a profile of every crossover in the US market. I was able to pick out the Honda but couldn't tell any of the others apart.
Aerodynamics and safety get everyone to a generally uniform shape, but then they focus group it to death.
Kind of true also for housing.
Drive the West Davis highway in Utah, north of Salt Lake City, and most of what you'll see is cookie-cutter McMansions in the same color schemes.
I saw one larger house that looked like an unpaid intern copied and pasted the same set of rooms multiple times onto the standard front entry.
Cheaply built, soulless architecture, tiny lots, on ground that was lake bed less than a hundred years ago.
Reminds me of one of the funniest articles I've read: https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-44/the-intellectual-situation/why-is-everything-so-ugly/
In my town there are two bright pink houses. I love 'em.
that has always been the american way, upton sinclair was writing about this shit over close to a century ago now
You could also get factory colors “custom”. What was available at the dealership was one thing, but they had a host of other color options you could special order. Like upgrading from an AM radio to AM/FM Cassette. You just had to wait for the factory to do a run of that option before your car would get shipped. More options were a la carte and you weren’t forced into trim packages like today that are like cable tv packages - pay for a bunch of shit you don’t want to get the one or two options you do. Want AWD? Sure! But you have to take “premium sound”, floor mats, cargo separator, and exterior trim packages too.
Some still have a bunch of color options. Hell, look at all the colors you can get through BMW Individual for example.
But people are scared about resale values and stuff
For regular makes and models there are far fewer options, like Toyota or Honda. BMWs are perceived as higher tier and have more options. The fact you have to single out a more luxury brand and can‘t just say “Toyota has 20 color options for the Corolla!” proves my point.
Well yes, Toyota and Honda are about cutting costs whereever possible. Having fewer paint options available is cheaper.
I can get a Škoda in orange, blue or red, optionally two-tone with a black roof. That's also a cheap model of a cost-cutter brand I looked at. Slightly bolder paint options, but also not too many.
There's no point offering a bunch of different paints if nobody is getting them. Or you can do it like the luxury brands do, and make it possible to get absolutely anything, but it's a high-cost extra. If you sell it as prestige, some people will pay for it because why not. Plus it's not like anyone cares about the residual on a BMW, they'll just lease the next one in 5 years and don't care if they gotta pay 50 euros more per month due to a lower residual, or maybe the bank eats the cost (residuals are usually set lower than the expected actual value at the end of a lease anyway). But for cheap cars, where people are already cost-conscious, a lot of people just skip out on the cool colors because "oh it'll depreciate so much worse" and that's why they no longer offer them. So many car makers now offer one or two bright, showy colors per model and the rest are boring, generic, dependable.
If Toyota could make more money selling you a yellow Corolla than by not selling you a yellow Corolla, they would do it. But apparently not enough people want it for it to be an option, and not enough people want to shell out obscene amounts of cash for completely custom paints on a Toyota, for that to be an option. I wish people bought more brightly colored cars, but I don't think it's the manufacturers stopping everyone, it's the lack of demand.
Toyota does a special color every year for their TRD lineup.
If you’re willing to count the black roof combo option the Corolla has 15 color options or 8 full color options. Red and blue are offered. Just no yellow or orange.
People just don’t want to wait for a special car and want whatever is on the dealer lot. So they make as many of those in boring colors.
It's like we live in a world built out of that gray shit inside that Krabby Patty in the one episode.
Literally looking at a car I want to buy and the 4 colors are white, black, grey, and blue. Blue is actually just a cold silver. It barely looks blue.
On my current car, I ended up with white because the only one I saw in blue was charging $1k more than the one I got that had a higher trim package. They called me the day after I signed the purchase agreement to say that they decided to lower their asking price to $2k below what I paid. I still think about that...
My current car is bright red. I bought it used without consideration to the color. That's been the case for every car I've owned. I've had orange, metallic beige (I think Honda called it "Champagne") three times, forest green twice, silver, and burgundy. I've never had blue, black, gray, or white.
If I got to pick, I think I'd choose candy apple red, burgundy metallic, or a deep cobalt blue metallic. I liked the green one okay, but I'm not a big fan of green.
I’ve never wanted to buy one of the cars it is on but as a colour, I really like Mazda’s “Soul Red Crystal Metallic”
Not sure if it is still the case, but back in '96 when I learned to drive, I was told that insurance companies charge more for red and black cars, because they get pulled over more frequently than other colors.
It's not quite as bad as it looks. The lower image either has had the saturation reduced or was taken with a potato, and the upper image has had the saturation increased. The lower image has a gold car (parked by an asshole) and a a couple red cars, but the image quality makes them hard to notice.
The upper image still has a lot more variety, but it's a bit misleading.
I would argue this is 2010's and people just can't afford the new colorful 2020 cars, they all seem bright and colorful.
Every new car I see on any car lot other than a Volkswagen one is just full of white, black, blue and red.
The new microbusses and old beetles (both kinds) are colorful. One lot a few blocks away even has a jetta with that "lego" thing going on where every panel is a different color. I always liked when they did that.
Toyota is famous for their wildly colorful cars in the TRD lineup. Magma Orange, nori green, and that like Smurf blue color.
Ford has a vibrant blue as well. GM doesn’t deviate from bare colors much, but Ram/dodge will as well. Patriot blue, fire engine red, delmonico red, and plum crazy.
Porsche has full paint to sample.
Mercedes is basically famous for black cars so…
Anyways, cars have colorful variants, just the consumer base either isn’t willing to wait for the order, or they don’t want to pay the extra 500-900 dollars most non-standard paint color costs.
Also, a lot of manufacturers offer up tri coat white metallic which obviously looks boring from afar, but up close is very vibrant.
we tried to buy a vw electric microbus last year and they wanted $100,000; most dealers got TWO in 2024 if they got any, and so VW just let them set whatever price they thought they could get. fucking bonkers way to run a car company.
What's with the melty slate colors lately?
You should see how many Tacoma owners are jazzed for various shades of grey.
Many people here say that people don't want to be targeted by cops but I don't feel like cops target colored cars specifically. At least where I live I feel like they target stereotypical vehicles, which would mean a combination of brand and model, color, tinted windows, any visible modding etc., and also the body style of the car. For example a gray roadster will have a higher chance to be targeted by the police than a yellow minivan. A modded car will always be stopped more than average.
So the way to not get targeted is to get a car that screams "mother/father of two in an unhappy marriage". Or go to the other extream and get whatever the mafia drives if you have the money. I have never seen a G-class Mercedes stopped by the police.
Blame this on the car insurance companies. They claim that certain car colors are less likely to be in a wreck.
Also blame car manufacturers. Some colors cost more than others. Check the sticker price next time you're in the market.
People choose their colour based on how they think it'll affect resale value. If they pick a punchy colour, that narrows down the demand and brings down the resale price.
It's the same thing with millennial gray.
It's not that people don't want colour, it's that it costs such a huge part of their wealth that they're scared about recouping it.
What you miss is the oversaturated color in earlier photography.
And the desaturated second picture. I’m not saying the point isn’t valid, but it’s certainly been artificially made here.
i think that's why i liked anime so much as a kid. lots of oversaturated colors there.
there's a study that shows that car colorfulness is positively correlated to being in a good mood for longer periods of time (i.e. not having depression)
so, car colors reflect the mood of a society. and that they're all gray today is a bad sign.
there's a number of additional signs to read the mood of society. i was told by a colleague that the length of women's skirts is another indication (the shorter the skirt length, the better society's mood is overall).
i also believe that the music they play i.e. in the supermarket is a good indicator. the more love songs on the radio, the better the mood of society. the more break-up songs on the radio, the worse the mood of society.
All the crazy colors and styles originally happened to sell "self expression" because the culture was becoming more anti consumption. Advertisements for most things used to be more matter-of-fact, then they started focussing on manipulating emotions to sell more shit. I guess now the culture is more pro-consumption and status-obsessed, so conformity is what sells now.
I read a while ago that people are sharing cars more and more. While someone may love a hot yellow, their partner may not, so they both settle for a grey. The market has gone from "I love it!" to "I don't hate it..."
The 80s, when your car was colorful and your house was... not
Someone finally decided to call this shit out, I go to any parking lot, and I get depressed by tge uniformity and how bland it looks, 3 colour saturation, white,black and fucken grey, it's depressing af.and don't get me started on the Tesla epidemic, black, white Grey hideousness
I was listening to NPR recently & they had a segment about this. The guy they had on said it was a mix of corporate savings & market response. Many people just wanted black, white & red cars. So that's the colors we see the most.
which i absolutely believe. when i see dealerships selling oddly colored cars they tend to have a 5k discount. my friend got a equinox that was a but strangely colored for less, and in my area a kona had a 5k discount for being hi-vis green. plus i imagine anyone wanting a specific color would just go to a shop for it.
Ok, I'll say it. Dogs see blues and yellows, not grayscale. Colorblind is kind of a bad label, as it seems people assume it means all colors instead of blind to a few colors. Humans could be considered UV or infrared colorblind, but we're never described that way.





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