Is medium-gray the new black?

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GRA

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 19, 2011
Messages
14,018
Location
East side of San Francisco Bay
I've suddenly noticed a lot of new cars, including the ID.4 I test drove this past weekend, are painted a sort of "battleship gray". When did this color become cool?

I can't imagine a more boring color on a car, and I say that with the last 3 of the 4 cars I've owned being silver metallic. Admittedly, I'm tired of having my cars looking stealthy and want a bright color for my next car, but silver metallic at least looks fairly nice as well as being a very practical color. The flat medium gray I'm seeing now is seriously snooze-inducing, and it's on cars across the price spectrum.

I realize car colors follow trends; way back when only Mercedes were silver metallic, then everyone started to offer it. So who started this one, and when?
 
I love the pure grey clearcoats; I think it's a rich look. Metallic and Pearl have become so ubiquitous that people may finally be getting tired of them.

Since black and white are two of the easiest pigments to use, I'm sure grey has been on cars a long long time.

I think it's great on old Beetles, for one. "Anthracite" is a nice shade.
9AbemYW.jpg
 
I also tend to like the silver metallic type colors but around here all the Karens seem to drive white SUVs, they fill the mall parking lots. I personally can't stand white, probably my least favorite color?(if you can call white a color ;) ) and second-worst for me being black, which looks nice all shiny and clean but gets dirty very fast and also way too hot in the sun for me.
Like GRA I'm kind of intrigued by the bright colors, most often seen on the Subaru Crosstrek. I do see the occasional gunmetal grey vehicle but maybe being in the middle of the US, it hasn't caught on here as much as near the coasts. I am starting to see more flat(or as I'm constantly reminded apparently it's called "mat" nowadays) black cars, personally not too fond of that, maybe for wheels or trim pieces but not the whole vehicle.
 
Matte black looks like cheap primer to me. Agreed on white, but I kind of like deep black, although I'm not sure I'd want to drive a black car for years. I'm on my second Brilliant Silver Leaf, although neither of them was my first color choice. I really liked my red SL.
 
LeftieBiker said:
You mean "Gun Metal Grey"? Yeah, it's pretty yucky, but this is after all, a nation half composed of Gun Nuts.


I wouldn't call it gun metal gray, at least no gun I've ever seen is that color. It's a light to medium matte gray, not shiny at all.vSome of the darker tints, like the one I just saw on a Range Rover (I think) have a bit of a bluish tint. While I was reading and typing this I had three cars with that color drive by. One was the Range Rover, one was a Civic or Accord (the Civics are bigger now than Accords were not too long ago), and I forget the other. To me it looks like the same color that un-camouflaged USN warships wear on their hulls, or used to.
 
jjeff said:
I also tend to like the silver metallic type colors but around here all the Karens seem to drive white SUVs, they fill the mall parking lots. I personally can't stand white, probably my least favorite color?(if you can call white a color ;) ) and second-worst for me being black, which looks nice all shiny and clean but gets dirty very fast and also way too hot in the sun for me.

To me the only things white has going for it are its high albedo, which keeps the car a bit cooler in hot, sunny climates, and it doesn't look bad when dirty, unlike black. AFAIC black only makes sense for a BEV if you live in a cold climate where high temps are never experienced; why cook your battery?

I spend time in hot climates but am also a skier, and I've seen what happens to white cars that are mostly buried (even when partly exposed, snow plow drivers sometimes can't tell where the snow ends and the cars begin, with expensive results), in the past I've opted for silver metallic, which has the second highest albedo after white but can still be distinguished from snow if any part of the paintwork is visible. It's also a very durable color IME.


jjeff said:
Like GRA I'm kind of intrigued by the bright colors, most often seen on the Subaru Crosstrek. I do see the occasional gunmetal grey vehicle but maybe being in the middle of the US, it hasn't caught on here as much as near the coasts. I am starting to see more flat(or as I'm constantly reminded apparently it's called "mat" nowadays) black cars, personally not too fond of that, maybe for wheels or trim pieces but not the whole vehicle.

I really like some of the bright colors the Bolt has offered. The first couple of years they had a bright orange, then in 2019 (only) they had a bright yellow called "Shock", and for 2020 they offered two blues, a light and a dark one. I think the dark blue is better looking (and was the color of the one I rented last year), but I'd opt for the light blue both for its albedo and because it's impossible to ignore. Maybe I'm going through an environmentalist's version of a mid-life crisis; instead of buying a Corvette or a Viper, I just want to buy a loud color! :lol:

I like a lot of the Bolt's darker colors too, FTM. They have or have had nice dark red and dark gray metallics in addition to the dark blue ("Kinetic Blue") metallic mentioned above. It seems they're changing colors again for the 2022 car. It's too bad Bolt's are too short for my needs, not AWD and FC too slowly.
 
To me the only things white has going for it are its high albedo, which keeps the car a bit cooler in hot, sunny climates, and it doesn't look bad when dirty, unlike black.
(emphasis added)

Your reality is the chromatic opposite of mine, where white cars with dark colored dirt on them look very dirty, and black ones with the same dirt look much less so. I assume that your dirt is a relatively light color.
 
I wanted the light leather interior so White was basically my only option for the 2019 SL Plus. Since I have other vehicles to drive in the snow in the mountains, white is OK for my daily driver. I would have another silver metallic LEAF if the light leather interior had been available with it, but was not going to settle for another black interior. I am also not a fan of the new "battleship" matte gray showing up on many new cars.
 
GerryAZ said:
I wanted the light leather interior so White was basically my only option for the 2019 SL Plus. Since I have other vehicles to drive in the snow in the mountains, white is OK for my daily driver. I would have another silver metallic LEAF if the light leather interior had been available with it, but was not going to settle for another black interior. I am also not a fan of the new "battleship" matte gray showing up on many new cars.
My silver Tesla Model 3 came with a black interior made of polyurethane ("synthetic leather"). I am not a fan of either, to put it mildly. Recently I reupholstered with Katzkin leather in light colors, and then tinted the car including the front windshield. I'm amazed by the difference. I think the car now looks sublime, but it was done for our radiant summers. I still use a sun shield and that remains very important along with car ventilation, but the car now has no summer heat discomfort.
 
I'm sorry but I'm sick of Black and Fifty Shades of Grey.

I see concept cars in cool colors that never seem to come to market. I saw the ID4 is a awesome gold color and yet we didn't get it here in the U-S-A.

Give me Blue, Red, Yellow, Purple, Green, even Brown, but no more grey and black.



I asked someone once and he said color choice was related to the phycological state of the buyers and society.
Lots of greys and blacks meant the times were bad and that people buy colors accordingly. When times are exciting and hopeful, people buy into color. Maybe :?:
 
Apparently Hyundai and Kia figure muted colors are just the thing for older, more sedate drivers, and the bright colors are for Millennials and Gen Z. Just compare the color choices for the Niro and Kona - the former is aimed older, more practical drivers, and the latter at younger ones.

Niro: https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1...AhXLv54KHV64DOwQjJkEegQIBhAC&biw=1920&bih=969

Even the Red is kind of boring, when seen in person. Compare with Kona:

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1...AhXDs54KHWu5Cq4QjJkEegQIBRAC&biw=1920&bih=969

Give me that Orange, Yellow or Green. I'm amazed that more companies haven't offered bright Green on their PEVs; it seems an obvious ideological linkage/statement, akin in some ways to the bumper stickers I see on a Gen 4 Prius in the neighborhood:

"Cool Prius
- Nobody"

and

"0-60
Eventually"

There's an owner who knows exactly how his car is perceived by mainstream buyers, and doesn't care. ;)
 
danrjones said:
I'm sorry but I'm sick of Black and Fifty Shades of Grey.

I see concept cars in cool colors that never seem to come to market. I saw the ID4 is a awesome gold color and yet we didn't get it here in the U-S-A.
,,,

I agree; way too many B&W cars on the road and far too few color choices from the makers. But the gray with clearcoat (and no metallics) does appeal to me in certain shades -- ones that have a bit of a cream base. Feels like a nice throwback to the past. What does irk me is to look at a brochure where the car comes in 8 "colors" and 6 of them are not colors.
 
Nubo said:
danrjones said:
I'm sorry but I'm sick of Black and Fifty Shades of Grey.

I see concept cars in cool colors that never seem to come to market. I saw the ID4 is a awesome gold color and yet we didn't get it here in the U-S-A.
,,,

I agree; way too many B&W cars on the road and far too few color choices from the makers. But the gray with clearcoat (and no metallics) does appeal to me in certain shades -- ones that have a bit of a cream base. Feels like a nice throwback to the past. What does irk me is to look at a brochure where the car comes in 8 "colors" and 6 of them are not colors.

Plus where I live anything dark, such as Black, is automatically out. Too HOT!

Speaking of green cars, I once had a Camry Hybrid - Jasper Pearl. Not the brightest green, but it was a awesome color. Best color car I have had. Easy to find in a parking lot too, because they were rare.
 
I have noticed it too, people prefer this color more than blue and red. I personally like it, it looks classy and livelier than black.
 
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