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Why do new cars look like wet putty?
- pipeline_peak 4y ago"I don't like this paint job, it should look like the one I like....wahhh"
- cirrus3 4y agoYep. That sums up all the words of the post. What a waste of time it was to read that.
- pipeline_peak 4y agoOn the bright side, I learned how much microscopic flakes contribute to paint detail. Overall, it was an absolute snark fest, a large amount of effort for a little opinion.
- natdempk 4y agoClearly designers have gotten influenced by the clay modeling process used to prototype cars and now expect the real cars to look similar. (half-kidding)
- shrimp_emoji 4y agoA car-passionate man talking about this: https://youtu.be/AMB9xt6M1Us?t=1705 https://youtu.be/AMB9xt6M1Us?t=1705
- conductr 4y agoFlat paint became popular in house interiors first. Then matte finish became a trend in autos but it's insanely difficult to keep the dust off; especially the textured variety that is popular. I think the manufacturer's are trying to find a happy medium between the trend and the realistic maintenance.
- jahnu 4y agoSeems like a military style grey would compliment the trend of car designs that look more and more aggressive every year.
- LightG 4y agoThe only reason I'll agree with this article is because what it's talking about is so common now ... I hate it. 100% boring. But when I first saw it, I kinda liked it.
- ilyt 4y ago...I still prefer it that boring silver. I mean I hate it, I just hate boring silver more
- tyingq 4y agoThat makes sense to me. Part of the reason the initial popularity of enthusiasts painting their own cars in a flat color was just that it was unusual. The novelty is gone once manufacturers start shipping them that way.
- ghaff 4y agoIn my experience, car dealers are more likely to inventory "boring" neutral colors that most people will tolerate to get something on the lot rather than more polarizing bright colors.
- technothrasher 4y agoI recently bought a Porsche Macan in the "Chalk" color they mention in the article, because I liked it (obviously). It seems that about half the people who comment on it hate it, and the other half love it <shrug>.
- papa-whisky 4y agoI always thought this colour was named "Crayon" by Porsche? Maybe they use different names in different markets...
- sigzero 4y agoI actually do not like the color but I can also choose not to buy that color of automobile.
- z3c0 4y agoI'm in agreement. I'm amazed that they could come up with an entire blog posts worth of words depicting naught more than curmudgeonlyness towards a new trend. I thought maybe there was a really interesting reason behind the shift when they tapped in the Porsche designer, but nope - just whining about millienial trends.
- blitzar 4y agoI havent purchased a new car in a long time but I believe you get to chose the exterior finish ...
- yamtaddle 4y agoUsually costs quite a bit more to get specifically what you want rather than what's available on the lot.
- julianlam 4y agoI used to think that all Toyota drivers were just boring, choosing the same colours for their cars. As it turns out, only the boring colours are available for no additional charge.
- yamtaddle 4y agoThat kind of effect can amplify the apparent popularity of various things. 40% want the boring colors but the other 60% are very-divided over what they'd like, so it ends up looking like 90% want the boring colors because most people won't pay (much) extra to get the color they want, and manufacturers favor not-offensive over actually-desired in a lot of cases.
- technothrasher 4y agoI've never had an issue negotiating a decent price on a customized order over a car already on the lot. Just have had to wait a few months usually for it to come in. As for "any color you want", Audi has advertised for quite a few years that for $2500 (or so, it may be more now) you can have any color under the sun. But, when I actually tried this, I was told, "We don't know you, your dealer is too small, we wouldn't paint it that color, and we're booked up for a solid two years anyway". So, while they advertise it for anybody, they seemingly were only doing it for VIPs.
- vel0city 4y agoI'm a little confused by this comment. You start by saying you've "never had an issue" customizing a vehicle order, but then a few sentences later directly give an example where you had an issue getting a car customized. Which is it? Did you once try to get a car customized only to be told they're booked up for a solid two years, or have you never had an issue and only had to wait a few months every time you've tried to get a car? Personally, I absolutely have had issues trying to custom order a car. The first time I tried to buy a new car I assumed I could easily go and order exactly the options and colors I wanted, only to be turned away from dealership to dealership for actually placing an order. Every dealer only wanted to sell the cars on their lots or search their networks to find similar enough cars to sell me instead of placing an order. The second time buying a new car dealers would agree to take my order, but wouldn't commit to having any kind of delivery even within a year.
- branon 4y agoAny paint job that doesn't reflect multiple agonizingly-bright pinpoints of sunlight into my eyeballs is fine by me. Down with the flake, in with the putty. Matte finishes are the best thing to happen to cars since the assembly line.
- misterprime 4y agoI disagree with your last sentence. Here's my ordering of best things since the assembly line: A/C Aux jack Bluetooth audio Backup camera Adaptive cruise control Matte finishes
- loonster 4y agoThe backup camera would not be such a big deal if cars had smaller pillars.
- yamtaddle 4y agoExactly this. I don't have many opinions or preferences on car finishes, but the now-standard retina-searingly-reflective finishes ought to be illegal for safety reasons. If TFA is complaining about a move away from that, then I hate TFA. [EDIT] I'm not 100% sure what TFA is complaining about because I'm pretty sure I haven't seen this in the wild yet. Must be a regional trend. Coasts usually get stuff way sooner than us so maybe I'll know what it's about in a couple years.
- pwinnski 4y agoIn the Dallas area, not quite a coast, this trend has been bugging me for roughly a year, and the 2023 models of many cars seem to feature non-metallic colors even more than 2022 did.
- binarymax 4y agoDouble edged sword - less annoying during the day but now they’re harder to see at night.
- ComputerCat 4y agoI like this, it feels calming to me, not attention grabbing or distracting.
- seszett 4y agoTo me this kind of grey used to be Volvo's signature paint, but it's been more common recently indeed. Either way, I don't think it's anyone's business to tell people what colour they should use for their cars? This blog article seems a bit weird.
- waboremo 4y agoThe handful selection of home goods (and one house) picked in attempts to illustrate the point that it's affecting more than just cars and is some generational effect is hilarious. Sorry to whoever wrote this blog, but vases will always come in a sickening plethora of colors and patterns.
- ryeights 4y agoThis is incorrect. These sorts of matte, washed-out pastel colors are absolutely a trend in all sorts of designs targeting Millenials/Gen-Zers. Browse through this catalog and you’ll see what I mean. https://www.urbanoutfitters.com/home https://www.urbanoutfitters.com/home
- machinawhite 4y agoJust think of the Web 3.0 aesthetic, or even Microsoft's Fluent design. It's putty all the way down
- waboremo 4y agoYour example proves my point. Sort by best seller, you'll see neon bright frogs to neutrals. People calling things trends among [generation here] meanwhile it's always been popular are quite frankly absurd.
- avalys 4y agoBecause it’s a trend, just like orange metallic was a few years ago, and matte wraps a little more recently. Yawn.
- etiam 4y ago"Flat" "design" arrives at tangible consumer products?
- reneherse 4y agoGrays have been a significant trend for years now, in everything from houses to furnishings to cars. In my city in the Southeastern US (and others from what I see on social media), the dominant colors for high end house remodels are dark gray or stark white. So it's not infrequent to see a charcoal gray house with a couple of putty gray cars parked out front. From the standpoint of reducing solar heat gain and fuel/utility usage, it's a terrible trend.
- conductr 4y agoI’m guilty of this trend. Painted our house almost black last spring. Brutal summer. No impact to interior or HVAC use/cost as far as I can tell. I’m in Texas fwiw.
- reneherse 4y agoInteresting! Sounds like you have a well insulated structure. One other aspect, however, is the effect on the outdoor spaces on the sunny side of the house. You might find that they are warmer due to the increased radiant heat absorbtion and emission of the dark surfaces.
- conductr 4y agoI’d actually be surprised if it was insulated much at all by modern standards. It’s a mid century construction. My guess is the air gap between the insulation/siding and the masonry is carrying the heat up and out of the attic/roof. And yes the radiation on the exterior is quite noticeable. It’s being felt by a few bushes.
- sorenjan 4y agoThe Nardo grey on Audis is what I immediately thought of, I definitely think that's what started the trend. The first car where I noticed this effect was the Lamborghini Reventon, which Wikipedia describes as "mid opaque grey without the usual shine". That was apperantly inspired by fighter jets. I like it, although like everything it gets boring when it takes over and dominate. A bigger problem is the lack of color, every new car is some variant of grey.
- julianlam 4y agoI thought this trend came around the web dev scene with base16 colours. Funny how it's hitting consumer products now.
- Zigurd 4y agoSaab used to have an "herbal toothpaste" pale green. I thought it was nice. Might not work on larger cars.
- frou_dh 4y agoI'm not a car guy so am pretty oblivious to the trends, but I actually stopped and took a photo of an Audi with this a couple of months ago, because it looked fantastic IRL. Not sure how much it comes across in the photo https://i.imgur.com/9sQQwT2.jpg https://i.imgur.com/9sQQwT2.jpg , it looked more matte in the flesh.
- matt-attack 4y agoThat's precisely the "wet putty" effect being described. It's quite striking. Often your first way of describing it is "matte" but it's clearly glossy.
- janeerie 4y agoThe trend of gray tones in consumer goods brings to mind the Puritan rule of wearing only "sadd colors." Perhaps we are experiencing a new wave of Puritan chic? From the book Albion's Seed: "The taste of New England ran not to black or gray, but to “sadd colors” as they were called in the seventeenth century. A list of these “sadd colors” in 1638 included “liver color, de Boys, tawney, russet, purple, French green, ginger lyne, deer colour, orange.” Other sad colors were called “gridolin” from the French gris de lin (“flax blossom”). Still others were called puce, folding color, Kendall green, Lincoln green, barry, milly and tuly."
- micheljansen 4y agoYou joke, but we you are not wrong: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/dec/04/the-sad-beige-trend-goes-against-all-my-wild-instincts https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/dec/04/the-sad... https://www.tiktok.com/@sadbeige https://www.tiktok.com/@sadbeige https://www.instagram.com/officialsadbeige/ https://www.instagram.com/officialsadbeige/
- leetcrew 4y agoI wasn't aware this was a trend; I thought it was just practical. a gray coffee machine may not make for a striking kitchen centerpiece, but it doesn't clash with anything either. if you're KitchenAid, by all means, go and make 12 different colors for a stand mixer. but if you only want to make one color, it might as well be gray. I always get my cars in gray for a similar reason. I like cars, but I don't want mine to stand out on the road. don't need the extra attention from cops, thieves, etc. plus, a gray car in the right shade looks clean for a long time between washes.
- janeerie 4y agoThe trend the article discusses is using colors that are tones, meaning a hue mixed with gray. So it's not just that a lot of things are gray, it's that even the things that are colored have a gray-ish cast.
- 4y ago
- rob74 4y ago> The result is faintly but palpably uncanny, almost as though a computer-rendered object has somehow infiltrated the real world, beholden to a slightly different set of physics… The impression these cars make on me is slightly less alien: they remind me of the drab utility vehicles I saw in my youth in Romania, painted with whatever paint was available (definitely no sparkle included).
- HPsquared 4y agoIn short: they are grey and shiny.
- madsbuch 4y agoNeutral colours – maybe we are being exposed to so many opinions and conflict through mass media, that we prefer to surround us with neutrality?
- Mistletoe 4y agoIt reminds me of how movies don’t try new things and keep playing it safe with sequels. Everyone is afraid of trying something new like a bright red car and failing. I have my doubts how good their data is though. It could just be groupthink and hivemind everywhere thinking that. https://www.consumerreports.org/consumerist/a-brief-history-of-car-colors-and-why-are-we-so-boring-now/ https://www.consumerreports.org/consumerist/a-brief-history-... The tldr from the article- TL; DR Version • Everyone remembers their favorite car’s unique color, so when did we fade to black? • Yellow, green and teal cars may fetch you a higher resale value due to relatively few of them • Cars were first painted like carriages, color was expensive, didn’t last • Henry Ford offered cars in black asphalt enamels because that color dried the fastest and was more durable than oil-based paints • General Motors and Dupont partnered up for Duco, a new paint that made it easier to apply colorful paints that dried even faster than before • Car manufacturers started color advisory boards to suss out trends in popular culture and report back •Everyone got wacky on colors for a while, including in the ‘60s and ‘70s • We’re boring these days, choosing mostly black, white and gray/silver • The recession scared people into a neutral colors phase, giving rise to the popularity of black, white and silver/gray • The future is bright once again, however, as experts see colorful paint jobs coming back
- codazoda 4y agoThis is off topic but I’ve wondered why cat panels are designed in a way that makes them so difficult to fix yourself. It would be nice if I could patch em up or change the color myself, like I can with my walls at home, without making my machine stand out.
- SV_BubbleTime 4y agoThis is a deep topic. But the short version is that let's take a paint called PR4 from the factory. If they were spraying this color in the morning in the winter, and or afternoon in the summer, even at the factory it won't perfectly match. Now give the recipe of PR4 to a body shop and it doesn't matter, they'll need to match it anyhow. As to why panels aren't replaceable. It's cost and weight. If your panel just unbolts, you have the weight of bolts and fasteners, durability of it becoming loose, assembly time at the factory, etc. For modern vehicles, a lot of the class-A body panels you see are structural components. Without these, you would need a stiffer unibody or frame. Cost and weight top to bottom.
- jstarfish 4y agoThere have been a few attempts at user-removable body panels for color-swapping. The BMW Z1 is the only one I could find in 2 seconds searching, but I could swear Pontiac or someone tried this too.
- SV_BubbleTime 4y agoEveryone has tried it here and there. Honda elements have replaceable fenders iirc, but it doesn’t change the math. You can be lighter and cheaper if you don’t plan on swapping panels out. Body shops are pretty good at what they do. Fancier cars like McLaren go the entire opposite direction. Some panels have no way of coming out at all they are part of the carbon tub, other panels must be cut out with a knife because they don’t bolt on anywhere.
- kazinator 4y agoI call the look "vintage file cabinet".
- simple10 4y ago"Wet-putty cars is part of a broader mainstreamification of gray-shaded consumer-good colors heavily targeted at younger Gen-X-ers and Millennials." Basically, it's a design trend from architecture and consumer products that bled into car colors, according to the article. I've been wondering about this for years. At first, I thought it might have something to do with new paint manufacturing techniques or environmental concerns with traditional paint jobs. But probably just a design trend.
- xrayarx 4y agoDoes anybody know, what the flakes, that the article mentions, is made of? It made me wonder, because they also state, that the colour is used everywhere, not just cars. Also made me wonder, what the real reason might be? Cost? Availability? Environmental protection legislation?
- brianm 4y agoglitter
- SV_BubbleTime 4y agoIt's been a long time since I did automotive body work. But the fillers and flake in most modern paints are not metal at all. They're glass, ceramics and polymers. There was a steel coated flake I saw at an auto show that used magnets in the process to put effects in before drying. I know I saw a titanium at some point, but I wasn't doing the work. So I don't know much other than "metal flake" is largely an effect and not always ingredient.
- BoorishBears 4y agoMica is one of the more common materials for adding flakes to premium colors
- wintermutestwin 4y agoPersonally, I find these "putty" colors to be very nice looking - particularly the gloss grey. It is the polar opposite of the "look at me" red cars of the past. There is a common idea that red cars get more tickets - not sure if that's true, but I have always chosen silver as it is more nondescript and also you don't notice dirt on it as much.
- dwringer 4y agoThe nondescriptness of silver cars is a pro and a con - when I first switched to driving one there was an immediate increase in the amount of time it seemed to take for other drivers/pedestrians/etc to notice me, and I've had to adjust my standard of driving defensively to compensate.
- labster 4y agoOh, I thought it was just me. I’ve come much closer to getting into accidents with gray cars, because I just didn’t notice them at a glance, or see the movement. Silver seems like a good color if you want to drive a getaway car, and a bad color if you have kids.
- ehnto 4y agoIt's been studied, there is a crash risk increase for gray cars amongst other colours. I am on my phone and can't find am easy to access source except this: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0925753510001220 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09257...
- jabl 4y agoHere's a PDF of what I presume is the same study by the same authors a few years before it was published in a journal: https://www.monash.edu/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/216475/An-investigation-into-the-relationship-between-vehicle-colour-and-crash-risk.pdf https://www.monash.edu/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/216475/An...
- 4y ago
- randcraw 4y agoWhy do new cars drive like wet putty? Electric steering makes spirited driving as joyless as a 40 year old Buick. It's like steering a jellyfish. And sport mode only manages to stiffen the jelly.
- pixl97 4y agoBecause many (most?) cars have things like steering assist to keep you in your lane and not killing a bus full of children. Car design has been focused on safety and not joy riders looking to lose control and crash into something for some time now.
- angarg12 4y agoOfftopic, but I find the sassy and judgy tone of this article incredibly irritating. I don't love matte car paints either, but I don't shit all over them or the people who like them. Is this style supposed to be funny? maybe I'm just jaded and cranky.
- Negitivefrags 4y agoIsn’t the tone of your comment the same as the article?
- SV_BubbleTime 4y ago>maybe I'm just jaded and cranky. >What's with all these pussy-ass lookin whips No, I don't think those two are the same. Agree with OP, it's cringe.
- tadfisher 4y agoYou misread "putty".
- z3c0 4y ago"putty-ass" isn't any less cringe-worthy. Depending on your chosen vernacular, it may even be more-so.
- SV_BubbleTime 4y agoI was going to rewrite that this changes nothing for me. I went to the article looking for an answer and found someone with a dollar store blog post.
- cirrus3 4y agoI don't think they are the same at all. Agree with OP.
- themitigating 4y ago
- nluken 4y agoDon't mind the "wet putty" look specifically as much as I hate the related lack of color available on cars these days. What happened that made everyone want bland, boring colors on everything? Liven up, people!
- threeboy 4y agoPeople vote with their dollars and right now this look shows that they seem to have more dollars.
- patrickthebold 4y agonevertheless, one can lament the situation: With all the mass production and economies of scale, any desire off the beaten path becomes either extremely expensive or unobtainable. Hey, it's more profitable to sell junk that doesn't last very long, to have a closed platform, to make a smart tv that tracks you.
- JKCalhoun 4y agoWhen all the candidates are variations of grey it's not really voting.
- zdragnar 4y agoNovel and unusual colors are more expensive to repair (fewer parts with matching colors) and thus bump up insurance premiums. Fewer color lines are cheaper for both the manufacturer and customer. If it was important enough to a large enough group of people, you'd think manufacturers and dealerships would jump at the chance to offer another high margin markup line item. I personally wouldn't mind a less neutral color, but I'm not interested enough to pay more for it myself.
- mauvehaus 4y agoVery few parts come pre-painted to the body shop. If you find yourself in need of one, you'll find that they'll need to paint the panel they're replacing and do blending on the adjacent panels. As good as they are at matching color, they aren't perfect. Also, UV fades the paint. Even if you could get pre-painted panels, they wouldn't match a car that's spent much time in the sun. I had a rattle can tinted to match the factory color on my hood. It wasn't even close on the 12 year old car. On the outside of the hood. The inside of the hood would've been pretty damn close.
- cleandreams 4y agoIt turns out there is a world wide trend towards grey, white, black, and colors in products of all kinds are decreasing. Some say it is the averaging influence of AI data analysis of consumer prefs. An overview here: https://craft-theory.com/blogs/news/are-colors-disappearing https://craft-theory.com/blogs/news/are-colors-disappearing
- cardiffspaceman 4y agoHow is "schmesla" not being mentioned? They aren't always grey but they are always metal-flake-free, yet varnished I guess, and I don't personally like it. I do like matte finish.
- Apocryphon 4y ago> We are talking, e.g., ~2014-era Dwell house pictorials, Heath Ceramics jawnz, Kinto thermoses, a bunch of the new Technivorm Moccamasters, Mepra flatware, and “popping” PVC kicks from Crocs to Bottega Veneta Puddle Boots, etc., etc. Crocs are the only brand I've heard of from that paragraph. None of these words are in the Sears, Roebuck catalog.
- giraffe_lady 4y agoIt's a fashion newsletter. You're likely a step or two away from these influences but not the intended or expected audience of the products themselves. It's like how your favorite musician's favorite musician is often someone you've never heard of and sometimes not something it's even easy for you to like. Their entire professional life is in experiencing and evaluating these things, so they get way "out there" compared to people who are not focused on it, like us.
- Apocryphon 4y agoYeah, I'm not complaining. It's amusing, if anything. And while in fiction coming across brand-heavy paragraphs might be irritating, it can also be evocative- cyberpunk novels love to namedrop a ton of fictional brands.
- TacticalCoder 4y ago> It's a fashion newsletter. I kinda figured out it wasn't a "taste" newsletter ; )
- naikrovek 4y agoso now we've moved from Medium to substack, I guess? And now I have to click "let me read it first" once per article for the next 5 years? sigh
- SV_BubbleTime 4y agoAgreed. "Oh don't post evergreen material to Medium! Who knows where it'll be in 5 years!?" "Oh, let's just use this slightly worse version with an overlay!!" For all the talk about federated bla, I see few people putting their money where their mouth is.
- d23 4y agoIt's a good forcing function to make me consider whether I should even bother or just leave the site when I see that popup.
- HellDunkel 4y agoLots of designs use black plastic as a contrast color. This works nicely with uni carpaints, less so with metallic paint. Not a big deal.
- xrayarx 4y agoI was wondering, maybe this has to do with all the assistance systems in cars? Maybe all the radars, cameras and lidars work better on mate colours?
- randcraw 4y agoWhile the gray (especially the matte finish) might cause less specular reflection, any color that makes the car stand out better against the background would improve a light camera's ability to detect and track the object. Given a typical gray and green background, a distinctive color (e.g. yellow, bright red, purple) would make the car stand out most (just the way it does to the human eye). (BTW, I work in the image analysis and object detection space.)
- xrayarx 4y agoInteresting! So what is your take on ‘only stereo cameras’ and what do you think of volvos new lidar? In terms of car assistance systems.
- randcraw 4y agoAs someone inexpert in SD car vision systems, I believe lidar (or an equivalent) likely will be necessary to enable level 3 in confusing spaces like tight urban traffic or bad weather. Light cameras, even in stereo, don't support reliable rangefinding at distance (since quickly identifying & tracking a trustworthy focal point on every essential target object isn't trivial, esp in low/noisy light). For years to come, SD car software will surely remain inferior to the human visual system in combining target acquisition, recognition, interpretation, and tracking. To compensate, car software needs all the sensory augmentation it can get to build a better model of surroundings, like adding lidar, radar, or structured light to the car's multiple light cameras.
- cirrus3 4y agoIt's a trend and fashion, and not a particularly new one. Why is the author so annoyed by it? I got strong "old man yells at cloud" vibes from what seems to be a very young person. Strange.
- danielodievich 4y agoI drive a 2002 bright yellow Mini (official color name Eggyolk Yellow), which is showing its age a little from the dings in front but still shines up nicely and makes it easy to see in the parking lot. The other day our family and some friends of us were driving in the family SUV somewhere downtown and saw another, newer Mini, with a totally custom paintjob, it was a pearly, shiny, electric pinkish-purple, kind of like a fancy candy wrapper. I think they cranked their flake content up to 11. The entire car OOOHHed and AAHed and asked to slow down to gaze it at. Great color, great statement, wish more were like that.
- lIl-IIIl 4y agoI like "Wet Putty" cars. I would ask "Why do all other cars look like shiny Christmas ornaments"?
- jschveibinz 4y agoUS readers: Slightly off topic, but why don’t more people personalize the look of their cars? Is it fear of resale value? What if the personalization was easily reversible?
- NegativeK 4y agoResale value and cost. Well done car customization is expensive. Poorly done car customization ends up costing more money as you fix it. I also dislike having my car stand out, but that's a very personal thing.
- randcraw 4y agoCustomization also makes your car much easier to identify. If another driver is annoyed by you on the road and later recognizes your chariot parked somewhere, a distinctive look will make it a lot easier for them to do you damage.
- bityard 4y agoThis is the reason I don't have any window stickers, bumper stickers, or a vanity license plate. I tend to drive no more than 5 MPH above the legal limit and the road-ragers around here get SUPER bent out of shape about that. (Honking horn, flashing lights, whizzing past on a double-yellow, you get the idea.) The car I drive is very common in this area and don't need any reason to stand out to those idiots.
- GuB-42 4y agoIt is also a theft deterrent for the same reason. If someone steals your car and it has a unique paint job, it will be easily spotted, even with a fake license plate. So thieves will prefer cars that easily blend in.
- timeon 4y agoI do not find color off-putting but the shape. All the SUVs look disproportional. SUV looks to me like swollen version of a car.
- bityard 4y agoI sometimes tell owners of SUVs that their car is a descendant of the station wagon. They usually don't like to hear that for some reason.
- sbaiddn 4y agoDepends on the SUV. A Ford expedition, and other full size SUVs most certainly were not descendants of station wagons, but of covered full size trucks. Love my wagons, btw. Id love to have a subtle sport wagon.
- leviathant 4y agoI used to drive a Dodge Magnum - bought it for a road trip around the US and ended up really liking the car. Unfortunately, Americans hate station wagons (and it only really came into existence when Germans bought a controlling stake in the company), so the model only lasted 3 years in production. It only dawned on me that SUVs were tall station wagons when I learned that the current model Dodge Durango was originally going to be given the Magnum badge. I started looking at SUVs differently... But I still can't get on board with the format. Anyway, now we've got a Transit Connect, with shiny metallic blue paint. Unsurprisingly perhaps, this eurovan is also being discontinued in the US. The automobile market in the US is bonkers.
- avalys 4y agoI guarantee most of them don't give a shit, they bought an SUV because it's practical and convenient and the incremental increase in operating costs, fuel consumption, etc. is inconsequential.
- brewdad 4y agoThey don't give a shit because they don't know better. My wagon carries just as much cargo as a mid-size SUV but it gets 10-20% better mileage and can take a corner a hell of a lot more comfortably. It's just a much better driving experience. Their loss.
- 0x457 4y agoDamn, someone is salty. I like that color when I ordered my car because there weren't that many cars in such color...now I want a "normal" color because everyone is sporting the same color.
- flenserboy 4y agoThese have become particularly noticeable. However, it looks more like exterior housepaint with a clear coat over it than "wet putty".
- azhenley 4y agoI really, really like the "wet putty" look as well as matte finishes. No more gloss please.
- threeboy 4y agoIt’s still gloss it just doesn’t have the metallic flake.
- aaron695 4y ago
- threeboy 4y agoNever thought this was a new trend but an old trend making a comeback. Glossy non-metallic.
- nathias 4y agoeverything has to be emptied of everything potentially offensive, we are creating a beige future
- tedunangst 4y agoAnd here I thought they all looked like electric shavers.
- pifm_guy 4y agoI would guess that those 'flakes' in the paint make factory retouching far harder. Is it possible that the lack of flake is a cost-cutting measure (by reducing the scrappage rate) rather than a style choice?
- bjt 4y agoAlso guessing (my finishing experience is more on electric guitars than cars), but I would guess the other way. A purely flat color will show slight imperfections more than a paint with flake in it, because the flake provides visual noise that can hide imperfections.
- bovermyer 4y agoEvery single one of these new colors screams "military" to me. That's not a negative or positive descriptor, to my mind; just the first word that pops into my head when I try and describe the trend.
- oynqr 4y agoBack to the roots for some car makers, I suppose.
- leobg 4y agoIs it not a military thing? “Battleship gray”? Designed to make your car look more intimidating. Which is what people want when they are stressed and see life as a competition.
- jstarfish 4y agoThere is nothing intimidating about gray-- it is as utilitarian as it gets, and just happens to be useful for camouflage at sea (hiding...not threatening).
- jabl 4y agoWhile it's true that military ships (and planes) are painted gray in order to camouflage against a background of haze and clouds, it's also true that there's a civilian demographic that have some kind of desire to appear as tough manly men by adopting a military-inspired aesthetic and behaving in an aggressive and intimidating manner.
- LastTrain 4y agoI didn't know painting cars with non-grey, non-metallic paint was a lost art.
- xg15 4y ago> In the context of wet-putty whips and other contemporary consumer products, though, this strikes us as a hedged, half-stepping, and underhandedly infantilizing approach to color design all the same — a way, basically, to sell millennials “grown-up” toys within a smokescreen of ersatz refinement. You're mileage may vary of course, but in some way this reminds me of modern superhero movies. Sure, you're still watching Batman, but its gritty and serious now, acutely aware of the wider societal implications of delegating the fight against organized crime to a guy in a bat costume. Nothing against enjoying childish things as an adult, but it's notable that those movies do a lot to pretend they are actually thought-provoking culture pieces dealing with current issues - and not the latest adventures of characters which were invented almost 100 years ago to amaze children.
- hackernewds 4y agoYour* sorry
- aidenn0 4y ago> Nothing against enjoying childish things as an adult, but it's notable that those movies do a lot to pretend they are actually thought-provoking culture pieces dealing with current issues - and not the latest adventures of characters which were invented almost 100 years ago to amaze children. This is particularly notable with the recent Batman movies vs. say Batman Returns (1992). That was not a "gritty" or "serious" movie but still earned its PG-13 rating.
- BulgarianIdiot 4y agoThe real question is... why the hell should a car be shiny?
- mauvehaus 4y agoA high gloss surface is easier to clean. You see gloss used for interior trim in houses that gets a lot of touch and wear for that reason. Walls, which get comparatively little touch, get a lower sheen. If you aren't referring to sheen and are referring to the sparkle of metallic paint instead, I don't know either. I'm betting that it hides imperfections in the underlying surface better, but I really couldn't say. I have read that white and yellow are super forgiving colors as well, which could be why you see a lot of non-metallic white on fleet vehicles.
- EamonnMR 4y agoCars are made of metal. Metallic paint is a lie that tells the truth.
- pixl97 4y agoBird shit, tree sap, and road tar. Getting the above off a shiny waxed surface is easy. Getting those off a matte surface is hell.
- themadturk 4y agoThe first time I saw a car like this, my reaction was that it looked like the classic Packtra 'Namel enamel paints I used on plastic models in the '60s.
- JoshTko 4y agoMoist putty is more precise.
- labrador 4y agoI'm surprised the word "pastel" wasn't used in this article because the new car colors look pastel to me so that's the word I've been using. ...the origin of the word "pastel" in reference to "pale color" as it is commonly used in cosmetic and fashion venues https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastel
- _yb2s 4y agoThis article confused me because of the connotation with "new cars." All car paints used to look like this until more and mare cars started selling "metallic" colors in recent decades, often for an extra cost. Look at old Volvo 240s for example, and very few of them have metallic colors, and usually only the higher end models. White, black, and red typically have always been and still are usually non-metallic colors. A few years ago I suddenly noticed that non-metallic paint became so rare that it looked striking, when in the past (mid 90s or earlier) it had been the opposite- metallic paint was rare and a car with it would really stand out. I strongly prefer the non-metallic look, and think it holds up better over time as well. It looks cleaner and simpler to me. I also prefer the look of Cellulose based paints used on mid-70s and older cars, which were even less glossy than modern non-metallic paints.
- aidenn0 4y agoIt's not just about flakeless paints, it's about gray (and desaturated colors) used for flakeless paints. Cherry red and bright yellow flakeless paints don't look like putty.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- taco_emoji 4y agoFINALLY. I've been trying to Google this phenomenon for the last couple of years since I noticed it. I wasn't sure if it had something to do with supply chain stuff or just what, but now that I think about it, the "dull shiny" aesthetic is all the rage in lots of consumer goods.
- fallingfrog 4y agoIn my eyes, any car that's grey, white, or black is saying "I care more about preserving my car's financial resale value than expressing my personality", which is rather sad and pathetic. In my eyes. It's a move that says you've capitulated in some small, symbolic way. Give me green, yellow, blue- anything but white. I feel the same way about painting every room in your house white. Why make your home look like the lobby of a bank? You're going to take no risks at all now? Every place you live is just a longer term hotel? Ugh. Just stuff yourself and mount yourself on the wall and be done with it.
- jabl 4y agoBecause I have little desire to "express my personality" through my choice of car? I don't particularly like cars. I don't particularly enjoy driving a car. I hate traffic. Driving on a racetrack can be fun, I admit. But I have zero desire to accidentally run over some kid on a normal road in some testosterone-fueled show-off, and drive accordingly, which is responsible but effing boring. I have a car because it's convenient. As for car color, gray is fine because I can basically forget about ever needing to wash it, and it's easier to sell when the time comes.
- fallingfrog 4y agoYeah, I guess I can understand that. I work from home and I hardly ever drive. Honestly I'd prefer that public transportation was better so that I didn't need a car at all.
- cjoelrun 4y agoAs a millennial: I like these colors. They seem to make no statement at all and be unoffensive. The world around my seems very easily offended and the last thing I want to do is stand out with some sort of color opinion that might say something about my belief in anything at all. Putty colors sounds right to me. I'd like my choices to be moldable into whatever might be in fashion.
- scottyah 4y agoI am also a big fan of the colors. I feel like I get enough flashy bright colors from my phone and job, and it feels more natural and calming. I think the calming bit also subconsciously gives me a feeling of more dependability as well.
- lzaaz 4y agoI hope this is a parody.
- ericsoderstrom 4y agoit is
- CamperBob2 4y agoI don't like this reasoning, but I agree with it. These colors represent a passive emotional stance, a denial of individuality that's in tune with the post-COVID / post-Floyd / post-Trump zeitgeist. A retreat to safe homogeneity. The trend started showing up earlier than that, of course, but I think that's why these colors have found a larger, more enduring market than anyone expected. They may also be showing up more often because the mica flakes were considered environmentally unsound and had to be replaced with something more expensive or less effective, or something like that. Ask anyone who bought a $100K Porsche a few years ago and is now watching their interior adhesives and windshield seals fall apart.
- dmix 4y agoHow is this a denial of individuality? They look very tasteful and other car makers and individual designers in other areas seem to agree. The author even said: > The effect was sneaky but striking… the VW looked more uniformly smoothed, and as a result more visually dense, than yr typical car — sort of like it had been formed out of wet putty. Paradoxically, the paint job was so “muted” that it drew our attention way more than any of the other regs-painted cars at the trailhead… There's nothing that indicates it's better at hiding or being 'inoffensive'. A brighter red or other glossy colours are just not very interesting but unless it's neon they still blend in with every other car because they're normal these days. A boring white/black design would be more inoffensive.
- mmcgaha 4y agoI have been noticing this style for almost 10 years. The recent uptick in cars with this style paint surely indicates that it will not be around much longer.
- ouid 4y agoThe answer to the why part of this question, I think, is that this is what computers are capable of rendering. These are exactly the paintjobs that the GTA cars have.
- dekhn 4y agoHuh. I've noticed many recent cars had a sort of saturated pastel (I call it "creamsicle") and I think this might be the same thing.
- mywittyname 4y agoThis isn't a new thing at all. This is how cars all use to look! This isn't some huge statement on how millennials want to be grownup and childish at the same time, or some other pop-psychology drivel. It's just the normal change of fashion over time. Non-flake paint jobs stand out a lot in a sea of cars with them. In fact, I've already noticed a shift back towards paints with contrasting metal flake now that even the most pedestrian Japanese cars are coming with simple glossy paint. BMW has this new sparkling copper grey that's a cool grey in low light, a warm light grey in direct light, and has reddish specular highlights and it has this very 90s color changing vibe to it. > UPDATE: A few ppl have also mentioned the important role of the “Nardo Grey” paint color from (Porsche-owned) Audi in this timeline — a wet-putty hue that came out in 2013 and became a car-head phenomenon. Grabber Blue came out on the Mustang even earlier and is a throwback to the 70s color of the same name. Voodoo Blue and Army Green on the FJ Cruiser is also a simple glossy color on an even older car. I'd argue this kind of paint was popularized by the retro-modernism of the 00s mixed with the cool grey trend of the 10s.
- djur 4y agoYeah, my friend's mom drove an old Lark convertible when I was a teen, and it had a cadet green paint job that looked like this. I always thought it looked particularly classy, especially compared to the glittery cherry red Studebaker she'd previously owned. More saturated hues with this finish feel "retro" and less saturated hues make it feel "futuristic". I'm personally a fan, even though I'm really down on the gray neutral trend in design in general.
- gambiting 4y ago>>Grabber Blue came out on the Mustang even earlier and is a throwback to the 70s color of the same name. Voodoo Blue and Army Green on the FJ Cruiser is also a simple glossy color on an even older car. Yeah, but both of these cars only really exist in one small(by size) market - the US. Audi's Nardo Grey was available(and visible) globally.
- mywittyname 4y agoThe New Beetle came in quite a few retro colors, some of which were non-metallic paint, and a handful are identical to colors offered in the 70s (granted, modern paint methods are different) I decided to go with some examples because I was familiar with them without having to look them up.
- biftek 4y agoTrends in paint are fun. Flat colors were last really common in the 90's, which is retro cool in its own way now, although then it was generally done with single stage paint and the gloss/wet look came from the occasional polish and wax, not a clear coat. Metallics have been the more popular choice for a couple decades now, with flats usually being reserved for base models and usually only in white or black. I think it's cool to see flat colors return.
- SamCritch 4y agoMica is the main component used to give auto paints their metallic look. Mica is mined in sometimes terrible conditions in India and Madagascar. I wonder if Porsche joining the Responsible Mica Initiative has anything to do with the reduction in metallic finishes? https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2020/company/porsche-joins-responsible-mica-initiative-22575.html https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2020/company/porsche-joins-r...
- dmurray 4y agoWeird, mica is extremely plentiful here - there's actually a scandal here where concrete blocks to build houses were made with too much mica, up to 14% in some cases. (It's not good for the structural strength of the concrete). It feels like you could walk into any field in some parts of Ireland and pick up enough mica to last the worldwide auto industry for years.
- bhk 4y agoRelated... https://twitter.com/culturaltutor/status/1551976102293372929 https://twitter.com/culturaltutor/status/1551976102293372929 Maybe it's due to PFAS :-)
- throwawaylinux 4y agoIs Twitter always so melodramatic? Have to laugh at the mopey sad sacks calling it "dystopian".
- marmetio 4y agoWere there similar articles published back when everyone decided that car paint should be metallic?
- kyleblarson 4y agoI stopped reading at "focus on mad-cool developments in clothes and home jawns"
- suprjami 4y agoWhy do new websites start with a blurb about the site, then a flyover to nag you to sign up for their mailing list? Whatever this article had to say is lost, I just hit the Back button.
- nibbleshifter 4y agoThat's substack (the platform many people use). Its a fucking cancer.
- naikrovek 4y agoit's trendy, and the latest blogging platform du jour. you'll be clicking "let me read it first" multiple times per day until substack turns that off, you block it somehow, or the next blogging platform du jour comes along. all hail technology fetishism!
- suprjami 4y agoThanks, I didn't realise. I always avoid substack for that reason too.
- throwayyy479087 4y agoDon’t forget the cookie banner
- eweise 4y agoPeronally I like non-flake colors. They remind me of cars from the 50's and 60s. Hope the trend continue but with more vibrant colors instead of gray gray gray.
- standardly 4y agoThe author used the word jawn/"jawnz" 3 times in a relatively short article. I really cannot get past that.
- ycombinete 4y agoThere is a lot that I can’t get past in this, otherwise well written and interesting article, article. - Spelling “your” as “yr” - “people” as “ppl” - “sh*t” all over the place (“Have you clocked these s*ts??”) - using ampersands in the middle of the article - “regs-painted” Etc.
- 3np 4y ago> - “sh*t” all over the place (“Have you clocked these s*ts??”) I find this particularly distracting and annoying. Either write out "shit" or just use a different word. "Censoring" your own text like this comes off as an attempt at being edgy. > this strikes us as a hedged, half-stepping, and underhandedly infantilizing approach to color design Replace "color design" with "writing" and it becomes self-referential.
- asciimov 4y agoThe kid in me believes all cars should come in Spectraflame, those bright metallic colors old hot wheels were painted, instead of the boring muddled colors available today. Cars today have lost all their individuality and character, and the lack of colors does not help.
- waynesonfire 4y agowait is the issue here the color or the curves? the paint looks fine it's the rounded corners that are ugly to me.
- svilen_dobrev 4y agoi was looking for a new car recently.. And (in Europe) all car manufacturers offer only 5 colors - black, white, gray, reddish and bluish. Maybe 2 blacks. Or 2 grays. Sometimes red or blue cost more than the others. But, essentialy - no-other-colors. (well, Porsches and Ferraris probably got more.. but.. not my sandwich) That's it. Then, i slowly started realizing it's been going for years... Looking now at any parking place around, the only colourful cars are some 20y old ones - if any. All else.. is either black, gray, here-there white, and few reds/blues. Color blindness.
- amelius 4y agoThis is why I prefer a matte finish.
- PicassoCTs 4y agoYou can look to long on render models in red clay sculpting and finally convince yourself that this is what looks good. The tools defaults destroy the aesthetics sense of the artist and thus the artist. Finally, colour-pickers offering pallets. Have one color you like? Get the default from the tooling too. So download the red clayed car, color pick and out pops the whole pallet of modern car. Its based on aesthetic theorys thus, it automatically has to be a good choice for all scenes.
- kleton 4y agoWhy is he calling these cars whips?
- conductr 4y agoCan’t tell if this is a real question but it’s just slang. Very common usage in US.
- causality0 4y agoI like it. When I was a kid cars were bright colors. For my entire adulthood they seem to have just been black, white, gray. At least this is some damm variety on the road.
- couchdive 4y agoI feel like the "militarization" look of consumer vehicles is being overlooked by many. From the color, to matte, to huge grills or sleek looks.
- dmitriid 4y agoIt looks like the recent VW vehicles have all defaulted to this worst kind of gray: it's not just lifeless, it's devoid of light and expression and joy. I see it in all new Skodas and quite a few VWs. I want to ask the designers WHY?!
- jccalhoun 4y agotrucks in particular. I would love a small truck but in the USA they just don't sell small trucks. They are all huge behemoths.
- agumonkey 4y agoA few forces I kinda see are : - video game generation (lots of design have japanese robots flavour, low poly too, tesla cybertruck) - interplay with post web2 / smartphone design language (flat, material)
- seltzered_ 4y agoAnother classic example is the 2000/2001 Audi TT in "aviator gray" - there were even joke license plates made to say 'paint me' because it almost looks like paint primer. VW also played with limited order colors on the New Beetle around this time.
- giantg2 4y agoI sprayed my old Caprice with a matte black primer. It looked awesome with the chrome trim. I got a few compliments on that. I wish I would have sprayed a matte/satin clear sealer on it instead of paint.
- fundad 4y agoOk boomer
- mitchdoogle 4y agoWhat is wet putty
- Sophistifunk 4y agoBecause that's how you know they're new. This is how fads work.
- ralusek 4y agoI refer to this paint style, in grey, as "dolphin colored" cars.
- arh68 4y ago2 things 1. it's not that the colors are themselves bad, but that the author feels the trend is being forced upon their whole generation 2. there are a number of not-very-grey pastels that I've seen on the road: Subaru's Hyper blue WRX STI, Toyota's Voodoo blue 4Runners, Dodge's orange Challengers, soon Nissan's new yellow Z, ... so maybe the author is too focused on what they dislike Re: 1, it's funny because I always felt metallic colors were thrust upon us all for 20 years, a trend with its own missteps. Remember the green metallic early-00s Altimas? Worse than any grey pastel I've seen. But it doesn't indict the whole metallic category. Personally, one of our first family cars was a pastel close to butter. (nowadays, my car is silver metallic)
- emodendroket 4y agoI can't say I've given it that much thought but I think those paint jobs look good.
- winkeyless 4y agoWorth mentioning that recent cars are big AF compared to their older generations. A small red 1990 BMW M3 and a big red 2020 M3 are visually very different. If my car is a large SUV I wouldn’t pick a green one, for example.
- amai 4y agoGrey is not a color: https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grau_ist_keine_Farbe https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grau_ist_keine_Farbe
- RamblingCTO 4y agoThe yellow Porsche indeed looks pristine! I don't really care about these colors, but yeah, you see them more and more, even in Germany. But there was a decade where almost every car was silver. Time's a changing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- FooBarBizBazz 4y agoYou'd think that for safety you'd be able to get cars in blaze orange, electric blue, or the same yellow they use in highlighters. Stuff that literally fluoresces. Why isn't there a paint that glows in the dark for an hour after dusk?