11 ms·

Personally, 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

Personally, 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 ago
The 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 ago
  Oh, 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 ago
    It'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 ago
      Here'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...
    - BurningPenguin 4y ago
      I wonder if that's also true for scooter and motorcycles. I'm thinking about getting one of those, but ideally in some bright and highly visible color.
      - ehnto 4y ago
        I imagine so, but I think you get more mileage from reflective high vis clothing. Make sure you get to an MSF course, they teach you about lane positioning for visibility and defensive riding techniques. Some assume this means riding like Tom Cruise, but most saftey occurs by never being in an incident at all.
        BurningPenguin 4y ago
        Good idea. If i go for a 125cc machine, i have to get some driving lessons anyway. Those are mandatory in my country.
matt-attack 4y ago
People took that stat to mean that cops can see the red better and so can spot the speeder more easily. I always took it to mean that people who buy red cars like to speed.
- mc32 4y ago
  Or, conversely people who like to speed buy red cars more frequently than other colors so that the majority of speeders end up driving red cars.
  - butlerm 4y ago
    He is claiming correlation not causation in the second. Correlation is symmetric, the converse is indistinguishable from the original.
  - jimnotgym 4y ago
    There is a story in the UK that red cars get pulled over more often due to police playing 'snooker'. In a game of snooker you have to pot a red ball every other ball... when playing with cars it means a lot more red ones get pulled. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snooker https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snooker
- WJW 4y ago
  I mean, red cars going faster is such a common trope it has got its own page on TvTropes: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RedOnesGoFaster https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RedOnesGoFaster.
  - svachalek 4y ago
    Some insurance even has a surcharge if the car is red.
    - bin_bash 4y ago
      That's an urban legend.
randcraw 4y ago
It's grey primer with clearcoat over it. How could that be a good thing? It's also as invisible as possible against the background of an asphalt road. Also a bad thing. Unless headlights come on automatically in fog or twilight, that aesthetic will likely be a deadly one.
- pvaldes 4y ago
  Very good point, this removes one layer of paint then. All cars have three (or four) layers of paint. This is two layers only. The main reason could be to increase the profit for the maker (or reduce the market prize so they could compete). Should be also cheaper to repaint for the owner
- eclipxe 4y ago
  It is not grey primer with clear coat. It is an actual pigment of paint.
bityard 4y ago
Living in the rust belt, I have come to enjoy owning gray (or at least mid-tone) color cars. In the summer, we get dust and dirt which looks bad on light-colored cars and requires frequent washing. In the winter, we get road salt which looks bad on dark-colored cars and requires frequent washing. Neither is near as pronounced on gray, meaning I literally never wash the outside of my car. Rain and snow do it often enough for me.
- silisili 4y ago
  I'm convinced that's the only reason people buy that ugly champagne color on cars. I hate it, but judging by a friend who never washes her car, it does not show dirt.
  - Gibbon1 4y ago
    Work friend from Britain bought his first car in California with a dark grey paint job so it wouldn't show dirt. And then found out that dirt in California is light tan not iron/coal dust dark.
  - int_19h 4y ago
    Had a VW in that color. It's very good at hiding dust, less so with real dirt. For city driving, yeah, it could be left unwashed for many months with no-one the wiser.
- throwaway742 4y ago
  You should probably be washing off the salt regardless of appearances.
willio58 4y ago
Neutral colors have the added benefit of being more easily resell-able (at a higher price), especially to private parties.
- BrentOzar 4y ago
  > Neutral colors have the added benefit of being more easily resell-able (at a higher price), especially to private parties. Only for neutral cars. Flashy cars (like the Audis and Porsches described in the article) carry a premium when they're flashy colors. There are even whole events dedicated to unusually-colored Porsches (paint to sample).
  - pixl97 4y ago
    Turns out there a lot more Camerys than there are Audis.
  - xwdv 4y ago
    Often this is because the paint itself is a more expensive option. In the end, neutral colors sell the fastest and most consistently. Colored cars have a smaller market based on the buyers tastes.
    - tcmart14 4y ago
      I buy it. There are some colors that just always look good on any car. They are fairly basic, but you can't really go wrong with them. Like black paint on a vehicle, black looks decent to good on just about anything.
      - propogandist 4y ago
        black is great on a car, but very hard to keep clean, especially if there's a desire to avoid hairline scratches and swirls. There's also a need to avoid car washes to keep the car scratch free. Grey/Silver color range is much easier to keep clean, and stays cooler in the sun.
Phrodo_00 4y ago
It's definitely more interesting than the overwhelming majority of silver cars in the past 10 years, although I'd really like it if we had more colors in the roads (and used car lots)
- Auracle 4y ago
  I know there are serious logistical and maybe marketing considerations but I don’t know why Tesla, and perhaps any other brands that are primarily ordered online, couldn’t have a ton more colors available. Even if there’s a significant fee a ton of people would jump in it. The last time I bought a car it was my Camaro. I wanted orange. They didn’t have orange. They had orange-red along with two other reds. I would have loved a deep forest green, but all they had was a neon green. So I got white.
  - mensetmanusman 4y ago
    Car wraps are a good option since they have effects you can’t get with paint and act as a protective wrap that can be swapped later after damage.
WarOnPrivacy 4y ago
I've lived thru Mary Kay pink, 1973 GM green, and merconium yellow. That bright grey is the most unsettling color I've ever seen. It's like what needs to be sewn back in after a blobfish knife fight. The closest analogue I've personally seen is polish ziltz, pigsfeet in clear gelatin.
JKCalhoun 4y ago
> It is the polar opposite of the "look at me" red cars of the past. Agree. The cars are now screaming "don't look at me!" (I happen to like looking at cars however.)
piuantiderp 4y ago
Love all the rationalizations from it's easier to keep clean to resellable... That might be the one true millenial trait.
ehnto 4y ago
Silver has a marginal impact on crash risk, especially at night. It may be marginal, but being in a car accident is not something I want to do for a fourth time (never at fault). You might notice how hard it is to see your hood in bad weather if you have a glossy silver paint. I tend to pick white now, which is also the best colour for hot climates like mine.

dwringer 4y ago

The 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 ago
Oh, 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 ago
  It'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 ago
    Here'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...
  - BurningPenguin 4y ago
    I wonder if that's also true for scooter and motorcycles. I'm thinking about getting one of those, but ideally in some bright and highly visible color.
    - ehnto 4y ago
      I imagine so, but I think you get more mileage from reflective high vis clothing. Make sure you get to an MSF course, they teach you about lane positioning for visibility and defensive riding techniques. Some assume this means riding like Tom Cruise, but most saftey occurs by never being in an incident at all.
      - BurningPenguin 4y ago
        Good idea. If i go for a 125cc machine, i have to get some driving lessons anyway. Those are mandatory in my country.

matt-attack 4y ago

People took that stat to mean that cops can see the red better and so can spot the speeder more easily. I always took it to mean that people who buy red cars like to speed.

mc32 4y ago
Or, conversely people who like to speed buy red cars more frequently than other colors so that the majority of speeders end up driving red cars.
- butlerm 4y ago
  He is claiming correlation not causation in the second. Correlation is symmetric, the converse is indistinguishable from the original.
- jimnotgym 4y ago
  There is a story in the UK that red cars get pulled over more often due to police playing 'snooker'. In a game of snooker you have to pot a red ball every other ball... when playing with cars it means a lot more red ones get pulled. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snooker https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snooker
WJW 4y ago
I mean, red cars going faster is such a common trope it has got its own page on TvTropes: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RedOnesGoFaster https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RedOnesGoFaster.
- svachalek 4y ago
  Some insurance even has a surcharge if the car is red.
  - bin_bash 4y ago
    That's an urban legend.

randcraw 4y ago

It's grey primer with clearcoat over it. How could that be a good thing? It's also as invisible as possible against the background of an asphalt road. Also a bad thing. Unless headlights come on automatically in fog or twilight, that aesthetic will likely be a deadly one.

pvaldes 4y ago
Very good point, this removes one layer of paint then. All cars have three (or four) layers of paint. This is two layers only. The main reason could be to increase the profit for the maker (or reduce the market prize so they could compete). Should be also cheaper to repaint for the owner
eclipxe 4y ago
It is not grey primer with clear coat. It is an actual pigment of paint.

bityard 4y ago

Living in the rust belt, I have come to enjoy owning gray (or at least mid-tone) color cars. In the summer, we get dust and dirt which looks bad on light-colored cars and requires frequent washing. In the winter, we get road salt which looks bad on dark-colored cars and requires frequent washing. Neither is near as pronounced on gray, meaning I literally never wash the outside of my car. Rain and snow do it often enough for me.

silisili 4y ago
I'm convinced that's the only reason people buy that ugly champagne color on cars. I hate it, but judging by a friend who never washes her car, it does not show dirt.
- Gibbon1 4y ago
  Work friend from Britain bought his first car in California with a dark grey paint job so it wouldn't show dirt. And then found out that dirt in California is light tan not iron/coal dust dark.
- int_19h 4y ago
  Had a VW in that color. It's very good at hiding dust, less so with real dirt. For city driving, yeah, it could be left unwashed for many months with no-one the wiser.
throwaway742 4y ago
You should probably be washing off the salt regardless of appearances.

willio58 4y ago

Neutral colors have the added benefit of being more easily resell-able (at a higher price), especially to private parties.

BrentOzar 4y ago
> Neutral colors have the added benefit of being more easily resell-able (at a higher price), especially to private parties. Only for neutral cars. Flashy cars (like the Audis and Porsches described in the article) carry a premium when they're flashy colors. There are even whole events dedicated to unusually-colored Porsches (paint to sample).
- pixl97 4y ago
  Turns out there a lot more Camerys than there are Audis.
- xwdv 4y ago
  Often this is because the paint itself is a more expensive option. In the end, neutral colors sell the fastest and most consistently. Colored cars have a smaller market based on the buyers tastes.
  - tcmart14 4y ago
    I buy it. There are some colors that just always look good on any car. They are fairly basic, but you can't really go wrong with them. Like black paint on a vehicle, black looks decent to good on just about anything.
    - propogandist 4y ago
      black is great on a car, but very hard to keep clean, especially if there's a desire to avoid hairline scratches and swirls. There's also a need to avoid car washes to keep the car scratch free. Grey/Silver color range is much easier to keep clean, and stays cooler in the sun.

Phrodo_00 4y ago

It's definitely more interesting than the overwhelming majority of silver cars in the past 10 years, although I'd really like it if we had more colors in the roads (and used car lots)

Auracle 4y ago
I know there are serious logistical and maybe marketing considerations but I don’t know why Tesla, and perhaps any other brands that are primarily ordered online, couldn’t have a ton more colors available. Even if there’s a significant fee a ton of people would jump in it. The last time I bought a car it was my Camaro. I wanted orange. They didn’t have orange. They had orange-red along with two other reds. I would have loved a deep forest green, but all they had was a neon green. So I got white.
- mensetmanusman 4y ago
  Car wraps are a good option since they have effects you can’t get with paint and act as a protective wrap that can be swapped later after damage.

WarOnPrivacy 4y ago

I've lived thru Mary Kay pink, 1973 GM green, and merconium yellow. That bright grey is the most unsettling color I've ever seen. It's like what needs to be sewn back in after a blobfish knife fight. The closest analogue I've personally seen is polish ziltz, pigsfeet in clear gelatin.

JKCalhoun 4y ago

> It is the polar opposite of the "look at me" red cars of the past. Agree. The cars are now screaming "don't look at me!" (I happen to like looking at cars however.)

piuantiderp 4y ago

Love all the rationalizations from it's easier to keep clean to resellable... That might be the one true millenial trait.

ehnto 4y ago

Silver has a marginal impact on crash risk, especially at night. It may be marginal, but being in a car accident is not something I want to do for a fourth time (never at fault). You might notice how hard it is to see your hood in bad weather if you have a glossy silver paint. I tend to pick white now, which is also the best colour for hot climates like mine.