4 ms·

That's a lot of work to paint 80% of new cars in the most boring colors possible

crazygringo 3y ago
Then what's boring to you is clearly tasteful to the 80% of people buying them. I personally like to express my personality in other ways. The last thing I want is a car screaming some garish hue. Especially since I can do things like match clothes to my mood and the season, but I can't get my car repainted every day or every three months.
- mhb 3y ago
  The gap between boring and garish is at least big enough to drive a Mini Cooper through.
- Swizec 3y ago
  > Then what's boring to you is clearly tasteful to the 80% of people buying them. Apparently this has to do with how the economy is doing. When times are tough, people like boring car colors. Something about ease of resale and broad palatability in car dealerships. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/22/most-cars-are-painted-one-of-these-four-colorsheres-why.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/22/most-cars-are-painted-one-of...
- wlesieutre 3y ago
  It's not even really up to customers today, most people (me included) will take whatever color is available as long as it's not hideous. That's how I'm ending up with a white car even though I'm not enthusiastic about it. I guess manufacturers know that, so it's no problem for them to keep cranking out the whites and grays. Was talking to a Mazda salesperson recently and he was complaining that the first five or six of the new CX-90s they were being allocated are all white. Though looking at their website they have some red and dark blue ones on the way now, so maybe that was just the first production run.
  - crazygringo 3y ago
    It's still up to customers in the sense that car companies are cranking out whites and grays because that's where the most consumer demand is. If people stopped buying white today, Mazda would stop producing it tomorrow.
    - wlesieutre 3y ago
      I get that they do it because it's boring and unobjectionable, but I stand by my original point that it is boring.
      - crazygringo 3y ago
        No, you're projecting "boring" onto it. That's how you feel about what they're buying, not how they feel. I stand by my original point that it's tasteful. Classic shades of white, gray, silver, and black are in good taste, which is why people buy them. The buyers aren't saying "I want a boring color", they're saying "I want a tasteful shade".
        wlesieutre 3y ago
        Maybe we can agree that it's tastefully boring At least it's not beige, which would only be boring
        crazygringo 3y ago
        > At least it's not beige Ugh, if the 1990's are calling, tell them I'm not home!
        wlesieutre 3y ago
        If you get a call from the 1990's tell Honda to bring back cypress green pearl Meanwhile at Mazda, I can see "zircon sand" working for the CX-50, but I'm skeptical on the Miata https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a41995585/2023-mazda-miata-pricing-revealed/ https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a41995585/2023-mazda-miata... Unless it's such a weird choice that it somehow transcends boringness?
- seabird 3y ago
  Not every car that isn't black/white/gray is garish, and at least in the US, most people have unbelievably bad taste when it comes to vehicles.
nicenewtemp84 3y ago
I worked in car sales for a decade. If you like model xyz, and you like red, but we only have it in Silver, you'll probably buy it. If you like model xyz, and dislike vibrant colors (very common), you won't buy the red one we have.
- wlesieutre 3y ago
  It's true, if I weren't married I'd be getting Soul Red Crystal. Gorgeous color. But it's not for everyone, apparently. And the blue option isn't available, so white is it. If they had literally any non-red color we would've bought it, but they didn't.
  - joezydeco 3y ago
    I have a deep blue crystal Mazda but I also lust for that Soul Red color. It's amazing.
    - wlesieutre 3y ago
      Can't believe I'm paying $400 for white, but even with that the overall price beats what I could get out of another dealer 100 miles away where they had a deep crystal blue on the lot. Beats paying thousands of dollars of markups for literally nothing.
sp332 3y ago
They just stopped putting flake in the paint. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-03-07/la-fi-car-paint-trend-nissan-porsche-hyundai https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-03-07/la-fi-car-... & https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33880005 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33880005
DannyBee 3y ago
You can get whatever color you want in most luxury cars, you just have to pay and wait for it. Audi will happily get you a Lamborghini yellow q5 if you want.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

Then what's boring to you is clearly tasteful to the 80% of people buying them. I personally like to express my personality in other ways. The last thing I want is a car screaming some garish hue. Especially since I can do things like match clothes to my mood and the season, but I can't get my car repainted every day or every three months.

mhb 3y ago
The gap between boring and garish is at least big enough to drive a Mini Cooper through.
Swizec 3y ago
> Then what's boring to you is clearly tasteful to the 80% of people buying them. Apparently this has to do with how the economy is doing. When times are tough, people like boring car colors. Something about ease of resale and broad palatability in car dealerships. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/22/most-cars-are-painted-one-of-these-four-colorsheres-why.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/22/most-cars-are-painted-one-of...
wlesieutre 3y ago
It's not even really up to customers today, most people (me included) will take whatever color is available as long as it's not hideous. That's how I'm ending up with a white car even though I'm not enthusiastic about it. I guess manufacturers know that, so it's no problem for them to keep cranking out the whites and grays. Was talking to a Mazda salesperson recently and he was complaining that the first five or six of the new CX-90s they were being allocated are all white. Though looking at their website they have some red and dark blue ones on the way now, so maybe that was just the first production run.
- crazygringo 3y ago
  It's still up to customers in the sense that car companies are cranking out whites and grays because that's where the most consumer demand is. If people stopped buying white today, Mazda would stop producing it tomorrow.
  - wlesieutre 3y ago
    I get that they do it because it's boring and unobjectionable, but I stand by my original point that it is boring.
    - crazygringo 3y ago
      No, you're projecting "boring" onto it. That's how you feel about what they're buying, not how they feel. I stand by my original point that it's tasteful. Classic shades of white, gray, silver, and black are in good taste, which is why people buy them. The buyers aren't saying "I want a boring color", they're saying "I want a tasteful shade".
      - wlesieutre 3y ago
        Maybe we can agree that it's tastefully boring At least it's not beige, which would only be boring
        crazygringo 3y ago
        > At least it's not beige Ugh, if the 1990's are calling, tell them I'm not home!
        wlesieutre 3y ago
        If you get a call from the 1990's tell Honda to bring back cypress green pearl Meanwhile at Mazda, I can see "zircon sand" working for the CX-50, but I'm skeptical on the Miata https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a41995585/2023-mazda-miata-pricing-revealed/ https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a41995585/2023-mazda-miata... Unless it's such a weird choice that it somehow transcends boringness?
seabird 3y ago
Not every car that isn't black/white/gray is garish, and at least in the US, most people have unbelievably bad taste when it comes to vehicles.

nicenewtemp84 3y ago

I worked in car sales for a decade. If you like model xyz, and you like red, but we only have it in Silver, you'll probably buy it. If you like model xyz, and dislike vibrant colors (very common), you won't buy the red one we have.

wlesieutre 3y ago
It's true, if I weren't married I'd be getting Soul Red Crystal. Gorgeous color. But it's not for everyone, apparently. And the blue option isn't available, so white is it. If they had literally any non-red color we would've bought it, but they didn't.
- joezydeco 3y ago
  I have a deep blue crystal Mazda but I also lust for that Soul Red color. It's amazing.
  - wlesieutre 3y ago
    Can't believe I'm paying $400 for white, but even with that the overall price beats what I could get out of another dealer 100 miles away where they had a deep crystal blue on the lot. Beats paying thousands of dollars of markups for literally nothing.

sp332 3y ago

They just stopped putting flake in the paint. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-03-07/la-fi-car-paint-trend-nissan-porsche-hyundai https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-03-07/la-fi-car-... & https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33880005 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33880005

DannyBee 3y ago

You can get whatever color you want in most luxury cars, you just have to pay and wait for it. Audi will happily get you a Lamborghini yellow q5 if you want.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]