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.
They typically look like a mildly used bar of soap on wheels.
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.
Peak automotive engineering!
There used to be a sense of whimsy and fun in stuff.
It’s like we live in a world built out of that gray shit inside that Krabby Patty in the one episode.
Is this what you mean?
Or maybe this?
Yes.
Sick of the gray in cars, clothing, buildings, etc. etc. etc.
The cars in the second picture are more colorful and interesting than what we have now
yeah, the golden light does a lot of the beauty there
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 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.
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.
Kind of true also for housing.
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.
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.
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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…”
Everyone wants a car that blends in so that they are less of a target for cops.
Part of why I drive a Volvo.
If you see a Volvo speeding you think “Gee, that doctor must be in a big hurry”
For most of us, that is not a concern at all.
It should be a concern for literally anyone in America right now. Unless you’re white and actively licking boots, you’re a target.
Sounds about white.
I’m white and OP has hella privilege if they’ve never been concerned about cops targeting them. They were all over my ass in the 90s for having long hair and driving beaters. They’d lock on and follow until they had an excuse.
That’s apparently apocryphal. The rate of pullover tracks with the most common car color (currently white). Driver behavior (speeding, illegal turning, etc) and other outstanding features (lapsed registration, broken tail light) are the most common proximate causes for a pull over.
Not me! I’ll take a flashy sports car over a boring beige box any day of the week.
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“Mr. Moneybags”? LMAO I can easily name 5 excellent, reliable sports cars you can use as a daily driver for under $10K:
- Nissan 350Z/Infiniti G35
- Mazda Miata
- Genesis Coupe
- Civic Si
- VW GTI
My GTI was good at hiding from cops until I got my exhaust.
Worth it.
Oh, that’d be an interesting study I’d read about! Any sociology majors out there who need a thesis? lol
Race red mustang gt. I’ll take the heat off y’all.
Everyone wants a car that blends in so that they are less of a target for
copspredators.
That’s more like 1974 than 1980.
I miss cars that would last for 30 years more than choice of color.
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.
It’s not just cars. Our whole society is grey.
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.
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.
Yup
i think that’s why i liked anime so much as a kid. lots of oversaturated colors there.
