Car Colors
 

Sometimes strange things occur to me, and then kick around in my brain for awhile.

This is one of those things.

What the heck has happened with car colors? Used to be pretty simple ... white, red, burgundy, light and dark green, light and dark blue, black, silver gold ... couple metalflake variants.

Lately I've been seeing some majorly weird colors.

Yes, I recognize that it's part of the same "logic" that drove Crayola to delete eight perfectly good (and important) colors from the box and replace them with eight "fresher, hipper colors".

But I've been noticing car colors that must require a major dealer incentive to get these beasts off the lot ... especially the Nissan Xterra ... School Bus Yellow? Who in their right mind would buy that? I keep waiting for the red lights to stop flashing and several developmentally impaired children to get off when I'm behind one of these at a corner.

Purple is another one that seems strange on the street. I guess I should be grateful that it's not lavender. Pink Champagne (which was a pinky-brown color offered by Nissan seemed like another dealer-incentives applied color to me.

VW is one of the major culprits here, partcularly with the new Beetles ... some of the 'special edition' colors (i'm mostly thinking Venom) are offensive to the eye. They are also responsible for Orange as a car color, back in the day.

VW also had some specialty colors for their regular sedans, but they weren't quite as bad ... in the right light Dutch Blue was kind of nice.

I do admit that some of the specialty paints, like black cherry and oilslick, which I think were available on some GM products. were kind of cool, but I wouldn't have bought 'em myself.

Ah, mebbe I'm just cranky. But I know I'm right.

Don't you dare slander purple! Putt-putt is purple, and my previous car was a metallic grape. :)

The first time I ever thought a car color was strange was when Ford Probes came in metallic orange. It really just depends on the type of vehicle, IMO. Some colors, odd they may be, look good on a particular car. Others look way out of place.

Although, I'm sure there have been "ugly" colors since the days of wayback. GM used to have that horrible lime green color that was most prominent on Impalas and Caprices. My aunt had an Impala of that color.

GM currently offers a color called Cappuccino. It seems to be most prominent on Monte Carlos. It's actually a nice color.

I saw a brand new bright lime-green Honda Insight at the University one day. It was quite a sight to see.

Heh.. here it is:

http://evworld.com/archives/conferen...es/insight.jpg

That's foul. And don't start with this cappuccino -- no shade of brown is appropriate for a vehicle. This is exactly the sort of thing that everyone will wake up from in 2020 and wonder what the hell we were thinking.

I think it's cool.

http://msdelta.net/~sycamore/cellar/cappu.gif

UT is on his way to becoming a grumpy old man.

Purple is one of my favorite colors, as it happens, not as favorite as blue, but it's way up there ... top 3 definitely.

I just think it looks a little odd on a vehicle.

(ford had a version of light metalflake green in the late 60s ... my mom had a Maverick in that color. Thought it looked weird then, think it looks weird now. And I do agree with UT brown is NOT a color for cars. Refrigerators, maybe, but not cars. Tan also looks damn fugly. And fake woodgrain has just got to be STOPPED.)

Well that Monte Carlo looks more ivory than cappuccino. But the point is, fashion changes in two years, car ownership lasts longer than that. The people who are buying this color:

http://cellar.org/2003/almondcar.jpg

...are gonna be unhappy by the end of the decade when the fashionable color turns out to be just another shade of ugly brown.

     For the record, the honda pictured and the new VW Bug referenced are not "lime green". They are "baby-shit green". Juju will soon be able to verify that from personal experience. I've never seen a lime that color. Baby-shit on the other hand, oh yeah.

Why do I get the feeling that everyone who utters these dire warnings gets some sort of twisted satisfaction out of it?

What if you had cancer, and people constantly came up to you and said, "You're gonna die! Oh yeah! Just get ready for it!" That's sort of how I feel, except without all the dying.

     Gee Juju, I didn't know that referencing your impending 'Joy' would strike such a chord. I've no idea what you mean about "dire warnings" or "twisted saitisfaction", but did I mention the 2am and 5am feedings and diaper changes? = D

My car is tucson bronze metallic. :(

Screw you all...I like it. :)

Hmm.. our Subaru is gray and our peekup is black, I am a bore. Remember all those nasty orange 70's vintage vettes thats an expensive mistake. no offense intended the Cellar is gettin big enough to have one of anything he he even brown cars

You don't get Lilac cars do you? ... Shame that! Even better if they smelled of Lilac inside ... I just love that perfume.

Strange? ... Me? ... Nah!


Chris.