Yellow, The Hot Color for Cool Cars?
10-29-04, 10:27 AM
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Yellow, The Hot Color for Cool Cars?
The Hot Color for Cool Cars? Yellow
By LISA KALIS
Published: October 29, 2004
ALE EARNHARDT JR.'S Corvette. Nicolas Cage's Lamborghini. Liz Claiborne's Porsche. Eric Clapton's Ferrari. The Pagani Zonda S7.3 on the cover of this month's Robb Report (one of the magazine's "10 new luxuries" for 2005, it's priced at about $300,000). They're all quintessential trophy cars — sporty, assertive and flamboyant.
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And they're all yellow.
Forget about that little red sports car. Yellow shouts louder and, increasingly, it's the color of choice for the driver who wants to make an unmistakable statement on the road. Yellow is muscling in not only for high-performance cars, but on the shiny surfaces of compacts and sporty pickups — the hot models that young car buyers like to deck out with cladding and chrome.
Even the names catch the eye. Ford brought out Screaming Yellow for its 2004 Mustang. Hyundai showcased a concept car, the two-door HCD-8, earlier this year in Ballistic Yellow. Nissan has introduced Ultra Yellow for its 350Z coupe for 2005. The Porsche Boxster's egg-yolk-toned option is called Speed Yellow.
Ron Tonkin, the owner of 14 automobile dealerships in Portland, Ore., said he had seen yellow sales grow over the last year, particularly in sports cars.
Two kinds of people buy it, he said: "One, the young, and two, the young at heart." Somewhere in there is Mr. Tonkin himself. Earlier this year, he bought a yellow Ferrari, and his wife bought a yellow Maserati. "It seems to fit the sporty image," he said.
In 2003, yellow showed up as a top-10 car color for the first time in North America since 1992, popping into the lineup in the sport/compact category, according to DuPont Automotive. The company, which makes automotive paint, has tracked the most popular colors for 52 years.
No one claims yellow is likely to overtake silver, the leading car color in the United States, or to edge out subdued stalwarts like the whites and tans that clog the highways. But more and more, it is grabbing the role that red used to play in the automotive world.
Yellow is "a hot color, a fast color," said Quinton Q. Dodson, sales manager of West Coast Customs, a car customizer in Los Angeles. He sees it most, he said, in import tuner cars — the kind favored by fans of "The Fast and the Furious."
"It's for someone who's daring and wants to be noticed," said Toby Ristau, manager of J. C. Whitney, an aftermarket parts store in LaSalle, Ill. The vehicle for these people, he said, "used to be a red car."
"These are not shy and retiring vehicles," said Christopher Webb, exterior color and trend designer for General Motors, assessing the role of yellow as a Corvette color. "They're for the owner who likes everyone to know they're driving a Corvette."
Red, once the shocker that advertised this kind of personality, has become common, even sedate. It is still popular in sports cars, but it is no longer a signature for those who want to rise above the mainstream. In the DuPont survey, medium red ranked sixth for full-size and luxury cars.
Laurie Reiter, 49, an ultrasound technician from Youngstown, N.Y., is from the school of car buyers who thrive on attention. She considered red when she was buying a 2003 Mini Cooper, but decided it was too common. As she browsed the showroom, "Liquid Yellow" jumped out as the perfect fit.
"People just buy cars for transportation," she said. "But there are still a few of us who really love our cars."
When she and her husband, Jack Empson, also 49, drive their Mini to nearby Niagara Falls, they sometimes feel like the main attraction. "People turn around and stare at us," Mr. Empson said, "after they came hundreds of miles to see the falls."
AUTOMAKERS and dealers also appreciate the power of yellow.
"That's a real impulse color," said Mike Childs, the operations manager of the Dayton Auto Center in Dayton, N.J. When the dealership (which sells about one yellow vehicle a month) recently put out a yellow Dodge Ram Rumble Bee for display, he said, "one guy literally was not planning on buying anything, and drove in and said, `I have to have that truck.' "
Source : the New York Times
Yellow looks great on certain style of cars, but I don't think it'll look good on either of my cars.
By LISA KALIS
Published: October 29, 2004
ALE EARNHARDT JR.'S Corvette. Nicolas Cage's Lamborghini. Liz Claiborne's Porsche. Eric Clapton's Ferrari. The Pagani Zonda S7.3 on the cover of this month's Robb Report (one of the magazine's "10 new luxuries" for 2005, it's priced at about $300,000). They're all quintessential trophy cars — sporty, assertive and flamboyant.
Advertisement
And they're all yellow.
Forget about that little red sports car. Yellow shouts louder and, increasingly, it's the color of choice for the driver who wants to make an unmistakable statement on the road. Yellow is muscling in not only for high-performance cars, but on the shiny surfaces of compacts and sporty pickups — the hot models that young car buyers like to deck out with cladding and chrome.
Even the names catch the eye. Ford brought out Screaming Yellow for its 2004 Mustang. Hyundai showcased a concept car, the two-door HCD-8, earlier this year in Ballistic Yellow. Nissan has introduced Ultra Yellow for its 350Z coupe for 2005. The Porsche Boxster's egg-yolk-toned option is called Speed Yellow.
Ron Tonkin, the owner of 14 automobile dealerships in Portland, Ore., said he had seen yellow sales grow over the last year, particularly in sports cars.
Two kinds of people buy it, he said: "One, the young, and two, the young at heart." Somewhere in there is Mr. Tonkin himself. Earlier this year, he bought a yellow Ferrari, and his wife bought a yellow Maserati. "It seems to fit the sporty image," he said.
In 2003, yellow showed up as a top-10 car color for the first time in North America since 1992, popping into the lineup in the sport/compact category, according to DuPont Automotive. The company, which makes automotive paint, has tracked the most popular colors for 52 years.
No one claims yellow is likely to overtake silver, the leading car color in the United States, or to edge out subdued stalwarts like the whites and tans that clog the highways. But more and more, it is grabbing the role that red used to play in the automotive world.
Yellow is "a hot color, a fast color," said Quinton Q. Dodson, sales manager of West Coast Customs, a car customizer in Los Angeles. He sees it most, he said, in import tuner cars — the kind favored by fans of "The Fast and the Furious."
"It's for someone who's daring and wants to be noticed," said Toby Ristau, manager of J. C. Whitney, an aftermarket parts store in LaSalle, Ill. The vehicle for these people, he said, "used to be a red car."
"These are not shy and retiring vehicles," said Christopher Webb, exterior color and trend designer for General Motors, assessing the role of yellow as a Corvette color. "They're for the owner who likes everyone to know they're driving a Corvette."
Red, once the shocker that advertised this kind of personality, has become common, even sedate. It is still popular in sports cars, but it is no longer a signature for those who want to rise above the mainstream. In the DuPont survey, medium red ranked sixth for full-size and luxury cars.
Laurie Reiter, 49, an ultrasound technician from Youngstown, N.Y., is from the school of car buyers who thrive on attention. She considered red when she was buying a 2003 Mini Cooper, but decided it was too common. As she browsed the showroom, "Liquid Yellow" jumped out as the perfect fit.
"People just buy cars for transportation," she said. "But there are still a few of us who really love our cars."
When she and her husband, Jack Empson, also 49, drive their Mini to nearby Niagara Falls, they sometimes feel like the main attraction. "People turn around and stare at us," Mr. Empson said, "after they came hundreds of miles to see the falls."
AUTOMAKERS and dealers also appreciate the power of yellow.
"That's a real impulse color," said Mike Childs, the operations manager of the Dayton Auto Center in Dayton, N.J. When the dealership (which sells about one yellow vehicle a month) recently put out a yellow Dodge Ram Rumble Bee for display, he said, "one guy literally was not planning on buying anything, and drove in and said, `I have to have that truck.' "
Source : the New York Times
Yellow looks great on certain style of cars, but I don't think it'll look good on either of my cars.
10-29-04, 01:31 PM
#2
Pole Position
Yellow is "eh." I generally don't like it on anything but exotics. (there are exceptions)
My take on it?
If you are an enthusiast with mods and you need a loud-*** yellow paint job to get your car noticed, you are lacking in other departments. A tastefully modded car will not need a paint job that grabs you by the ***** and says "LOOK AT ME, MOTHERF$%ER."
My car is pure white. A color as boring as it gets. I color changed my car on purpose to this color. It's classy, elegant, custom (not PDW) and the car still turns heads left and right on South Beach. Overall presentation is not dependant on your actual paint color. Finish is much more important along with supporting mods.
Now some people just like yellow. Hey that's cool, go for it, I won't complain. What I don't agree with is that yellow is the new hawtness and without it to grabs people's eyeballs by force, no one will notice you.
SL500's don't come in this color and they get plenty noticed in their drab white paint finishes. Even with their factory-standard orange peel.
My take on it?
If you are an enthusiast with mods and you need a loud-*** yellow paint job to get your car noticed, you are lacking in other departments. A tastefully modded car will not need a paint job that grabs you by the ***** and says "LOOK AT ME, MOTHERF$%ER."
My car is pure white. A color as boring as it gets. I color changed my car on purpose to this color. It's classy, elegant, custom (not PDW) and the car still turns heads left and right on South Beach. Overall presentation is not dependant on your actual paint color. Finish is much more important along with supporting mods.
Now some people just like yellow. Hey that's cool, go for it, I won't complain. What I don't agree with is that yellow is the new hawtness and without it to grabs people's eyeballs by force, no one will notice you.
SL500's don't come in this color and they get plenty noticed in their drab white paint finishes. Even with their factory-standard orange peel.
10-29-04, 03:29 PM
#4
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i personally like yellow... i would never be caught dead in a red car(thats not a ferrari), but i would do yellow. red is so cliche... and i find yellow to be great for a car that you want to get noticed and that you dont want to drive every day.... i agree that it should only go on upper end sports cars though.. i would take a yellow lamborghini or ferrari or porsche... yellow on an SL500 would be hideous.... but thats just because of the way the car is designed... its pretty much made to only be either black or silver. or something in between. you never see luxury cars in yellow. the only cars that should be yellow are sports cars.. the yellow mica FD is one of my favorite cars of all time! also, the newer porsches that come in yellow look very good as well. i wouldnt mind a yellow supra or S15....
other colors make fine choices for everyday driving.... silver, white, and black are my personal favorite colors for common driving... but this is when you want your car to be clean and not stand out too much. but when you want to be noticed... yellow does the trick.
other colors make fine choices for everyday driving.... silver, white, and black are my personal favorite colors for common driving... but this is when you want your car to be clean and not stand out too much. but when you want to be noticed... yellow does the trick.
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10-30-04, 08:23 AM
#9
Mortgage Slave
I don't mind yellow, as long as it's on a very select number of cars (eg. I can't picture a yellow SC430)... I can picture it on the newer Vette's, Monaro/GTO, FD RX7 etc but anything else I can't picture it tastefully.
10-30-04, 10:39 AM
#11
Lexus Fanatic
I disagree that bright yellow is just for drivers who want to be young, "fast " or "hot". I have a Solar Yellow IS300...a pretty bright color....and I am not a particularly aggressive driver. I happened to like the IS in that color, that's all. In fact, I wish Lexus had used the even brighter "Chrome Yellow" you see on a lot of Ford and Nissan products.....Mustangs, trucks, and SUV's.....and on Corvettes.
10-30-04, 01:19 PM
#13
Lexus Fanatic
Originally posted by LeXuSrAcIn
I didnt know ppl had corvette taxis!!
I didnt know ppl had corvette taxis!!
Money talks.
10-31-04, 06:34 PM
#14
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GM introduced Millenium Yellow in 2000 for the Corvette.
From 00-04, GM charged an extra $500 for this color. (Also charged $500 extra for Magnesium Red). I know MY is offered on the 05's, but not sure if or what the surcharge is.
I was never a fan of Yellow. Most yellows that I have seen were always "blah" and never did anything for me. However, when GM came out with "M.Y.", as soon as I saw the first Vette in person with this color, i knew that I had to have it.
From 00-04, GM charged an extra $500 for this color. (Also charged $500 extra for Magnesium Red). I know MY is offered on the 05's, but not sure if or what the surcharge is.
I was never a fan of Yellow. Most yellows that I have seen were always "blah" and never did anything for me. However, when GM came out with "M.Y.", as soon as I saw the first Vette in person with this color, i knew that I had to have it.
11-04-04, 12:44 PM
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My M Roadster was yellow (albeit a more subdued, pastel-kind of yellow, not the bright school bus or taxicab color), and when it came time to trade it in I got quite a few dealers using the color as an excuse to lower the value. At least a few years ago (before yellow cracked the top ten, per this article), it was a pretty small segment of the population who would actually consider or buy a yellow car.