Lil4X

Guys see the world in about eight or ten colors - it's not our vision, it's just the way we perceive the world: black, white, silver, and primary colors . . . that's about it. We tend to purchase cars in these colors too. We're not to fussy about the description of red being broken down into at least 30 sub-shades. To us it's red, maybe pink or maroon.



But in the mid-fifties automakers began to realize that the ladies in our lives were having a drastic effect on the choice of color for the family car. I learned long ago that I can't even have a car in the driveway my wife thinks is "ugly". OK, it's going to have to be some shade of blue I can't describe other than "dark blue" or "light blue" . . . "cornflower blue" doesn't mean much to me. I console myself with the idea I can have the big motor.

I was helping my Bible Study teacher out to her car a couple weeks ago - she'd parked hastily and forgotten where she'd left it. So I asked what kind of car it was . . . an SUV she says, I knew she had a Mercedes M-Class at one time, but she said she bought a new one. So I asked her what color it was. Smack my head . . .

She is one of the relatively few women in the world who are color blind (gene must appear on both X chromosomes). For that reason she had been trained as a bombardier for the Army Air Corps as an experiment in WWII because color-blind people (particularly her kind of color-blindness) isn't fooled by camouflage. It sure doesn't help when trying to find her car either - she doesn't know what color her car is. (Turned out it was maroon . . . well, to me, anyway.)

If you want a preview of what's coming in car colors - as discerned by the female car buyers in our midst, you need look no further than what's appearing on the red carpets and runways of the fashion world. Pantone, that arbiter of color standards for the print industry, has tracked the popular colors over the past few years, and have chosen what they predict will be the 2014 color of the year. Are you ready for "Radiant Orchid"?



http://www.chron.com/life/style/gall...to-5606955.php

Picturing this on your new LS yet? Cringe, my brothers . . . what has been seen cannot be unseen.

mmarshall

The idea that pink or purple cars are unmasculine is nonsense....that is something that basically arose in recent years, especially with the pink VW New Beetle. Elvis Presley (who was not gay or effeminate by any means) loved pink Cadillacs...and sometimes gave them away as gifts to friends/family. One of them is still preserved at his Memphis, TN Graceland ESTATE. Bruce Springsteen also sang about pink Cadillacs. And, when I was growing up in high school and college, violet-purple (Plum Crazy) and lime green (Tor-Lime) Dodge/Plymouth muscle cars were just about the coolest things on the street.

Some would argue that the practice of Mary Kay Cosmetics of special-ordering pink GM cars (Cadillacs, Buicks, and formerly Pontiacs) for their top salespeople makes the color feminine. I disagree, That color is patented (only Mary Kay can use it), and is not really what I'd call "pink", but actually a very light piniksh-beige.

RXSF

lol that chart is hilarious.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

nabbun

Game. Blouses.

Aron9000

Man, I'm all a fan of color, if we can get away from this damn grey/dirt color trend we've had for the past 10 years. Its so stupid that the only colors you see on new "big" luxury cars are about 7 shades of grey ranging from bright silver, grey with a blue tint, grey with a brown tint, all the way to the color of dirt. Other than those grey shades, black, black metallic, white, pearl white, and maybe a navy blue are the only colors you can get on your big flashy cars now days.

Whatever happened to red, burgundy, so burgandy its purple, green(in all its glorious and hideous shades), ivory, light yellows, blues in all their glorious shades. Bronzes, metallic browns, metallic orange, all those great 70's earth tones, some were hideious, some were genious. Really a nice medium blue with a bit of metallic just exudes class. I just wish we were given choice like Cadillac offered in the 60's/70's in terms of interior/exterior colors.

dc893

The only thing people seem to care about when buying a new car is resale value.

JM51526

That color chart is missing the most important one - BROWN.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

and Black and Silver and Gold.. etc..

DriftGirl

iTrader: (6)

horrible

If sum guy pulled up to my house in that...I prolly wouldnt open the door.










Pantone Color of the year: Emerald

PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

I like Radiant Orchid.

mmarshall

Yep....back in the 1950s, 60s and early 70s, you often had a choice of dozens of factory colors (including two tones). Most of them have disappeared for two reasons......First, cost-cutting on the assembly line in the paint department, and, Second, the conviction by many automakers that the only thing that will sell today (which is completely wrong) is white/silver/gray/black, with an occasional dark red or dark blue.

LexBob2

Another reason for the colors that are or aren't available is sales. Tastes and preferences change.

mmarshall

While not completely irrelevant, though, tastes and preferences don't change as much as cost-cutting. Money talks. The main reason we don't have the wide color-choice and two-tones we had 50 years ago is cost.

What has happened is that the auto companies have succeeded. Most auto buyers, today, seem satisfied with the limited (and, IMO, often laughable) color choices that so many vehicles offer today......which is EXACTLY what the auto companies WANT. They (in effect) cheat buyers, and the buyers are satisfied because many of them don't remember when there was a much better color choice.

The single worst offender, IMO, is probably the Hyundai Equus. Four exterior colors on a 60K luxury car (white/silver/gray/black) is nothing short of ludicrous.

LexBob2

If you say so...