mmarshall

When vehicle-shopping, unless one simply doesn't care, or is forced to accept a certain color by circumstance (wife/husband, for example, won't budge, or no other colors are available or in stock), an almost certain question arises as to what color to consider. I've posted at length, here on Car Chat, numerous times, about my own personal preferences and/or what I think auto manufactures should be offering, but that is NOT the purpose of this write-up. In this post, I'm not going into my own opinions, but will simply point out the advantages and disadvantages of choosing certain colors. Some of these attributes and characteristics, of course, are already well-known...others not so well. Some of what I write here is information gained from my own general experience (not personal opinion, but experience)...some from body shops, some from other articles on the subject I've read, and some from the auto industry itself.

First, if the absolute lowest price on a new vehicle is of concern, note that some manufacturers charge extra for some colors or paint-types (Metallic, Pearl, Tri-Coat, etc...). Doing so used to be pretty much the domain of German and Swedish automakers (at least on their American-market vehicles), but, lately, has spread to a number of GM, Chrysler, and other brands as well. On mainstream vehicles, these charges will be anywhere from around $395 to $995.....the popular White Pearl and Crystal Red Tintcoat are often targets for a mark-up. Automakers give the excuse that these color/patterns are more difficult to do on the assembly-line, and require more preparation and clean-up of the robot paint guns after each vehicle. Perhaps. Whatever the reason (credible or not), you, as an auto buyer, are likely to pay more for your vehicle if it is painted one of these colors....as, yes, I did for my own Verano because I liked the Crystal Red paint job (and the paint has held up extremely well in the time I've had it).

Second, the question of paint care/maintenance comes in. With today's durable clearcoat paints (for which we can generally thank Ford, since they were the first company to use clearcoat paint on everyday production vehicles), the need to get the wax-cleaner out every few months to prevent fade and discoloration is pretty much a thing of the long-ago-past. (and good riddance, too...all that paint color coming off in one's hands and onto the rag from the cleaner's abrasive compounds was a PITA). Still, in general, you will typically spend more time trying to keep black or white paint looking nice than on most of the other shades in between. Black paint, whether smooth or metallic, if done correctly at the factory, can be just like a mirror when freshly washed/dried and waxed, and will really impress people (such as your Friday or Saturday night date) . But the laws of physics apply......black paint can heat up terrifically on a hot sunny day, especially in desert climates, and that can shorten its life, even with a good clearcoat. Black paint also tends to magnify the effects of orange-peel texture in the paint process, scratches, bird/insect-droppings, smudges, dust, fingerprints, etc.... So, with black, if you take the time to keep it like a mirror, it can be impressive...but also lot of work. With white paint, of course, it also takes a lot of work to keep nice, but for different reasons...stains, colored paint-blotches from door-dings, and black-colored tar spots from pavement construction are the main gremlins. White paint will generally stay much cooler in the summer, but that can also make it more difficult in the winter when you are trying to melt snow and ice off the car. White paint also helps make the white lines less-noticeable that you often get from scratches that have not gone all the way down to bare metal.

If you are not the type of person who washes your vehicle regularly, the best colors to hide road dust/dirt/salt stains with are probably a light tan, beige, silver-beige, or silver (perhaps one reason for silver's huge popularity). But avoid the darker browns and grays (and other darker colors), as they will have some of the same effects as black for showing dirt and paint imperfections. If you are accident-prone, or live in an area where your car is likely to get zapped and/or need body work, light blue/silver metallics, light green silver/metallics, similar light-metallic shades (and some silvers themselves) are considered the most difficult colors for body shops to match perfectly, as the very slight amount of pigment and metal-flake that has to be added to the paint is very critical, with little room for error. That is why it is often easy to tell if cars with these shades have had doors or body-panels re-painted.

(An aside note....that is one reason, among many, why I liked the 1990-2001 Saturn S-series cars so much...the plastic doors and side-body panels could be ordered, directly from the Spring Hill, TN factory, already painted with Saturn's patented water-borne paint formula....you didn't have to screw around painting them in the shop).

Then, of course, there is the old question if cars painted in colors like bright red or bright yellow are magnets for traffic-cops or higher insurance-premiums....and will make your car more likely to be pulled over for speeding, other traffic laws, vehicle or racial-profiling, etc.......This question has been floated around for decades, and, from what I can tell, hasn't really been proven either way. A friend of mine had a bright-blue/white Dodge Viper with the Shelby paint-stripes (actually owned by his company, which rented out exotic sports-cars), and got stopped several times by cops who were obviously following him, just looking for reasons to pull him over. Yet, I myself had a bright Solar Yellow Lexus IS300 for almost five years, and never got pulled over once...though I also tend to drive less-aggressively than he does. I also (with GEICO) paid the same for insurance as for that of any other color. One thing I DID notice, however, about bright reds, yellows, and some other bright colors.....they tend to attract insects, sometimes with stingers. Those bright colors simulate those of flowers that insects are naturally attracted to, and pollenate. So, keep that in mind if you want to advertise your car with a circus-color.

And, of course (most importantly), there is the question of what colors are even offered to start with....you obviously can't buy what isn't offered. Cost-cutting in recent years has led to a general decrease in the number of colors available in the first place (and to the elimination of the Subaru and Scion two-tones). Black/silver/white/gray is becoming the norm, especially on luxury cars, with only a few others offered here and there. I can remember when the average new American car had a choice of maybe 25 or 30 exterior colors, and five or six different interior colors....those days are long gone (and that was before the days of clearcoat, so those colors weren't well-protected on the car itself). So, today, unless you are looking at a sports car or sports-oriented vehicle, you are likely to find a choice of (mostly) dull colors....mostly white/gray/silver/black, with a few others tossed in and maybe a nice red tint-coat because of its popularity.

So, I hope this makes things a little clearer for some of you. I see a lot of comments from new-car seekers, both on and off-line, as to what color they should order. I hope this explanation helps at least a little, and makes it a little easier to decide on what fits your (and the family's) needs/wants the best when it's time to go shopping for that new chariot.

And, as always, Happy New-Car Shopping.

MM

blacksc400

iTrader: (4)

White/gray for me since I'm lazy to wash lol.

but recently I starting to like San Marino blue and Porsche light blue, they look amazing but don't know if it's a pain to maintain :/

mmarshall

Like I said above, though, white isn't necessarily for lazy people....it can take some work to keep nice. It doesn't show the dust/fingerprints/orange-peel, etc... that black does, but tends to get stained easily, especially in construction or repaving areas. SCRATCH-OUT liquid, of course, will generally remove all but the deepest stains......as it will with any other color as well.

In general, lighter blues are easier to maintain than darker blues. But some light-blue shades, especially when mixed with silver, can be difficult for body shops to pefectly-match.

Gojirra99

To me, it depends on the model I am considering.
If possible, I would try to find real life examples to look at before I decide.

mmarshall

If possible (though that's not always the case), try to look at the color both indoors (or outdoors under clouds) and in the bright sunlight. You will sometimes be surprised to see how much nicer many colors (particularly darker metallic shades) look in direct sunlight.

pman6

not-black .

Sulu

At one time, when asked what colour I wanted for my new car, I said any colour but no black and no white. I now have a white car (which my wife wanted). I can now say that my next car will NOT be white and will not be black; I do not like white, perhaps because my wife's car is white, my parents' car is white, two sisters-in-law also have white colours -- no imagination!

A lighter shade would be my preference, although I will remain open-minded about other colours (some of the Lexus metallic greys and light copper/coffee-shades look good). When shopping for my current white ES, I saw a bright red ES with the ivory interior in the showroom (already sold!) that I thought was really nice but my wife did not like it.

mmarshall

Light copper or light-coffee shades will also be good for hiding a lot of the dirt and dust.

davyjordi

i had a 2008 starfire pearl is 250 before i purchased my 2014 matador red mica is 250 and i really thought i would like the color all aspects considered, at least as much as i liked starfire pearl. i was wrong. matador red mica itself is beautiful, but the maintenance is such a pain. any imperfection shows greatly, dust included. we also have a nebula grey 2014 is 250 in our household and that color is a bit more forgiving. in any case, i am going to be returning to pearl white when i purchase my next car.

Fizzboy7

100% subjective question and cannot be answered with any sort of research, fact, or bearing. Everyone has their own personal option, needs, wishes, wants, and lazinesses.
Personally, I like lighter colors that don't beg to be cleaned the second it rains and the sun comes out. I think my next car will be a special ordered Audi in some sort of strange and rare white or silver shade. I'd love to have a car color that no one else has, even if it costs a little more. Currently, Mini has an amazing shade of silver that has purple, pink, and gold overtones in it. Now that's how you do silver.

Aron9000

I've had two navy blue cars, total PITA to keep them clean, but man they looked amazing all cleaned up. I am always one to keep on top of waxing/detailing my cars, so I never had any problems with swirls in the paint. Honestly I think where most people go wrong with black paint is putting it through a car wash and using the wrong techniques to wash the car if they do it themselves.

But never again will I own something that dark, including black, on a car I drive every day, too much work to keep it nice. For a weekend toy, sure, if it suits the car's character.

Grey can look really good or bad depending on the shade, amount of flake, and how well it was applied in the first place. I've seen some greys that look like the shade of dirt, while others have a sort of more cool hue to them, more blue in the paint that makes them really pop.

White can be a double edged sword. I generally hate it on pickup trucks, makes you look like the contractor. Metallic pearl whites are usually pretty nice, I love the pearl white on my SC300. Its sort of a "flop" paint, it looks plain white in some lights, then when the sun hits it shows the metallic pearl, makes the car look cream colored, its a pretty cool effect.

Generally though, for most cars, I prefer blues, reds, burgandys, something that is an actual color. Silver and grey can look great too, but IMO we've gotten way too conservative in our paint choices in recent years. You can pick colors that don't shout at you but are an actual color.

mmarshall

Agreed that at least part of it is subjective, and personal preference. But it is also fact, not opinion, that darker colors, in general, will look shinier when clean, heat up more in the sun, and be harder to keep clean (except for pure-white and its tendency to stain, which can also be a PITA). It's also a fact that light browns/tans/beiges hide much of your road dirt and dust. One sometimes has to take these facts into account when making personal references.

mmarshall

Yep...there are vehicles that offer little (if any) more than white/black/silver/gray. But I didn't want to spend too much time on that myself, in this specific article....we've discussed that numerous times in the past, in other threads. I generally just wanted to give the overall advantages and disadvantages of what is offered, and what the typical choice of the typical car-buyer would be....stingy as that choice might be nowadays LOL.

ssmoked

There are pro and cons to every color. I personally do not like to repeat colors on my vehicles. So far had beige ES300 (blah), Metador red IS250 (nice when clean and under sun but scratches so easy), flat red/black sport bike (nice racing color combo), forest green rav4 (surprisingly looks ok with aftermarket wheels), atomic silver 370z (nice when clean but very bland compared to other 370z and sports cars), molten Pearl RCF (color pops under any circumstance and changes shades when wet, dirty, clean, dark, sunny. Attracts TOOO much attention). So far molten Pearl is the favorite simply because its rarity on the road.

SW17LS

Just to be clear, this is not a come recent phenomenon really for luxury cars. It comes over from the Germans, who have never had a wide palette of colors for their luxury sedans, etc. Lexus hasn't either, which comes from trying to emulate Mercedes and BMW. American luxury cars were another story, they did offer a wide variety of colors like you mentioned, but thats largely gone by the wayside again because they're trying to emulate those having success in their market segments.

Interesting thread. I've had a lot of different color cars, easiest to care for would be the nebula grey I have now. Doesn't show scratches, doesn't show rock chips really actually. My LS430 was flint mica which was a little harder to care for because it was darker, but it was also prettier IMHO. Silver also has the benefit of hiding dirt and scratching, and pops more than grey, but rock chips really stick out. Same is true of white.

Lexus paint is harder to care for than other companies paint because in my experience it scratches and chips very easily. My dark colored Lexus vehicles were harder to keep nice than dark colored cars I've had from other carmakers. My 2011 Jeep was a dark metallic green and my 2014 Jeep was a dark metallic gunmetal blue and both held up great. My sedona is a med-dark burgundy and it also has held up great. My black garnet pearl ES was very difficult to keep nice, and the front was sandblasted with chips. I would not purchase another Lexus vehicle without a clear bra, but the Jeeps and the Sedona don't need one.

Perhaps because I get new cars so frequently, color isn't huge for me.