To wonder when all the cars on our roads turned monochrome?!

[GinDaddyRedux]

I was recently flamed by some colleagues for considering buying a red car. I was told "you won't get let out at junctions", "people will automatically think you're having a mid-life crisis", "you'll get gobbed on by passers-by" etc ...

It got me thinking - when did we drain the colour out of car choices? Is this an envy thing, a "tall poppy" cut-down?

For reference yes, it is a 4-seater sports coupe, but there aren't many of the type I want to buy, and especially fewer with a manual gearbox. The one I found is in post-box colour red.

My point is, literally every single person in that group chat, male and female, has a monochrome car. Three "gunmetal grey", two black, one white.

My neighbours all to a fault seem to have grey or black. One has a blue people carrier and I love them for it, it's so good to see some actual colour on the street.

Yes this is trivial, yes I'm sure someone will be along to tell me about their yellow Cinquecento they once owned, or their current forest green Discovery or whatever. If so, you're of my thinking and this post is not to you.

I'm just curious - is it a PCP thing, as in, if you have to hand it back, does resale count in terms of having business grey colours?

I go to supermarket car parks in my bright blue estate car and I notice the stares, it's quite amusing - its as if people take umbrage to the existence of the thing. Everywhere else? Is a sea of grey, silver, black, more black, and a few white Kias or whatever was in vogue a few years back.

AIBU to wonder why people don't buy colourful cars any more? Would you automatically think "knob" if you saw a person in a red coupe?

I think it’s part of a wider monochrome trend at the moment! Virtually every single home / interiors account on Instagram has houses decked out exclusively in grey, white, black and silver. I’m trying to buy a pram at the moment and 95% of them are grey or black. Neutral coloured clothing is everywhere.

I think people are scared to get colour wrong and see grey as a safe way of having a ‘classy’ or safe decorating scheme. It doesn’t really do anything for me though!

(My car is also postbox red )

I bought a "new" car last year and ended up with a black one. But I actually wanted a red one. But when I got to the garage, the one I had originally wanted wasn't available so I got a black one instead.

Nothing wrong with a bit of colour on the drive - I have two black/dark grey cars :(

White is usually the cheapest option buying new. If you only want a car to get from A to B you are not going to shell out on a colour that costs extra.

Last time I bought a new car (about 6 years ago) the only free colours were black and white - every other colour incurred over £1000 in paint - I chose to get parking sensors instead

Mine is dark blue, DH’s is red. But yes, in our road the rest seem to be neutral colours.

I think although could be totally wrong, that black cars always sell for more
And white are the cheapest to buy

I have only ever owned black cars and it’s the only colour I would own

I'm with you on the colour point. We own two cars, one black and one so dark grey, it looks black. They were secondhand and there wasn't really a choice, but these colours are sooo boring.

I think my teenage children would be mortified if I got a car in a bright colour, but it would great to have more variety on the road. So many cars are white, black, grey or silver - or else very muted blues or possibly green...

I've never heard the idea that people will heap abuse on red cars. Are you sure that's for the colour and not for the sporty model?

I think the ‘free’ colours when we bought our car were white, black, dark blue and red. I liked a metallic light blue colour but it cost more so we didn’t go for it.

I’ve been told white cars are stolen more often than other colours but no idea if that’s true or not.

Just asked my husband who is a new car salesman. He said it's 'in fashion' at the moment. He said greys are more popular than white and black at present. He said manufactures will produce the colours in demand. His company sell a lot of 'crystal red' more than other colours

We currently have a bright blue car so not following the trend!

I think it’s also got to do with which colours are “free” when you buy a new car. Mine is white, bought second hand so didn’t have much choice, but it is the manufacturer’s free colour, so the most popular/easy to find in the used market. We have plenty of coloured cars in our street though, DH’s is blue, next door is blue as well, opposite is red, there are a couple of other red and blue ones up the street...

It's weird isn't it OP, I just treated myself to a convertible (second hand) and could have bought it locally in grey or black but in the end I travelled 6 hours round trip to buy the only blue metallic with white leather interior on sale in the country.

DH's cars are always silver, it's fine but I miss the days when coloured cars were much more common.

I would never by a red car, I think they're ugly!

Cross posted with everyone else

When you buy a car new you usually have to pay extra for any colour except white or black.

I’ve always had red cars. My last was black and it was boring. Everyone comments on my new red car. I love it, I like a colourful car.

I go to supermarket car parks in my bright blue estate car and I notice the stares, it's quite amusing - its as if people take umbrage to the existence of the thing
I really doubt people are staring at the colour of your car.
I used to have a bright green car and people didn’t stare at it.

I wanted to get a shiny turquoise type colour for my previous car and my friends all said it was awful so I got the dark blue instead. We currently have "capuccino beige" because we got it nearly new so that was just the colour and we weren't going to change it. Now that I think about it most of my neighbours are dark grey or black

I’ve chosen black since about 2005. Up till then in about 20 years of driving I’d only ever had red white or blue. My next car will be black too.

Hadn't you noticed OP, grey has been the colour of choice for everything recently. I personally can't stand it and every time I see another fence painted grey I want to shout, so what colour are you painting over the primer?

Interestingly, grey colours are the last colour the human eye recognises, and more likely to be in an accident because at first glance, just not as noticeable as a red or yellow car.

I've got a red jeep, after a red mini and bright yellow Alfa. The car salesman tried to talk me out of that because of resale but he was talking bollocks. It was the sheer unreliability of the Alfa that affects it's value not the colour.

Ignore the haters - let them enjoy their monochrome existence and tell them to keep their negative opinions to themselves.

I think it depends on your budget and whether you buy new. I always buy older cars and you just end up with whatever colour the car happens to be! My current car is bright royal blue and I love it. It's always easy to spot where you've parked!

Ours is red.

The one before it was lime green.

With racing stripes... Which seemed quite unnecessary for the shitty 1 litre engine.

We buy second hand though.

I've always had red cars 🚗 never had an issue!

Do people really give so much thought to the colour of cars? Its not something I really notice. I wouldn't think 'red car...definite midlife crisis!' Ours is white but that's just because it was the one that was available that suited our needs at the time. We've had black, silver and blue in the past.

So many great posts apologies not replying to each one, but thanks to folk who explained about the "white/black is free, a colour is £1000 extra".

That makes a lot of sense - I guess you'd have to feel strongly about a colour in order to pay a significant amount of the sticker price to get it.

It's just a shame as I'm pretty sure I remember a fair few "ordinary" cars (not denigrating just saying) as a child which were red, navy blue, green, lots of Golfs and Escorts and the like, plenty of colour.

I remember when I was a kid and we used to comment when we saw orange, pink or purple cars because every other colour was commonplace. Now anything that's an actual colour stands out.

Down with conformity!