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 noticed this about two years ago. I read somewhere that the most popular colour for new cars was white,so just as a matter of interest,I started looking whilst I was out and about to see if this was true. What I DID notice was that a very large proportion of cars seem to be grey or silver,closely followed by black or white. I rarely see red,blue,green or any other colours nowadays.

I'm really fussy with car colours and struggled when buying second hand. I've had red, green, silver etc but really love my black car. I like white cars too but it doesn't suit all models.
I'm not being entirely serious here but a really loud car makes me think the owner is a bit 'look at me'. Same with personalized plates, I hate them.
A dealer called me fussy once when I wouldn't consider a car that was literally shit brown. It was awful! 😄

Being more serious, I deliberately chose a car that was popular in a common colour because I use my car for work and don't want it to be recognised out and about at weekends etc. My friend in a similar job has a distinctive car in an unusual colour and I can spot her ages away when I pass her. She regrets her choice and wishes she'd bought something that fades into the background more.

I get 2nd hand so not much choice but I would love a red car or a mint green fiat

I'm not being entirely serious here but a really loud car makes me think the owner is a bit 'look at me'

I’m the opposite I associate white cars with long nails, bleached hair and sports gear in a look at me fashion accessory!

Loud cars suggest an individual who doesn’t give a monkeys about following the crowd.

Mine is Red. Absolutely love red cars. Mine is certainly a head turner amongst the sea of Grey, White, Black in our close.

Oddly I've noted recently some hideous paint jobs on cars, a tan colour with reddish round the edges stands out for all the wrong reasons, can't recall the model. Personally, I could never drive a red car but years ago we had a citrus yellow Saab, I think it's a matter of trends.

FYI the default colour on the VW UP! is a bright teal blue.
My nosy neighbour has a weird orange car...

My car is loud because it's broken, this is what I assume first when I heard a loud car.

I think nowadays a lot of second hand cars have formerly been company cars and therefore often a “sleek corporate colour”, or chosen as a cheaper option.

My husband has 2 black cars , one a hobby car that he searched for years for and ended up buying in the right price range. He just had to accept black as that was what it was. I suspect he would’ve preferred something more unique. The other car which is his main car was previously a corporate vehicle.

I really wanted a lovely deep blue car at my last change and had the make and model picked. Drove around looking at a few but they all had something wrong .. bad paint job, horrible alloys , or mechanical issues.
So my brother found me one in grey that was perfect otherwise... so now I have a grey car!!

I remember as a young person white cars were so popular that I vowed never to buy one as to me it seemed so common. Then white cars disappeared for years in favour of silver which seemed to flood the market. It was a novelty then but now I see silver as plain and boring

I’ve never heard of people being mean about other people’s car colour choices though? Maybe it’s a local thing where you are. Where I am people do have many other colours and we often comment on how we love or don’t like the colour but only as personal choice not as a personal insult to the driver.
Go get your red car!!

If you want a nice colour, generally it’s a good grand or so extra! New cars are expensive enough without voluntarily adding more. So they all have black or white, non metallic (because that’s also extra! Everything costs extra!)