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?

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.

So you only want confirmatory responses then? In that case you might be right.

We have a white one and a yellow one, both just happened to be the best models available 2and hand at the time. But our street has a thing about little yellow cars. There are 5 different ones.

Looking out at the neighbours I can see from here I can see 2 red, 2 grey, 2 green and our two. So maybe we're bucking the trend or there's just some confirmation bias about making you think there are fewer coloured ones about.

@ArriettyJones

Nope I didn't say that - plenty of folk have said they have red cars etc, it's nice to hear what people choose. That's the premise of my topic.

I was just looking to ward off the legions of posters who often come on a thread about an assumption, and say "hang on - that doesn't include me!"

We've got a blue car - we did want the purple one but there was bone for sale within a 4hr radius when we bought it.

My mum has just bought a dark blue car, she wasn't fussy about the colour, except it wasn't allowed to be red. Apparently they are in more crashes (I don't know, I wasn't listening)

My friend has an orange car, she hates it, but it was the cheapest colour.

Most people on my street have black or grey cars.

I've been commenting on this to my DC recently,it's soooo dreary.
But I grew up in the 70s,decor was more colourful as well.
When I bought my first car I had a choice of about 7? colours - and black and metallic which you paid extra for.
So cars used to come in light blue,dark blue,racing green,lime green,yellow,orange,brown,black,white grey,silver,gold,and variation on the above.When did we start wanting everything to be black/white/grey?
Though in fairness if I lookout of the window I can see one yellow car amongst the black/ dark grey/silver mass

I was just looking to ward off the legions of posters who often come on a thread about an assumption, and say "hang on - that doesn't include me!"

If there are legions of posters your hypothesis doesn’t apply to, then maybe your hypothesis is flawed? Or specific to your workplace or street and not a national thing at all?

Mine is bright cyan blue. Makes i easy to find in the car park! It does turn heads and I get people commenting on it positively a lot (it's a C-HR so also a bit funky looking). The last one was lipstick red, I loved that too.

I think colours are on their way back in though. We’ve just bought a red SUV and it’s brand new so we had the choice. We tend to subconsciously follow fashions before we’re even aware they’re fashions 😂 so based on my sample of 1, I think grey is on its way out! Obviously, people tend to keep their cars for a few years so it’ll take a while for the sea of grey to be replaced.

Hopefully the trend for interiors in grey will follow suit! Sometimes when I'm browsing Rightmove I think the photos have been done in black and white

Did no one ever play 'yellow car' with their siblings in the back seats when you were children? Just me?

I couldn't care less about colours of other people's cars OP. I can't say I've ever given it much thought.

Looking out on our shared parking area though, you have two silver (ours, both bought second hand so we got what we got I think they're boring coloured!) two white and one black. So monochrome certainly seems to be the trend here.

Yeah, it true in my experience. It's the Henry Ford Model T, 'Any colour you want as long as it's black' because mass production and efficiency. It makes sense to offer a few, generic, inoffensive colours. But it means the people who would have picked a bright colour song because they don't care enough to spend extra on it. And it can be such a pain to find a car that ticks all the boxes second hand that people compromise on colour as it's just not a priority.

I hadn’t actually noticed this! Now that it has been mentioned I think you are right! My car is dark blue, previous 2 cars silver and green. I’ve also had red and white cars. If I had a choice I’d go red or another bright colour. I buy 2nd hand though so the colour is whatever is available for the make/model I want. DH has a dark grey colour and usually always buys some form of blue.

I agree OP. We sold our old blue car which was such an unusual blue colour (Mini horizon blue) for a regular grey. The car is newer and better of course but it’s not quite as nice to look at.

It all depends on what suits the car I think. For example, big cars tend to look crap in Dog Knob Red(DKR).

I think you can get a Fiat 500 in pretty much any colour, but all our recent ones have been red. Secondhand, but red.

Our car is bright blue. Easy to find when I've forgotten where I parked. Didn't buy it because of the colour, just because it was an absolute bargain.

Red and blue used to be cheap! My dad had new cars each year with work and they'd only let him have red or blue as they were the cheaper colours.
I guess it's just what is in? Current car I have is dark grey, before that is bright blue.
I'm about to buy a gold car though!

I always get second hand so go for what car I want and mileage etc, not the colour.
Personally I like dark grey as it doesn't show dust or dirt, rarely have to wash it!

I would much prefer a red or blue car but when you buy second hand you are limited to what is available and unfortunately the majority of cars available are black, white or grey!

I am determined that my next car will not be monochrome

I'm currently car shopping, I want red! But looking out the window I can see white, grey and black.

Ps I've had red cars for the last 17 years so not a midlife crisis!

I noticed this in the US about 5 years ago and now it’s spread over here. I do think it’s a ‘fashion’ thing, just as different car shapes and styles go in and out of fashion so do colours.

Our last 3 cars have been white, black and grey so we are part of this ‘trend’!

One day it’ll go back the other way.

I actively avoid red cars as my parent used to buy red cars mainly Volvos and they faded badly and went patchy, they then progressed to silver cars which I also dislike but I tend to only buy black cars as I love a shiny black car but currently have a white one but that is because it is a car that I always associated with white and so wanted a white one.

I've only ever owned red cars 🤷‍♀️

I would encourage people buying new cars to go for colours because I buy second hand and I'm getting bored of silver

I bought a yellow car quite deliberately. I can never remember where I’ve parked the fucking thing and didn’t fancy mulching up and down roads and multi-story car parks looking for a black needle in a haystack.

Particularly loathe grey cars which merge into the tarmac in a poor light.