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?

My first car was a silvery grey, second one was a dark grey and the last two have been white because it was the free colour. My next car will probably be white too.

In my street there is a mix of black, dark blue, red, silver/Grey and white.

Agree totally, OP. I bought a new (to me) car last year. My old car was a really bright blue and I wanted something similar. Any bright colour would do! The only cars I could find at the right price range were black, white or dark grey. I ended up with white, which I really didn't want (driving miles daily on rural roads it's a permament mucky brown now anyway). Bring back colours, I say.

Mine is china blue which was one of the free colours so I'm not convinced about the lack of choice.

Next door's daughter's is an ancient red Clio which is jolly but badly faded.

A friend picked us up from Gatwick in her black BMW. It took us over an hour to find it in the car park in a sea of black BMW's not helped by looking in the wrong car park!

My car is red, not had anyone spitting on it. What kind of people are these that think a red car is a mid life crisis car?

Having a red car though doesn't mean you're easier to spot. I still have people almost hitting me because apparently, a bright red car is invisible.

A lot of manufacturers have white as the 'base' colour, the other colours you have to pay for which explains why a lot of cars are white especially if leased as it can be an extra £20/£30+ for other colours per month. Solid colours do tend to be less than metallic colours too.

Metallic grey cars don't show the dirt, so need less cleaning! I have a grey people carrier, it's very boring and similar are used as minicabs a lot.

I'll never have a black car again, it always looked filthy a day after a clean.

I just love brightly coloured cars, but have ended up with a white one as I can't really justify the extra cost ☹️

My dream car would be turquoise blue or burnt orange.

I too miss the days when cars were a variety of colours

I remember when all shades of every colour red, blue, gold, green, silver, orange, purple,yellow etc were everywhere, and in gloss, matt and sparkly finishes loved it !

The only black cars used to be taxis or funeral cars, and most of the white ones were wedding cars, and the only grey ones were still in primer ! ( the silver ones were all sparkly gloss finishes)

I suspect remembering this just makes me old , but I'm damn glad I didn't grow up in this monochrome world though

I do wonder why car manufacturers make dung coloured cars and I'm not sure about the custard yellow either.

My 3 and 6 year old like playing car rainbow (where you have to bet each other to find a car of each colour) whenever we go anywhere or go for a walk they share your dislike of grey, black or white cars (or dirty cloud cars according to my preschooler)

Purple or pink cars on the way somewhere have turned into a good omen.

I suspect remembering this just makes me old

If you were really old, you would remember when Fords only came in black.

Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.

Henry Ford 1909

Our current car is metallic burnt orange. (it looks much better than it sounds, honestly.)
We though no one else would have one but the first time we went out in it we met an identical one coming the other way

Is it not more about cost of colour and leasing? Silver and white seem to be readily available.

My car is silver - I'd have liked something more fun but was buying nearly new so choice was limited by make/model, budget and mileage.

I don't think I'd want a red one, but a nice midnight blue would have been my choice.

Is it not more about cost of colour and leasing? Silver and white seem to be readily available.

Surely even this will depend somewhat on what customers want or at least tolerate though? Black, grey, and white are boring but I think not many people will dislike it strongly. Whereas if you had to pay an extra £1000 to get the car not in poo brown or neon green, you might well not get that car at all.

Maybe it's an age thing? Most people I know (that I've spoken about cars with, anyway!) would only buy a black, white or grey car - I know someone who has an aubergine coloured Fiat 500 which is cute but it's like a novelty colour for a novelty car (in their words!). The only person I know with a colourful car drives a big bright yellow Mustang, and they deliberately got it in yellow so 'everyone could see it', which I suspect might be the attitude behind someone telling you buying a sporty car in a bright colour might draw a few less-than-positive responses, sort of like showing off?

I'm looking for my next car at the moment and although I have a weird desire to have a dark green car, it only comes in black white or red. So black it is (I can't be bothered cleaning a white one all the time!).

Ive had a silver one for 15 years so am not part of a current trend!

But i was buying new and wasnt prepared to pay more for a fancy colour which narrowed things down, remove the onesnI didnt like and that left silver!!

I think monochrome is definitely the in thing now. On our estate white cars are very popular, specifically German ones! We were fortunate enough to be able to buy a brand new car recently so picked blue (and it’s a bright blue specific to that car make), and my last car was red.

Buy a car in the colour you like and enjoy who cares if other people like it!

I have no idea where it originated but my DC play the 'yellow car' game when we're on road trips - the aim is to spot the yellow car first, shout "yellow car" and punch the other person in the arm before they can spot it. The excitement levels that build when a couple of yellow cars are seen feels like Christmas.

I bought a year-old Fiesta in Bahia Mint Green. I'd been looking online for that colour with the spec I wanted and up it popped! I love it and had loads of people comment (favourably) on the colour. I can always find it in a car park in the sea of monochrome.

I noticed this a good ten years ago. I was waiting for a friend who was driving a green car. Practically every car I saw was grey or black. Weird.

We've got a red car and a black car. I'd say red is a very common colour choice

The majority of our cars have been navy blue but my favourite was British Racing Green (painted the front door and garage door to match...) Current one is grey as that was all the garage had at the time. However there are a lot of bright red fiat 500s around and a handful of the vintage Nissans in pink or baby blue which are always very cute.

So true. Here in the US it’s the same. New cars tend not to be factory ordered here, you buy something on the lot or in their pipeline. When I bought my last car a lot of salesmen were stumped because I wouldn’t buy black or white or a black interior. White in particular was a dealbreaker, and I wanted a light interior.

I won out in the end though - my car is fire engine red. It’s cream inside.

I can’t believe people have so little going on in their lives that they think “you won’t get let out at junctions because your car is red” is an acceptable adult conversation topic.

(I buy cars based on price and having the features I want - this one is dark red with matching interiors but it is second hand!)