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?

On my street they seem to have all different coloured cars, just looking out of my window i can see, bright blue, white, bright red, silver, dark blue, and on my drive my 2 black cars! But both my cars were second hand and the only colour they had.

Used to have a blue Subaru with Gold wheels as snowybean mentioned, loved the blue of the Subaru, not too dark and not too light.

I'm planning on getting my car wrapped in the 3M psychedelic holographic wrap as soon as I can afford it because I LOVE colourful things. My neighbours will hate me as they have a very neutral, monochrome palate in their cars, houses and gardens.

Spotting diff colour cars is how I practiced colours with my toddler on our walks lol. Our neighbours have a bright orange bmw and over the road have a bright blue car, the rest are black/grey. SIL has a purple car that she got second hand and chose because it was purple lol.

Also on long motorway journeys with the kids we count how many cars of each colour we see, extra points for bright/unusual colours but agree most are grey/silver, black or white these days.

We have a bright blue car and an orange one

For anyone who does fancy a change in car colour, consider a wrap. They are about 1-3k depending on the colour and car size, do not have to be declared as a colour change and there are some lush colours.

Bonus is they protect your paintwork from fading, chips etc and when you want to sell, just get it peeled off and you have nice shiny paint underneath.

Just make sure you go to reputable place as they do use razor blades and you don't want your car scratched.

I must be very unobservant as I hadn’t noticed this at all, but a glance out the window shows a street of monochrome cars - and ours, which is blue. I guess I’m out of step with fashion!

Growing up I always wanted a bright red car. Maybe one day.

As an owner of a yellow and now orange car....I hear you

It cost an extra £750 to have an orange car but the colour is so lovely. I even got matching orange seats

I have a purple Citeron Cactus - bought more than colour and asthetics more than anything else.

My lease car is grey. The options were really boring, grey, black, silver and one blue.

My other car that I own is a gorgeous bright blue Skoda. Love it.

I'm not sure about monochrome, but I remember when choosing a company car asked to avoid red, as the police allegedly would stop you more often.

I've had a gunmetal grey car in the past, so not fundamentally opposed, but my current cars are a deep metallic red (Galaxy) and china blue (Mini convertible).

Yes, I am a grown up LOL, but I think 'fun' cars like the Mini, Fiat 500 etc. should be in fun colours - I can never understand why people buy the i.e. beige 500s I see.

Anyway, topical post for me - was driving behind a small 'flat grey' something or other down a tree shaded road yesterday and commented to my passengers that it was virtually disappearing in to the tarmac - must surely be one of the least safe colours?

We actually have a bright yellow car!
Certainly stands out

My cars have been: blue, red, orange and currently red.

Husband has a black car but the only other colour option on the specific model he wanted was metallic grey. It isn't a problem to find in car parks as he always parks as far away from any other cars as possible.

I know where you're coming from. I noticed the other day that most of the cars on our estate seem to be 'boring'. White, black, grey, silver, dark blue... In fact, next door have three cars - one white, one black and one very dark blue.

There are a couple of brighter blue cars within sight on the estate, one next door to us (the other direction to the house with three cars.) When she came home the other day and was manoeuvring to put it on the driveway I was outside and realised how noticeable it was because most of the others are so bland, that's when I noticed the lack of colour in the local cars. Was nice to see a bit of colour out there.

We've had: a red car, then metallic red, purple, then went to people carrier sized when pregnant again with a different red colour, silver, green, blue, (then borrowed a gold car for a couple of months) and now a lilac\silver car - doesn't look silver\doesn't look lilac - different enough to not be 'boring'. The only not-so-noticable colour we've had was silver.

Never had any problems from other people over the colours though. If we did I'd just ignore it and tell them to get a life if they went on about it.

I like black or white. White is clean, black is mean.

Hate gunmetal grey. Volkswagen Group do a nano grey which I think looks fantastic!

A lot of people lease now and having an additional extra colour option. Other than the basic colours bumps the price up. I can never justify in my head spending an extra £20 a month to have a different colour.

@Soubriquet

We actually have a bright yellow car! Certainly stands out

Yellow cars are 2 points in the car spotting game we play.

Got the game from another family, it's daft and weird. Object is to have the most points by the end of the journey. 1 point for a mini, 2 points for yellow car (not lorries or vans) and 3 points for a Stobart lorry. A yellow mini would count as 3 points.

@PhoneLock

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

Thankfull, I'm not quite THAT old

@Didyousaynutella that's true. However, most good lease companies will want you to take metallic paint and give you an improved residual value if you take it so it usually will save you a quid or two. Massive savings 😂

We also drop it for shit colours.

Anyone else not care what colour their car is as long as it goes?

Ours is red. Was £3000 cheaper in red, which made the decision easy. we would have preferred green, but not if we have to pay!

I bought a red car for exactly this reason!
I have to say over the last 9 months I’m seeing more and more red cars and when I went to the office recently, most cars were red! (Not many people there at the moment so not a true reflection of colours but was a surprise!)

I had to laugh and thought of this thread when I went shopping earlier. Saw a bright pink large Range Rover.

Honestly? We have grey cars because I’m a lazy cow with a back problem who doesn’t wash cars and lacks the patience to wait at a car wash for someone else to do it for me. My husband wont wash the cars every week so gunmetal grey suits best.

I work around industrial sites that chuck out ash and pollution so black, white, coloured etc cars look rank within a day and I don’t like it to look obviously like my car is filthy.

Literally couldn’t give the tiniest shit what colour my car is. But then I’m not a car person. The car is a means of getting from A to B. I think some people appreciate the aesthetics of cars and their mechanics. I literally couldn’t care less.