When did colour fall out of fashion?

[Junkman]

1950s:

 

1960s:

 

1970s:

 

1980s:

 

Today:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[spike60]

Silver seems to be a German thing, kinda their version of BRG and seems to have got more popular as German cars have. I have 3 cars, all German, all silver, they do go together a bit too often. I do not much like silver cars.

[Junkman]

1975:

 

2015:

[Uncle Jimmy]

Thank fuck normal service has resumed...

Plenty of bright colours around in the late 90s and a few (think Fiat 500) around now but yes it is all very 'teutonic silver' or black/white atm.

[forddeliveryboy]

Radiation - first Sellafield/Windscale disaster, then Chernob, now Fukushima. It destroys all colour and is cumulative. Rather like the trees which have been irradiated, modern car bodies don't decay as they once did, even though the internals are fubar/of no use.

 

Ironic the Germans have the sense to have ditched nuclear power, even though they've invited many extremists for tea.

 

As Nibblet points out, it seems the Italians have escaped the worst of this colourless landscape. 

 

 

 

It's clear why 1986 was the beginning of the end of some European civilisation.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

 

 

 

I'm doing my bit to brighten up the streets.

2 red Mercs

1 blue Merc

1 red BMW

1 blue Land Rover

1 gold BMW

1 red Seat

Must try harder with

1 white Fiat

1 silver Peugeot

1 white Jag

[Dick Cheeseburger]

I think the Fart 500s and Sitroen DeeEss things have tried to bring back bright colours. They look shit though.

[chaseracer]

I had a German car not so long ago.  It was silver.  Sorry.

 

All the Citroens currently resident at Chaseracer Towers are varying shades of blue, though the 205 is a kind of 'distressed' blanc paysan...

[doug]

I had a German car not so long ago.  It was silver.  Sorry.

 

 

Still alive and kicking!!

 

Needs a wee hoover out though.

[rml2345]

Those Citroën Cacti things appear to be in colour as well and one of our neighbours has a copper coloured Quashsquash thing but yes, it's a bit dull on the new car front otherwise.

Xantia is silver... Should I paint it day glow orange?

[chaseracer]

You need to ask?

[bub2006]

My a4 is dark green,darker green,rust,duct tape and paint run.

[inconsistant]

The exact moment this started was in 1996 when Audi entered the silver A4 in the BTCC.

[STUNO]

My father bought the ultimate colour car in 1956.

Try a new Mk2 Zephyr in a fairly bright green although it was also a dark(ish) shade. Then mother got involved. the lower flanks were painted in a very bright PINK. He never lost that in a car park. Two or three others copied it later though.All went downhill from there, its replacement in 1958 was much more sedate, that was Yellow, then the next in 1961 was a powder Blue shade. That was replaced in 1963 by a Mk3 in a beautiful shade of White. however things looked up in 1965 when the wreck of the Zephyr was traded for a hillman Super Minx in blue with a white side flash. Down again in 1969 to a Hunter in the old White. That did not get wrecked and lasted till 1975 when the Japanese invasion had started and a Datsun 180B came in Red, Followed in 1979 by a toyota Cressida in the latest colour, Metallic Brown. that lasted a few years until in 1982 mother decided to park it on the railway lines, and got out , leaving it to it's fate. Replacement was another Cressida in Dark Blue metallic. He was getting old and quite ill over the next few years, so in 1989 a Toyota Corona (Carina to Europe) hatchback with a performance and handling pack came onto the scene. He was too ill to collect it from the dealer so i had the pleasure of collecting a car in a pleasant metallic light Green colour and driving from there to the big city to get him from the big city hospital and deliver him home. That outlived him, but mother was never happy driving it so only kept it a short while.

 

 

Edit. the 1963 Zephyr was driven at speed up the rear of a Morris 12 that was parked in the centre of the highway at night. It was repaired, And a week after it was back home was demolished in a highway speed head on with a 1950 ish chevrolet. That's when it was got rid of. but it was repaired again. I believe it was then finally destroyed after an incident with a tractor and hay rake. 

The 1979 Cressida was not hit by a train. Most of the underside was removed in the parking exercise.

[Junkman]

The Junkparents always bought their cars new.

 

Their very first car was comme ca:

 

Then the Junkfather bought his first R16, which was like this:

 

His second one was Gendermerie bleu:

 

 

Once they became available in "safety colours", he always bought his R16s in those.
I think they even cost extra, but not as much as metallics.

 

He had a TL like this:

 

Followed by a TS like this:

That one was t-boned by a nun who ran a red light with her bright yellow VW 1600 TL.
So he bought another new one exactly like it. Junkfather: Big mistake! Nobody realised that I had a brand new car.
Should have bought the orange one.

 

Then he had a short intermezzo with a leaky French deity like this:

Junkmother hated it, because "it looks like a French living room."
I hated it, because I had to puke in it the moment it was in motion.

 

So after only one year, Junkfather traded it for the ultimate - a TX like this:

 

Junkmama bought a new R4 every year while she ran a fashion house, so she must have had at least 20 of them, not counting
the company vans of which she usually had two to three, but those weren't changed on an annual basis.
She always bought her personal 'Trelle after the annual fashion show in Paris, straight from the Renault show room floor on the
Champs Elysees. It always was some special/designer edition made in commemoration of the fashion show.

So you can imagine that we had quite some whacky ones during my formative years. The one I remember most vividly was a
piglet pink one with mauve seats and the Quillery steering wheel.

I only found this one pic on the interweb. It must be the same colour, if my memory serves me right:

 

 

Of course hers was brand new and still had the bonnet with the oval grille.

 

And believe you me, among retinamordant yellow Opels, thoothache green Fords and kickintheballs orange BMWs,
my parents' cars were actually still quite subdued.
 

[Junkman]

Speaking of thoothache green Fords, this was the Granada in the German counterpiece to the Sweeney:

 

 

However, it was kind of dull compared with this:

[Asimo]

Colours are out of fashion partly because buyers are scared of being told

"this colour isn't popular so it's only worth £x" at trade in time.

 

And because modern styling is mostly not confident enough to suit strong colours.

[cort16]

White is quite often the free colour when you buy a new car. Any fleet stuff is bought in retail silver for residuals.

 

I have noticed 2 tone is becoming more popular in new cars . No factory tide lines yet unfortunately

[chaseracer]

My a4 is dark green,darker green,rust, duct tape and paint run.

 

That repair is UNDETECTABLE, sir!

 

[HillmanImp]

My mate and I were driving through Belgium in 2010 and noticed that ALL the cars were monochrome.

 

It was bad over here but it was much worse over there.

 

The trend continued into Germany.

 

Even cars with 'colour' are only a tint added to grey.

 

Colour seems to be coming back now though with Autoshite Brown suddenly appearing on a few cars. It looks fugging awful so am not sure if its an improvement or not.

[danthecapriman]

The 70's were the best IMO. Every car manufacturer offered paint and interior colours in loud tasteless shades.

 

My Mercury is a bright green, green vinyl roof and metallic green interior! Stands out a mile off and looks even nicer when the sun is on it, makes it really bright.

 

[chaseracer]

Colours are out of fashion partly because buyers are scared of being told

"this colour isn't popular so it's only worth £x" at trade in time.

 

 

And because modern styling is mostly not confident enough to suit strong colours.

 

 

[chaseracer]

[AMC Rebel]

Colours are out of fashion partly because buyers are scared of being told

"this colour isn't popular so it's only worth £x" at trade in time.

 

And because modern styling is mostly not confident enough to suit strong colours.

This - I noticed that during the period when white suddenly dropped out of fashion the Police were ordering their cars in resale silver.

 

I'm glad white is back because I've always liked it.

 

Since I don't get to specify - I have never and would never buy a new car - I just have to take what's around.  So far I've had -

 

Red 3 

White 5

Blue 8

Green 2

Black 1

Dark grey that everyone thought was Black 1

Brown 2

Silver/grey 3 

Two tone blue/white 1

 

Yellow car is on my bucket list, but the right one never turns up

[DVee8]

The same time we had to pay for fucking paint,what is that all about? Can I have my new car naked then? Fuckin £500-£800 sovs for paint. They all come down the same production lines.

[cort16]

And they charge 600 quid to deliver the car from the factory to the dealership . Never really understood that. If I go in and buy a telly the don't charge me for the cost of shipping it from the factory to the shop. I don't know why they even declare it, it's not like you can go and get it from the docks and drive it home .

[For Fiats Sake]

It's bollocks about that "resaleable colours", I've never had a dealer allowing me less than the book price because of the colour.

Private sales maybe a different matter.

Barbie pink cars should have a special "cunt" tax imho.

 

[Richard]

And they charge 600 quid to deliver the car from the factory to the dealership . Never really understood that. If I go in and buy a telly the don't charge me for the cost of shipping it from the factory to the shop. I don't know why they even declare it, it's not like you can go and get it from the docks and drive it home .

 

I thought they had stopped doing that years ago, they probably did but started again.

 

I can remember reading about it in Motor magazine about 30 years ago. There were people getting humped for delivery, and it was quite a lot, when they could literally see the factory (remember them?) from their house. At the time the only car you could drive away for the screen price was a Lada.

[cort16]

I was looking at it for something with related the other day . £610 delivery for a Peugeot 508

[Eddie Honda]

I thought they had stopped doing that years ago, they probably did but started again.

The only company I remember bragging about not doing so was Daewoo, back when they launched in the UK.

 

 

Anyway, how do Traffic Plod play snooker with so few red cars around?