Why are all car paint colors so boring?

[Rogue Synapse]

This is not unique to Tesla. Paint colors have gotten so boring. I've been more attuned to colors ever since starting to seriously shop for a Model S. This made me take notice that on my drive to work today, other than my car, virtually every car I saw had absolutely no color. Every car was painted somewhere on the spectrum of white, silver, gray, or black. Ok, maybe there was a beige or tan car (Tesla equivalent: Titanium Metallic) thrown in there, but that's not exactly adding much of a splash. Usually you'll see at least a red vehicle around, but not this morning. Not even a lime green Kia Soul to be seen.

When I thought about it for a while, it was pretty depressing. Think about color video footage from the 50s and 60s. Those ads or documentaries with cars of every color cruising down the Highway of the Future - coral pink, electric blue, pea green, pastel yellow - visually, it was just so much more interesting and personal. Now, car colors are a dystopian drabscape. Even the rare colors offered are dull - the blue, brown, and green choices offered by Tesla have been very nice, but they're each muted and bland.

Even my current bright blue Mercedes EV isn't very imaginative, but at least it's easy to find in a parking lot. I know the aftermarket wraps are a way to fix this problem, but I really don't want to deal with that.

Why does everyone prefer such conservative colors?

 

[SeminoleFSU]

I could be wrong but I think this boils down to profitability. Tesla is having to pinch every penny to stay in the black (no pun intended) and in order to do that they have to limit the choices for inventory reasons. For example, I think the bumpers (plastic pieces) might be pre-colored... so if you want to have enough parts inventory for cars as they inevitably are needed (eg. when a car gets in a wreck) you only have so much space to keep so many different colors of bumpers in stock ready for a body shop to request.
That's one angle. I think the other angle is just efficiencies of the line... I've read several times that the paint area was where the line got really backed up (could have been a little undersized for the numbers of cars they were trying to run through there) and so one easy way to get more volume out of the paint area of the line was to reduce the number of colors so that there would be less downtime needed to change from one color to the next...
These are just guesses on my part so don't take it as gospel. I think your best bet is to wrap if you want something unique. Order a black car and put the saved $$ towards a full wrap.

 

[aerodyne]

Perhaps that is why Wraps are so popular...

However, boring white paint lasts forever.

 

[Rogue Synapse]

But it’s not just Tesla (granted, Tesla’s color palette is the most limited!) - all car makers use mostly boring paint colors. It can’t be just about durability of the paint. In the end, it’s got to be about customer preference, which colors wind up selling. So that boils down to most people just liking generic, blah colors. Or just not caring about the color at all, I guess.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

But it’s not just Tesla (granted, Tesla’s color palette is the most limited!) - all car makers use mostly boring paint colors. It can’t be just about durability of the paint. In the end, it’s got to be about customer preference, which colors wind up selling. So that boils down to most people just liking generic, blah colors. Or just not caring about the color at all, I guess.

Because color isn't that important.
The lime green people will pay for a wrap or respray.

 

[IchDochNicht]

Most people are neither risk takers, not do they want to stand out. Unless they are reasonably independent in both their thinking and their wealth.

Drive through any middle class neighborhood and look at the houses and cars parked there. With small variations they are all very similar. If you change the look of your house, or over-improve it, you get penalized when you sell it. People want to keep everything as is, drag everyone down to the common denominator. Can't have your neighbor have a super modern house that makes yours look outdated - right?

Same with cars - the more "risky" your color scheme, the less money you get upon resale. When I shopped for a Telsa, I found many red ones for lower prices than grey, black and white.

Another factor may be recognition by cops or road ragers.

 

[dethman]

The answer is simple. Because the vast majority of people want a black, silver, gray, or white car.

 

[mrbulk]

To me it depends on the car’s shape and angles. Certain body lines are accentuated by certain colors and finishes (metallic, pearl, etc.) while the same treatment on another type of body design may not.

 

[Minne]

green please.

 

[bart_dood]

I've been asking myself that recently and I think I have a plausible theory...

Its because the majority of people don't "own" a car anymore, they just rent it. Via loan/lease or whatever they only use the car for a while before it goes somewhere else.

Now if you don't actually own the car or plan on having it long why get it in a different color? if you get it in something someone else won't like whoever you hand it over to will have a harder time selling it or leasing it to someone else. That means residuals take a hit.

Hence like many things in the modern world they aren't designed to excite anyone, they are designed to offend the least amount of people possible...

Sad but a reflection of our throw away rent type society

 

[Cheburashka]

Not all car manufacturers are this boring.

GM has some interesting colors and you don't even have to pay extra for them.

My Spark EV is lime green.

The Bolt comes in some cool colors such as orange, highlighter green, asphalt grey.

Tesla used to have some interesting colors like the titanium or the green but they've all been discontinued.

 

[zer0cool]

Because very few people actually would buy cars with so called "cool" colors.

Car companies make cars to sell and make money. If there really were a color cooler than black, it would have been found a long time ago and be on many cars. However almost by definition that color would also be "boring" since you are basically defining boring by how popular the paint color is - the more popular a color, the more boring. The fact is most people prefer their cars some shade of black, white, grey or silver.

 

[ahkahn]

What they all said. There are colors that sell, and colors that look pretty, but don't sell.

You also have to worry about reselling the car. Not many men would want to buy a purple car (I actually own one), nor would many people want to buy a used poop brown car. I remember my grandma had an old yellow Cadillac (see below)... who would want that color?!?!

Color trends also change. Remember the teal cars of the 90's? How about the maroon cars of the 80's? Grey, black, and white never go out of style.

This is what happens when car manufacturers try to venture outside of the standard colors:

 

[roblab]

This is not unique to Tesla.

Car companies paint cars to sell, and people only buy certain colors. Simple as that. With a dozen colors, you will sell a few profitably. When I wanted a good looking brown, I had it painted. For a bunch of money.

White: 23%
Silver: 18%
Black: 12.5%
Blue: 11.5%
Gray: 7.5%
Red: 7%
Green: 7%
Brown: 5%
and less and less and less until it's not worth the time to clean out the paint sprayers. It's not a conspiracy to only sell certain colors, it's what people buy.
And of course it's what Tesla can afford to paint. They've chosen 5 colors. Personally, I'd rather Tesla were in business for a bunch more years, rather that spending diddly bits here and there to satisfy someone who wants paint that turns from gold to green depending on how you stand. They can repaint.

 

[brkaus]

Why does everyone prefer such conservative colors?

This was actually the ops question. Not about manufacturer. I believe op acknowledged companies are making what people buy.

I for one prefer to not stand out too much.

If there was more variety on the streets, I’d go for it. But I don’t want to have the car that the cops pick on or I cannot sell (although I tend to hold a long time so this doesn’t matter much).

 

[ucmndd]

The answer is simple. Because the vast majority of people want a black, silver, gray, or white car.

I think it’s slightly different than that, but with an important distinction. Most people will *accept* a black, silver, gray, or white car so these are easy colors for manufacturers to standardize on, satisfying most while keeping options limited. I think people often WANT more choice, but every additional option increases complexity and cost for manufacturers.

 

[tranzndance]

I used to have a dark green car, a silver one, and now a red one. Did I change as a person or did the colors just work out better based on the car, or what was available?

 

[sillydriver]

There's always Bentley, Aston Martin or Lamborghini. But even Bentley has toned down a bit. They used to have a gorgeous silver - pale green blend, but it's been discontinued. I'm not sure whether this is because the cost of offering more colors detracts very little from margins at the price points of these cars (and the market actually bears large upcharges for come colors), or 2) people who buy these brands don't want to blend in. My own MS is red, and I like distinctive colors.

 

[timk225]

I actually liked the brown that Tesla used to have on the Model S.

 

[commasign]

why did they cancel silver?