Why is Black the least popular color?

[iluvmacs]

Egads, I would never get a black car. Nor white, but black would be worse. They both are dirty all the time. Black gets super hot. Both are less visible on the road (thinking safety here). Both are totally uninteresting to me. I want actual colors. Tesla's red is beautiful, and the current blue is also excellent, but that's where it ends. They need more actual colors. Where's my purple Model 3??

 

[Probllama]

Black is hard to keep clean but it's arguably the most beautiful color on a clean car.

Only 14.4% of M3s on Troy's survey are black. In the bay area, there seems to be even fewer black M3s on the road. I see a larger proportion of non-Tesla cars in black.

I get that people have the money to personalize their car a bit. But $1500+ is way overpriced. Lexus offers colors for free. BMW and Audi charge $550 and $600 more, respectively.

On the bright side, you get exercise washing your car and it's the best way to inspect for dings. It just takes me an extra hour every 2 - 3 weeks. I'm sure I'll spend less time washing during the summer.

The only other downside is that black is hotter under the sun. But that's a lot less of an issue since you can pre-cool the car.

Personally, I skipped the colors and fancy rims and bought FSD instead.

My thoughts exactly, if color didn't command a price premium I would understand black being not very popular due to reasons already listed on the topic but for an at least $1500 discount compared to all other color options black should have a higher take rate in my opinion.

 

[SigNC]

Personally I'd rather not rely on having to remember to pre-cool every single time in these hot Texas summer's. The app can be quite slow to wake up the car sometimes too, which is a nuisance. Maybe when AI can sense I'm going driving soon and do it for me but yeah. Which color looks best is still a subjective thing. I like black but I think other colors look just as good if not better.

you are going to be precooling even in a white car in the tx summers.

 

[chronopc]

I was tempted to get black since it was free, but I decided against it because any imperfection would be the most obvious on a black car.

 

[voip-ninja]

Black is hard to keep clean but it's arguably the most beautiful color on a clean car.

Only 14.4% of M3s on Troy's survey are black. In the bay area, there seems to be even fewer black M3s on the road. I see a larger proportion of non-Tesla cars in black.

I get that people have the money to personalize their car a bit. But $1500+ is way overpriced. Lexus offers colors for free. BMW and Audi charge $550 and $600 more, respectively.

On the bright side, you get exercise washing your car and it's the best way to inspect for dings. It just takes me an extra hour every 2 - 3 weeks. I'm sure I'll spend less time washing during the summer.

The only other downside is that black is hotter under the sun. But that's a lot less of an issue since you can pre-cool the car.

Personally, I skipped the colors and fancy rims and bought FSD instead.

The only reason to get the car in basic black is you are either getting the car wrapped or you love cleaning your car every 48 hours.

 

[chronopc]

The only reason to get the car in basic black is you are either getting the car wrapped or you love cleaning your car every 48 hours.

You meant to say 4-8 hours, right?

 

[souslik]

Color preference tends to vary by region for some reason. In Europe, black is the most popular color for Model 3 by quite a substantial margin. The first thing I noticed in Californian traffic was the high percentage of white cars. I ordered my Model 3 in black. Classic European move.

 

[mal_tsla]

We've had lots of black cars, a few silvers, and now white. In TX heat, we notice no difference in interior temp between these exterior colors. Seems like the heat comes through the glass, and every color has the same amount of glass.

We have noticed black leather gets hotter inside than gray or white, but that makes sense since the windows are exposing the seats to sun.

In terms of dealing with scorching 105 degree TX summers, we've found exterior color matters least, good tint matters most, and interior color matters some.

Oh and why not black? Hard to keep it looking nice, shows dirt and dust and swirls the most.

 

[voip-ninja]

Color preference tends to vary by region for some reason. In Europe, black is the most popular color for Model 3 by quite a substantial margin. The first thing I noticed in Californian traffic was the high percentage of white cars. I ordered my Model 3 in black. Classic European move.

Do yourself a favor & polish + ceramic coat that mofo.

 

[Roentgen]

Silver and white cars are cooler, says study

Scientifically proven that black cars are hotter than silver or white cars. It's a battery car, so I picked the color to maximize range where I live (SoCal), in addition to tinting the windows. I do also happen to think the metallic silver is a nice color for a car.

 

[pipestem]

noooo... I actually like black sedans and the chrome accent is great. When I noticed the dominance of white and red, I went for black just to be different. Also appealed to my inherent smart ass cheapness. Black is the new black.

 

[jbadger]

I bought black knowing I was going to wrap it. For the 6-7 months I had it without the wrap, it felt like it was impossible to keep it clean. It even had some light swirl marks the day I picked it up from Tesla and they only got worse over time. Black also hides the lines of the car which I don't like.

3M Matte Metallic blue now and I love it!

 

[WolfHero]

I used money saved from other optional paint color toward getting my M3 ceramic coated Now my black is even more mirror finish, easier to clean, and resistant to swirl marks.

 

[TANGO SUKKA]

i got black because i wanted black. got paint correction and a ceramic coating on it and hooooly $hit it looks amazing now.

 

[SigNC]

i got black because i wanted black. got paint correction and a ceramic coating on it and hooooly $hit it looks amazing now.

Got any high res pics? Did you get straight black or metallic black?

 

[ℬête Noire]

i got black because i wanted black. got paint correction and a ceramic coating on it and hooooly $hit it looks amazing now.

If you went Solid Black then ceramic (and maybe a partial PPF) is pretty close to "required". It adds a lot of depth that the factory finish lacks, and agree looks great like that cleaned up.

 

[strykeroz]

Not sure if this is true, unsubstantiated opinion, or a story made up to justify a Toyota buying policy but a dealer told me white was most Australian's second favourite car colour, so they made that the default as it will hold resale value due to the (on average) high demand compared to other options.

I couldn't imagine keeping a black car cool in our summer. Best to give the AC a fighting chance with a lighter reflective colour bouncing back a higher percentage of the inbound solar energy.

 

[TANGO SUKKA]

Got any high res pics? Did you get straight black or metallic black?

my brother got metallic black and i got solid black. i absolutely love the solid black over metallic. it's just not as dark/deep.. almost looks dirty (metallic).

once you paint correct/coat the solid black it just pops.

no high res pics right now.. car dirty from rain.

 

[Pgetzen]

It’s kind of funny, I had a gray Model S, that I gave to my wife and bought the black performance 3. The black looks amazing when clean, which makes me spend a little more time with the 3, which makes me like it even more. I didn’t expect that, but I have spent more time with this car than I did with the S, and I kind of like that.

 

[Glamisduner]

The only reason to get the car in basic black is you are either getting the car wrapped or you love cleaning your car every 48 hours.

You mean every time I drive down my dirt driveway. That plus the heat in the summer. And longivity of paint int he sun could also be lower since it absorbs instead of deflects heat. Many reasons to not get black. It also shows swirls, rock chips and scratches more than any other color.