Why Car Colors Are Boring Now

is it just me or does it seem like every car on the road is white black or silver so boring factory car colors used to be so cool remember the shades of dodges and Plymouth's from the 70s the wild colors of Volkswagens and Jeeps in the 90s so what happened well in this episode we're gonna take a look at how the economy influences color options why certain colors cost more than others and why the hell they used to put fish in paint as paint technology advances and we have access to more and more colors and types of paint why our car colors so boring now this is coming from a guy who drives a black car by the way hi Nolan here ever since I decided to simplify my life my stress level has gone down and I'm carving out more time for self-care look this is everything I own the ridge wallet fits in so well with my lifestyle because look it's sleek low-profile and instead of schlepping around a bunch of stuff I don't need I can easily carry a few cards my ID and some cash the original is basically two metal plates bound by a durable elastic band and comes in titanium carbon fiber and aluminum so there's a ridge wallet for everyone perfect for my newfound minimalist lifestyle Thank You ridge wallet for sponsoring wheelhouse table are someone's toothbrush Thanks we have access to more colors now than ever before but despite that people still choose to dole colors for their cars but it wasn't always like that by the beginning of the 20th century car paint was directly influenced by elaborately painted horse carriages the oil-based paint jobs were expensive and took weeks to dry the worst part is that the paint faded and turned yellow after a short time so they had to be repainted at a premium Henry Ford recognized this problem and work to develop a different type of paint that didn't suffer this yellow fading instead of oil-based this new paint Ford developed was asphalt based it was superior for a number of reasons asphalt is dark and the dark colors lasted longer the drying time was shorter and the painting process fit into his assembly line perfectly one thing I learned about Ford's painting process is that they were so finicky about hair and dust messing up the paint job the painters had to do their job naked I'll tell you one guy you wouldn't want to paint your car naked because they're worried about his body hair me I would show you but then we get demonetised when the 1920s rolled around colors became more eclectic and extravagant we started seeing some cars being painted and up to four different colors a new innovation by DuPont at the time further advanced the automotive paint game their compound called Pyro's island made paint on cars more durable and able to drive within minutes instead of hours saving time and money Pyro's Island can be found in their duco line of paints which featured eccentric colors for the time like orange red and blue colors that would normally suffer the effects of yellowing started lasting longer so now that cars didn't have to be repainted as frequently these normally and higher-end color options were more affordable and available to a broader range of car buyers people love the new color options but Henry Ford was resistant mainly because he had spent so much money developing the asphalt based paint that was limited to black and other color options like black he was serious when he said any customer can have a car painted in any color so long as it's black it's a great quote though so serious that he voided warranties of any Ford car that was repaint in a different color what a petty but I didn't stop the flood of brightly colored cars from dominating the market advancements in paint technology aside what happened between the 1910s in the 20s that sparked his color Renaissance well the whole world went to war that's one thing during World War one a lot of car manufacturers used their resources to support the war efforts so not only did they have to tighten their belts when it came to relatively superfluous things like paint but also people buying cars didn't really want to show off with fancy colors during this somber time that makes sense this consumer shift back to more basic dual colors would periodically pop up again and again throughout the century during times of strife which goes to show the popularity of car colors directly mimics what was going on at the time well that 1920s were full of vibrant colors the stock market crash of 1929 brought upon and returned back to those tone down colors like Gray's and dark greens things briefly became more colorful after the crash and we started seeing different paint innovations during this time including metallic paint this type of paint was reserved only for the extremely rich because the metallic glint was made possible by the addition of fish scales get this it took 40,000 herring to make one kilo of paint some might say that's excessive but those people haven't seen the Art Deco curves of a 1930s fender accentuated by these scales a 40,000 Haring actually now that I'm saying it does sound kind of wasteful but rest easy PETA makers of this metallic paint eventually swapped the herring for aluminum flakes which they should have was done in the first place it sounds way more logical the colors in the 1930s were short-lived and with the start of World War 2 colors quickly reverted back to being drab but as soon as dub dub 2 ended that's when we see the bright and flashy colors of 1950's cars the red Corvettes teal Chrysler's and iconic pink Cadillacs and don't forget all that chrome trim Chrome's coming back this was a time of prosperity and people wanted to show off the rainbow of colors continued through the 60s and early 70s until one-two punch the Vietnam War and the gas crisis gonna put a damper on things earthy colors like tan beige and brown quickly overtook the flashier colors the public was in crisis mode and a shift to more muted tones was in response to the psychedelic colors of the ninth 1860's peace love and optimism was overshadowed by a rising death toll overseas one group of cars that maintained the bright colors though was muscle cars dodge in particular had some of the craziest of them all names like top banana go mango and my personal favorite Plum Crazy I'm gonna have a Plum Crazy car one day it's gonna happen that's called freakin realization towards the mid to late 80s things started getting flashy ER again though a trend that would continue into the 90s the economy was doing pretty good in the 1990s and that's when we started seeing the yellow and teal Jeeps bright green del Sol's purple Geo Metro spire at Pontiac the list goes on and on even the shades of white were cooler so what happened where did all the colors go did something like the recession of 2009 affect the popularity of certain car colors sounds logical and in many ways it did silver was the most popular car color ten years in a row around the turn of the century until it was dethroned by white in the US alone that colors white black silver and gray make up a whopping 77% of all car colors according to German firm BASF who makes paint it's pretty freakin boring if you ask me but it's nice to know that it's backed up by data and not just me going crazy counting white cars on the freeway what I do every night before I go to bed and it's not just in the US the whole world is wild for boring car colors in fact 39 percent of cars worldwide are painted white what is it about these colors that makes 77 percent of drivers choose them well as we've seen car colors follow trends and right now white is chic [Music] 20 years ago silver was the most popular color we are entering a new millennium and car manufacturers used silver as a way of being clean and futuristic like spaceships some of the most iconic cars that look just right and silver were the Audi TT the New Beetle even the Plymouth Prowler these futuristic designs set the trend and soon everybody wanted a spaceship car but at some point a little-known startup by the name of Apple started coming out with white products people saw the brand as being simple and high-tech so that was when white started getting popularity eventually surpassing silver it's the most popular color but we can't give Apple all the credit one reason is that colors generally cost more a base Tesla Model 3 in white starts at 33609 dollars but if you want red that's a $2,000 option another reason is to resale value it's a commonly accepted theory among car dealers that you'll lose 500 to 700 dollars in resale value just because the color of your car you have a black white or silver car that's something you don't really have to worry about those colors are always invoked and $700 is nothing to scoff at while you're selling it a used car so it's understandable that people take this into account when they pick a boring color I can't blame them another reason people are buying boring cars is that we haven't bounced back from the recession of 2009 people are still being frugal with their money and one easy thing to skimp on is the color of your car even if a red paint option doesn't cost more dealership you're gonna be paying more in insurance if you drive a red car that alone would drive someone like me to get a different colored car I hate making insurance payments they cost me money also red is a cop magnet and speeding tickets are no joke manufacturers have taken notice and started stocking dealerships with mostly white black and silver cars they do this because they know those cars will sell but it also creates opportunities for their premium cars to be painted in more exotic colors to stand out the premium luxury car market is one sector that you can still find a plethora of different colors and that makes sense if you want attention one of the best ways to do that is to buy an s5 in Merlin purple let's be honest people don't buy high-end performance cars to blend in they want people to notice their Lando's are yellow Ferraris they're red what's the point of a car like that but does it turn some heads the only other type of car that's not going to be affected by what I'm gonna call the drab inning are small cars it's common to see cars like the Fiat 500 Ford Fiesta or Honda Fit painted in vibrant eye catching colors maybe it's the car equivalent of a Napoleon complex certain Mayo it's a way to attract attention so you don't run these tiny cars off the road I'm not sure but they're fun one thing worth pointing out is that the colors of trucks and SUVs are always gonna be less flashy than sports cars in sedans and look I know someone in the comments is gonna type out no one , Ford's lightning comma hold my beer there are exceptions of course one reason is that there's this more surface area on those cars than others a big honker like a Ford f250 is gonna require more paint than a Mustang and in turn be more expensive to paint what our car colors gonna look like in the future who's to say I'm thinking that there is another recession in the next couple of years which statisticians are saying might happen white black and gray might stay the most popular colors for a long time so we shall see one thing I do know I'm sick of seeing so many boring colored cars on the road it's not the consumers fault it's more deep ruder than that I hope we start to see car manufacturers take more risks in the future with car colors thank you for watching wheel house let me know in the comments what your favorite color is I don't know well it's a high register when I said that definitely Plum Crazy is my favorite followed donut media on Instagram and Twitter at donut media follow me at Nolan J Sykes if you liked this video you want to see more please hit that subscribe button if you want to hear more about Henry Ford being a weirdo check out our podcast past gas history podcast it's a lot of fun you can find it on Spotify app a podcast wherever you get your stuff or you can watch it on our other channel don't a podcast I'll leave a link for that in the description thank you so much for watching be kind and I will see you next time

Channel: Donut

Views: 3,958,764

Keywords: Paint, car paint, car colors, best car colors, grabber blue, plum crazy, championship, white, dodge, honda, fun cars, barrett jackson, project cars, collector cars, auto auctions, mecum auctions, Chevy, Chevrolet, Corvette, c6, rare cars, bargain, used cars, car shopping, lexus, retro cars, classic cars, bmw e46, Donut, Donut Media, Stock Market Crash, Recession, Car Trends, modern cars, dode challenger, ford, Model T, Volvo, Toyota

Id: Ab2u-iGN3uk

Length: 11min 44sec (704 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 23 2020