Making Thai Roads Like Down-right Boring zzzzzzzZZZZZ

[connda]

Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black. -- Henry Ford

Are consumers subtlety being nudged toward purchasing cars and trucks that are flat out dull to look at? Recently I became aware that most cars and trucks driven in Thailand (consumer market as compared to the commercial market) are not really interesting to look at. The primary colors of cars and trucks seem to be only white, black, or silver, with another subset of cars and trucks painted what I’d refer to as “dull, dark” or “light, dusty” colors: example -- dull, dark green or light, dusty green; dull,dark blue or light, dusty blue. Whatever happened to cars and trucks painted in natural and bright vibrant colors? Is this somehow against Thai law for passenger cars and trucks to be painted colorfully, except for commercial vehicles? I find it very odd…almost disturbing. Why would a whole cultural defer to a drab color scheme for one of the most expensive purchases in their lives. I’m not saying that there are “no colorfully painted cars” – there are, but they are few a far between, and many are either custom jobs or sports cars (like Mini Coopers). The next time you're on the road, just think about this post and look around. Strange huh?

I’m going to have my beat-up 22 year old Toyota repaired (body work) and re-painted after the rainy season. I’m going to have to consider some natural, bright vibrant color just to stay out of the consumer car color funk!

Edited August 9, 2013 by metisdead
Posting in all capitals or in all bold, and using large or unusual fonts and colors is bad netiquette.

[andrewrooney]

At least the buses are still colorful

I've noticed what you mean though, hell, my girlfriend's family has a car and two pickup trucks and they're all the same dull silver color.

[connda]

At least the buses are still colorful

I've noticed what you mean though, hell, my girlfriend's family has a car and two pickup trucks and they're all the same dull silver color.

Yeah, and it's not just Thailand. I've been doing some research and this is sort of the new normal in "modern car color technology" is everywhere. The manufacturers boast of a new era of paint technology where the colors have a gloss so shiny that the paint seems to swim under the surface, but the last cars I looked at, white, black, and silver didn't quite "Swim under the surface" of the topcoat. These are truly boring colors. I could image a sky-blue or ruby-red "swimming" under that topcoat, but the car manufacturers aren't producing much in the way of color. Has the world's population become that conservative and boring? How immensely sad (but not surprising).

[ttthailand]

Thailand has too much sun so colors are best that reflect light, white and silver among the best. I agree that not too exciting ...