Why Are All The Cars Silver ?

[gpt]

For me, blue is out - I always seem to have bad luck with blue cars. Green is also a non-starter - birds leave little presents for me, for some reason BRG does not attract these 'donations'. Gold - looks tacky and cheap.

[rtaxron]

Why are there so many silver cars in Thailand ? infact why is there very few desent colours, Fortuners are a good example, Ive asked this question to some Thai friends and expected to hear it's something to do with luck or Bhuddah but was quite surprized at their answer which was they disliked the drab colours as much as I did and only realy liked the bright blue Fortuner and the nice red Triton !

Its not only Thailand, its the same in Europe especially UK. Its a trend and maybe in 2 years time it might be purple or lime green.

[gpt]

And for those who could not decide on a colour, VW in '96 brought out the Golf Harlequin

[Diablo Bob]

I havent read other responses so not sure if this has been said.

But Silver cars dont fade (the colour) and when it gets scratched its hard to notice.

Also Silver cars to tenf to look much nicer IMO.

Red has got to be the worst colour to even get. It fades so quick and very noticable. Black looks nice but up close finger prints are seen everywhere.

Donz is spot on the money here.....

Red fades but worse yet, it doesn't fade evenly. You get splotches of orange and are constantly waxing the car to maintain its' looks.

I kind of like the Grey color that Fortuner offers!

[dr_Pat_Pong]

And for those who could not decide on a colour, VW in '96 brought out the Golf Harlequin

[Gary A]

Different strokes for different folks. Yesterday a friend of mine told me that he really likes my gold car. He said that silver looks tatty (he's a Brit) very quickly. We would have bought a silver one but it would have had to been ordered. The gold one was in stock.

[Little Black Duck]

For me, blue is out - I always seem to have bad luck with blue cars. Green is also a non-starter - birds leave little presents for me, for some reason BRG does not attract these 'donations'. Gold - looks tacky and cheap.

GPT..Birds leave little Messages..Proves one thing..You car is woth crapping on ...

[Little Black Duck]

I havent read other responses so not sure if this has been said.

But Silver cars dont fade (the colour) and when it gets scratched its hard to notice.

Also Silver cars to tenf to look much nicer IMO.

Red has got to be the worst colour to even get. It fades so quick and very noticable. Black looks nice but up close finger prints are seen everywhere.

Hey Mr Donz..Any good Abo will tell you in OZ that a Red Car Go Faster thats why they buy a Red Common Door Hey...

[spectrum]

Perhaps the monks have been reading up on the subject.

"Silver rules the road. According to the DuPont Automotive Color Popularity Report, an annual compilation of data on vehicle color trends, silver retains its top spot as the most popular car color. Year after year, car buyers show their love of silver. But now there might be another reason, aside from esthetics, for choosing silver as the color for your next car. A team of New Zealand epidemiologists has recently published a two-year study of crash data compiled in their homeland, and the results say occupants of silver cars are less likely to be involved in injury accidents than those riding in cars of another color. And while they seem steadfast that the results of the study are accurate, the most vexing thing is they can't figure out why.

...

If silver is safest, what are the least safe? Dark earth tones. Brown vehicles were 110 percent more likely to be involved in an injury accident than white cars, when the adjustment factors were taken into account. Black was almost equally bad at 100 percent more likely and green cars were 80 percent more likely.

So if dark colors are unsafe, you might figure that bright colors like yellow and red would be safer because they are more likely to be seen. Well, yes and no. On unadjusted bases, both red and yellow vehicles were viewed as much more likely to be involved in injury accidents, but when adjusted for all the other variables, they actually registered as being safer than the control color of white."

http://www.drivers.com/article/707/

[AlexLah]

And the correct answer to the OP is:

Each year the automobile manufacturers offer new cars in a choice of about six basic colors, certainly this is true of Honda when I bought a new car eighteen months ago. At the time all the cars on the roads were brown and all parking lots were a sea of brown. When you look at the six color choices there really is no choice to speak of. Black, not a starter because of the heat absorption factor, white is okay for bathroom fittings but not for cars (for me at least), Silver or silver/grey possibly, red looks unattractive and green, okay if it British Racing Green but it's not. When I purchased my car I wanted anything but brown and settled on the silver/grey thinking that will stand out from the crowd and is a nice color!! I can hardly wait until next year to see what the country's choice will be for the national fleet. Blame it on the manufacturers for offering such a limited range of choice.

Do you know that Honda has about 700 different colors on their cars?

Yes you can order your car in any of those 700 colors only it will take some time to deliver a car to you that is not in ther standard (model) color asortment.

And for those of you that think car colors are not following fashion or color trends please look here:

http://webcenters.netscape.compuserve.com/...olors/carcolors

http://jscms.jrn.columbia.edu/cns/2006-05-...olorforecasting

http://interiordec.about.com/cs/colortrend...003colorcmg.htm

http://www.articleavenue.com/article6049.html

I know what I am talking about as I have regular meetings with car makers all around the world and I know how colors are selected.

If you want me to explain a bit more about that process, please feel free to ask.

Kind regards,

Alex

[Donnyboy]

What a bunch of BS reactions I see here.

Yes I am working in this bizz and I can tell you it is all about fashion.

Two years ago you could see fashion dress was mostly silver and light colors.

Car colors follow fashion so now it is light metallic colors.

The new colors wil be dark. black, dark blue, red

Car color follow fashion color about two years after.

Alex

You're the one posting the BS here.

There have always been dark colors, dark blue, red and every other color imaginable.

Whites and greys are always in the majority, this year, 10 years ago and will be 10 years from now, in most if not all countries.

It's all about color neutrality...apart from the other benefits mentioned here.

exactly, cant remember orange,pink or purple being in fashion ever on cars!

Edited December 17, 2006 by Donnyboy

[Jim's_a_Thai_Fox]

Now not a lot of people know this, but....

...back in the 1950's, Mercedes simply opted NOT TO PAINT their race cars, hence reducing their weight and making them more competitve. They simply left the the natural coulour of the polished metal - silver.

These cars started winning races and the 'new paint colour' got carried over into the commercial sector for sale.

cheers

James

PS I still think that black is the nicest - a kick back to Knight Rider I'm afraid

[Simbo]

Both my vehicles are gold colored. They do indeed hide the dirt better and are much slower to heat up when sitting in the sun. Black cars look good but with the hot sun and looking dirty quite quickly, I like the silver or gold better. My wife wanted a silver car but the silver was not in stock and would have had to been ordered. Silver is VERY popular.

As a side note - I was looking on the Ford Thailand web site and found they had a color called Platinum but no gold color. The salesman told me they had a gold car in stock. I told my wife that Ford doesn't have a gold car. The word for platinum in Thai is see tong, gold is also called see tong. Our new car is gold colored but Ford calls it platinum.

My motocycle is red.

[AlexLah]

Car color popularaty surveys are based on the (color) names that car makers give to a color.

For example a blueish green can be called green this year and be called blue next year.

Exactly as the (Ford) Platinum example gives.

In the Ford color data bank Platinum is listed as brown.

Next year it could be listed under silver.

It all depends on how car makers name a color.

Kind regards,

Alex

[corkscrew]

Why are there so many silver cars in Thailand ? infact why is there very few desent colours, Fortuners are a good example, Ive asked this question to some Thai friends and expected to hear it's something to do with luck or Bhuddah but was quite surprized at their answer which was they disliked the drab colours as much as I did and only realy liked the bright blue Fortuner and the nice red Triton !

It is the colour of Bangkok's aerial dirt.

[chiang mai]

And the correct answer to the OP is:

Each year the automobile manufacturers offer new cars in a choice of about six basic colors, certainly this is true of Honda when I bought a new car eighteen months ago. At the time all the cars on the roads were brown and all parking lots were a sea of brown. When you look at the six color choices there really is no choice to speak of. Black, not a starter because of the heat absorption factor, white is okay for bathroom fittings but not for cars (for me at least), Silver or silver/grey possibly, red looks unattractive and green, okay if it British Racing Green but it's not. When I purchased my car I wanted anything but brown and settled on the silver/grey thinking that will stand out from the crowd and is a nice color!! I can hardly wait until next year to see what the country's choice will be for the national fleet. Blame it on the manufacturers for offering such a limited range of choice.

Do you know that Honda has about 700 different colors on their cars?

Yes you can order your car in any of those 700 colors only it will take some time to deliver a car to you that is not in ther standard (model) color asortment.

And for those of you that think car colors are not following fashion or color trends please look here:

http://webcenters.netscape.compuserve.com/...olors/carcolors

http://jscms.jrn.columbia.edu/cns/2006-05-...olorforecasting

http://interiordec.about.com/cs/colortrend...003colorcmg.htm

http://www.articleavenue.com/article6049.html

I know what I am talking about as I have regular meetings with car makers all around the world and I know how colors are selected.

If you want me to explain a bit more about that process, please feel free to ask.

Kind regards,

Alex

I have owned Honda's for many years hence when I went to buy my new car in Thailand it was natural that I would pick Honda and this was confirmed by a review of the competion. Whilst I am aware that Honda is capable of selling cars in many different colors, if you say it is 700 then so be it, the consumer reality is very different. Eighteen months ago when I purchased my CRV I was shown the same six color chart by four different dealers and was told that any color that was off chart would take up to six months to deliver. Corporate and manufacturing capabilities may be one thing but the consumer experience is something totally different I am sorry to say.

[PeaceBlondie]

The Mercedes legend about metallic silver dates back to the 1930's, when the only serious challenger was Germany's Auto Union. Grand Prix cars had to weigh no more than 750 kg as I recall, and the new Mercedes weighed in at 752 or 751. So they removed the paint and got under the limit, and used silver in the 1950's, as well.

I think for safety purposes, we should use shocking orange (like International Orange, or a 2004 Honda CBR150R), shocking pink, and shocking green. No attorney could ever plead, "The defendant never saw the vehicle coming at him."

Some Honda Civics came in a really ugly dark pink. I thought it looked too gay even on the Honda of my Vietnamese boyfriend.

[markr]

I work for a large motor company, part of the reason that you see so many silver cars is , as said before, they are less likely to fade and show scratches, they also generally hold there value better because of this fact.

Secondly, before the consumer gets there hands on the vehicles, the dealership will have to order in stock and silver generally suits most peoples tastes, thus most stocks will be silver.

Thridly, a lot of vehicles will be pre-registered by dealerships as 'demonstrator models' again silver will be the pricipal colour, generally.

Mark