Car colour - Fiat axes Grey

I am glad that at least one brand is moving away fromt he trend to leave cars looking like they left the factory in undercoat.

I have friends with grey cars and no matter what they say aboput being 'on trend' and a great colour, it still looks like a half painted car or something to embarrassed to be on the street so trying to fade into the background.

Grey is a fashion trend that has been done, over done and then done to death. Long may it stay away

Surely they should just sell the colours that people want rather than what a marketing team thinks they want.

[img] [/img]

I miss sniffpetrol

[i]Surely they should just sell the colours that people want rather than what a marketing team thinks they want.[/i]

The challenge is to have what people want, not what they say the want or think they want. Also you need to do what they will want 6-12 months down the line, not right now. Basically you look at the colour trends in high fashion, these flow down into fast fashion after about 6-12 months. These then follow in home furnishings around 9 - 15 months with house paint and cars at 12 + months.*

* I am not certain of those time periods as it was about 2003 that I was last working on something relevant to colour tred / time and geographic analysis

Perhaps they can have a word with all the bike manufacturers with the none-more-black paintwork

Looking at that colour chart mine is definitely "Des Lynam". If it had been available in "Nuclear Sunset" or "Tangerine Scream" orange I would much rather have had that,

I often felt like this when ordering a new company car. Small cars come in fun colours but when you need a medium estate, the brightest they offer is fade fast red.

Would have really liked my last astra in that metallic lime they offered the Corsa in.

However, a friend in retail explained to me that when the new fashions come in, the put the yellow or pink versions of a top near the front, people come in, look at it, make positive noises, then move the the back of the store and pick the same thing in grey or beige.

Basically you look at the colour trends in high fashion, these flow down into fast fashion after about 6-12 months. These then follow in home furnishings around 9 – 15 months with house paint and cars at 12 + months.*

Something like that, but probably accelerated a bit now.

My ex was a clothes & homeware designer (went on trend-spotting trips etc). She accurately predicted sage green as the new grey for interior design.

We're seeing bikes in that (and similar subdued, earthy colours) already.

Maybe not for cars though?

Would have really liked my last astra in that metallic lime they offered the Corsa in.

Funny enough I just bought a nice Corsa dead cheap for someone, partly because it was in metallic green.

Fiat have developed an image, the colour choices are part of that. Getting rid of grey will only make them standout in a crowded market. I'd expect others to follow suit.

As someone who has owned the same NATO Green Land Rover for 24 years, I find it a bit sad that resale value is the biggest influence on some people's choice of colour for a new car.
Even if they want blue or yellow, they will chose black, white, or some shade of grey in between because they'll get a better trade-in in 3 years time.

On a foggy morning, the last thing you want coming toward you is a fog-coloured car.

I am not a car industry market analyst but I always thought that enough people want cool colours that the company that offered a decent selection would gain enough market share to offset the cost. It's a real shame.

How much does it cost to have a car properly resprayed? How many cans of spray.bike would it take?

Funny enough I just bought a nice Corsa dead cheap for someone, partly because it was in metallic green.

Chap I worked with had his astra in baby poo brown as a way of sticking two fingers up at the leasing company we had to use.

i have a grey car.

I bought it because it was cheap. - much cheaper than the burnt orange/copper one i wanted.

I have a red car. I bought it because small peugeots must be red or yellow or white #Rallye ..... black , white and grey were much cheaper than red.

it seems that people that are buying white ,black or grey are actually hurting their resale by entering a saturated market.

not only that but grey cars in winter in scotland with people unable to manually operate a light switch these days ..... youll often be driving along and just see brake lights appear out the mist attached to an invisible grey car.

It would be good if they built some new cars to go with the bright colours!

500, Panda, 500x and Tipo have all been around for donkeys years.

Fiat, Alfa, Lancia - all shadows of their former selves. Build small, quick, fun cars again please!

My neighbour has a grey Fiat 500.
I've never been in one & have no idea if it's any good. But, it makes me a bit sad to see such a fun-looking car sitting there in such a dull, grown-up colour.

This is a great move by Fiat & hopefully won't hurt sales.

When I bought my current car I was resigned to getting a black, grey, blue or white one as that's pretty much all that was available. Then a burgundy red one popped up in just the spec I wanted, so I got it. It's not gonna set the world alight, but it's quite rare to see another one on the roads & a bit brighter than the normal limited colours you see.

A beige revival is overdue I reckon. Along with brown vinyl roof options  a la Austin ambassador , you may laugh but it's coming

Personally I hate the grey colour that is basically gloss primer. Regularly see a 911 thing in it and just wonder what they were thinking. Everyone knows a 911 should be candy apple glory red

Seems in that there Europe cars are much more exciting colours. But then so are their clothes and dress sense. UK is basically black, navy, beige and grey. And white socks

I've been saying for a long time that grey window frames and doors are the stone cladding of the future. Odly enough I've always been a fan of silver cars though 🤔

I’ve been saying for a long time that grey window frames and doors are the stone cladding of the future.

Can look quite good on the right sort of house, but some people take it that little bit too far.

It's the all-grey interiors that I think will be considered this decade's crime against taste.

I was house-hunting not too long ago and some places looked more like offices than an actual office.

Personally I hate the grey colour that is basically gloss primer.

Mine is metallic grey gloss primer thankyouverymuch!

The irony is that I scraped it the other week right down to the primer. Which is white.

Never did get the grey thing, not this time round nor the last time (?90s). Then it seemed to be more trendy bars than cars etc. Loads of houses round us have been done up with white walls, dark grey ali frames etc. They look tidy, but surely a bit of colour would look even better? Happens on high end new builds as well bizarrely.

Anyway just had a new kitchen fitted in a tasteful greenish hue.

I’ve been saying for a long time that grey window frames and doors are the stone cladding of the future

still looks far better than the fake rosewood or white.

I often felt like this when ordering a new company car. Small cars come in fun colours but when you need a medium estate, the brightest they offer is fade fast red.

I miss flourescent yellow Volvo 850 T5-Rs...

Its easier to change bits and peices rather than have to change the whole kitchen or repaint the house when you decide you need an upgrade.

There might be a lot of grey window frames about but there is massivley more white plastic still on display in the world.

I have a black car cos it was in the showroom and wanted to get rid of it so gave me a 'discount', I also have a silver van because, well it was the right van colour didn't really come into it. I have thought about having it resprayed, but it'd just cost too much.

If car companies want people to chose different colours they should make all colours the same price.

just had a new kitchen fitted in a tasteful greenish hue.

Sage green, by any chance? (see above)

How much does it cost to have a car properly resprayed? How many cans of spray.bike would it take?

To do it well, £6-8k, and that's 'good', in a standard-ish color, not excellent in something unusual.

There used to be loads of companies that would give it a quick buff with 120grit, masking tape over the trim, window seals etc, and overspray in a solid color for a few hundred quid (no metallic, flakes, candies, or even clearcoat). Which was fine when cars were rusty at 7 years old and basically dead at 10 so there was a market for cheap resprays covering up the filler. But these days a lot of 7 year old cars are probably still owned by a finance company, albeit the 2nd owner. You can still get that done, it's more aimed at commercial vehicles tough, businesses that have a handful of vehicles, but aren't quite big enough to be buying a fleet of new vans in a custom color just ad-hock 2nd hand ones.

I am a fan of colourful cars. I have never got the grey car thing - and I have ended up owning two of them. 🙁

I think this is a clever move by Fiat and I like it.

I find it a bit sad that resale value is the biggest influence on some people’s choice of colour for a new car.

the police switched from white to silver cars because they got a better price for them when cars we’re retired from the fleet

around the same time white got quite popular again 🙂

Fiat ?  You'd expect them to do it in rusty rust orangey-red, so you can't see where the paint ends and the oxidised iron takes over.

Fiat has axed the UK’s most popular colour (grey) to concentrate on shades that reflect Italian sea, sun, earth and sky.

So that in 2 years they can bring it back as a 'special order' colour and charge three zillions pounds for it

I am a fan of colourful cars.

I wonder whether a motivating factor for silver/grey cars is people’s experience of coloured cars fading

Vw used to have quite fadey paint - my ‘red’ polo was mostly pink.

a friend had a golf that you could see both the price it was marketed for and the amount it was discounted to on the bonnet from when it first sold 🙂

i ordered a new car a few months back, it's coming soon.  I nearly went for grey, chose white in the end as it was a no cost option !

There's a school run mum who parks over the road from my house in a Mazda SUV - CX5, maybe?
Anyway - that's burgundy red, but she's had it wrapped in a copper/orange colour. It does look pretty good. It's been like that for a few years - no idea what the quality is like up close, but from an 'over the road' distance it looks fine.

The only way you can see it's no the original colour is that the door shuts haven't been wrapped so when you see people getting in & out of it, you can see the original colour.
I'd consider getting that done (depending on cost) to brighten up an ageing car.

Last new car I ordered (2009), I wanted white and it was not an option. Ended up with silver (and a red interior). Now white is the low cost poverty spec on almost everything. Two silver/grey cars later and we've just sourced a used metallic light blue. Much better. The electric green was too expensive, even used.

Grey looks cleaner than black. I thought that was its principal justification. Son2 wants Nardo grey of course.

I’ve been saying for a long time that grey window frames and doors are the stone cladding of the future

Oh!....I might need to repaint our 'house' door.
[url= https://i.ibb.co/qp90ZwC/IMG-2251.jp g" target="_blank">https://i.ibb.co/qp90ZwC/IMG-2251.jp g"/> [/img][/url]

Oh!….I might need to repaint our ‘house’ door.

That's calling out for a mural of a porsche old Volvo parked in the garage.

I nearly went for grey, chose white in the end as it was a no cost option

I'd never pay extra to have a grey car... An old boss once paid £700 to have a metallic white BMW - looked almost exactly like the no cost option.

How many people actually get to choose the colour of car from the full range? The last 3 vehicles we've bought were
- low mileage pre-registered golf estate (presumably where the dealers sell them onto a 'reseller' to hit their targets). They had a few and they were all silver. Not interesting but actually the best coloured car we've owned - didn't show the dirt much and didn't show small scratches

- new from dealer VW Caddy maxi life. They gave us a list of cars that were on the production line we could choose from so it was a matter of finding the engine/spec/options you wanted and maybe picking from one or two colours. They did a brilliant lime green and a metallic orange at the time and I'd have had either of those. But we ended up with 'off road grey' (which looked like a dark blue). Scratched light. Dark colours heat up more in the sun.

- year old ex rental company caddy maxi life. Wanted petrol auto and there seemed to be a batch of these at dealers around the country. All slightly different specs so again no choice of colour. Wanted something light but not silver. Ended up with dark Starlight Blue. heats up in the sun. looks nice when it's clean but dull when it's a bit dirty. Scratches light.

Sage green, by any chance? (see above)

**** knows, it is called "mussel" but isn't like any part of a mussel. Prob with these colour names is they are also used as trade marks, so may not be the same as the colour of the thing. It's nothing like either of the colours on the leaves of our sage either, less green-ey.

Vw used to have quite fadey paint

Vauxhall too. Red corsas regularly ended up pink.

I miss the shades of brown of the 70s Morris cars 😉 or a beige Capri with black vinyl roof...

It’s nothing like either of the colours on the leaves of our sage either, less green-ey.

Yeah, the fashionable colour is more like a slightly lighter Land Rover green than an actual sage leaf.

I'm about to do my bathroom in Dulux "Willow Tree", which is roughly the same...

https://www.dulux.co.uk/en/colour-details/willow-tree

I thought that this might have been safety related, shame that they are more interested in marketing than road safety.

Do red-painted cars still fade to a patchy pink these days? Or has paint tech improved? Can't beat an 80s Guards Red 911 Turbo but don't see them around much.