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Author Topic: Why are Americans "going gray" in regard to car colors?  (Read 3637 times)

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Offline Cera

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Why are Americans "going gray" in regard to car colors?
« on: August 22, 2025, 02:31:13 PM »
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    Offline Pax Vobis

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    Re: Why are Americans "going gray" in regard to car colors?
    « Reply #1 on: August 22, 2025, 02:37:29 PM »
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  • Probably due to manufacturing choice.  White/gray are cheaper to paint.  The cars are cheaper to buy.  Color cars are more expensive.  So there's more of the cheaper cars out there.  Most people would prefer a color, if they could afford it.


    Offline Seraphina

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    Re: Why are Americans "going gray" in regard to car colors?
    « Reply #2 on: August 22, 2025, 03:54:26 PM »
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  • The choice used to be black, black, or black!  Ask the Commie Henry Ford!  It’s much faster to produce cars in one color, and one color that kind of goes with everything.  Gray is nothing exciting or unique, but, not a color to which most people object. Furthermore, if you want to get your gray wheels repainted in some other color(s), gray is easier to cover than black. 
    New cars directly from the manufacturer in varied colors take longer and cost a bit more. 
    Car colors, like clothing, shoes, houses, interior and exterior, go through fads like other fashions. Hang onto things long enough, and they’ll come  back in style. There’s an orange-ish brown color I’ve seen a number of vehicles of late, that resembles the classic 1970’s rust brown/orange, only a little brighter. It looks cutting edge now, but in five to eight years, will make cars look dated. I drive a slightly muted red vehicle from 2015, all the rage when my father (RIP) bought it. It kind of screams 20-teens. So what? He bought it new on a lease in 2016 thinking correctly, it’d be the last car of his life. Why buy it outright?  The only places it went in 3 2/3 years was to Mass, 12 miles, doctors, 1 1/2 to 15 miles, the diner, 4 miles, drugstore, 3 miles, bank, 3 miles, maybe once to their lawyer, 75 miles, and to the beach tidal inlet after Mass to enjoy the scenery, 5 miles. When it became clear their driving days were over, in 2020, the car had about 9,000 miles on it, all of it gentle roads. I took over the lease, paid it off, put it in my name and switched to cheaper insurance. It drives very well and I’m keeping it until it becomes a liability. My old 1998 Pontiac with 2 mos. paid insurance, went to a nephew who needed a car for his new trial period job supplemented by DoorDash. He took it over, used it for 18 mos. before the frame cracked. He sold it for parts and to the salvage yard for the rest. He gave me the salvage money, $230. So I drive an old person red 🚗. 
    Maybe it’ll come back “in” if I take care of it and I live that long!  

    My car history, all purchased used!
    1. White VW beetle, standard
    2. Dark Rust Brown, Ford Pinto, hatchback, explosive, “the beast,” standard
    3. White Corvair w/red upholstery- never used as main car, sold it to a collector/restorer, standard
    4. Brown Mustard Fake wood panel, Dodge station wagon, “Brady Bunchmibile,” automatic
    5. Medium yellow Dodge Dart, sedan, standard 
    6. Navy Blue Chevy Chevette hatchback, “Old Faithful,” standard 
    7. Dark Forest Green Plymouth Fury II, sedan, standard, first car with AC!
    8. Aqua green with raindrop decals, Plymouth sedan, automatic
    9. Medium blue Hyundai Excel hatchback, standard
    10. Light blue Chevy Prism hatchback, automatic
    11. Medium yellow Nissan hybrid station wagon/hatchback, borrowed from parents, standard
    12. Black Pontiac 2 door sedan, “the tank,” automatic
    13. Red Hyundai Elantra, hatchback/station wagon, automatic 

    What color(s) vehicles have/do others on CI driven/drive? 

    Offline Yeti

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    Re: Why are Americans "going gray" in regard to car colors?
    « Reply #3 on: August 22, 2025, 07:01:13 PM »
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  • Interesting question. I don't really have an answer to this, and I don't think I've ever really noticed this before.

    Does anyone have an explanation for it?

    Offline AMDG forever

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    Re: Why are Americans "going gray" in regard to car colors?
    « Reply #4 on: August 22, 2025, 07:33:20 PM »
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  • Ask the Commie Henry Ford!

    Why do you say that Ford was a communist? I aways had a favorable opinion of him. He wrote a book exposing the “chosen ones” international relations.


    Offline FarmerWife

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    Re: Why are Americans "going gray" in regard to car colors?
    « Reply #5 on: August 22, 2025, 08:52:42 PM »
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  • silver, white, white - we've bought cars on the used market, and many of them aren't "coloured". But, I wouldn't want a bright coloured car because I'd stand out.

    Offline Seraphina

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    Re: Why are Americans "going gray" in regard to car colors?
    « Reply #6 on: August 22, 2025, 09:53:12 PM »
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  • Why do you say that Ford was a communist? I aways had a favorable opinion of him. He wrote a book exposing the “chosen ones” international relations.
    Because he was a Communist, a card-carrying member of the American Communist Party. Think how his innovation in production, while enabling the general public to become automobile owners with his Model T, his factory itself was the epitome of communism. Unique, individual craftsmanship and pride in it, doing a job start to finish, was nonexistent. Each assembly line worker repeated the same task eight hours per day, five days per week. They wore the same uniforms, lived in the same Ford company housing, belonged to the same union, made the same amount of money, were entertained by the Ford company with ferry trips to parks for picnics, company ball games, women’s clubs, family health clinics, holiday parties, the latest movies, special children’s activities for boys and girls, some co-ed. Ford owned parkland, an amusement park, built public schools including a high school, and staffed them, but allowed them to be run by the state. He owned shops of all sorts in the vicinity of the main factory. Some of the stores were run by the Ford company itself, issuing Ford dollars, his own currency. He published books with maps and suggested day and overnight trips for his employees, complete with recommended inns and dining establishments, owned or receiving money in turn for advertising guess what?  
    Ford, while seen as an inventor, he garnered his factory and collective ideas from two foreign sources, German engineering and Russian organization, fields that were dominated in both countries by guess who? That certain tribe. Hitler praised him in Mein Kampf, but Ford himself was virulently antiSemitic. He was just fine using their inventions and ideology, but wouldn’t hire any. He was Episcopalian by birth but not devout. In fact, he had more interest in practices like spiritualism and believed in reincarnation. Compared with many of his fellow multimillionaires, Henry’s moral life appeared beyond reproach. He confined himself to one mistress with whom he had an illegitimate son, whom his wife tolerated so long as he was alive. After his death, both mistress, her safe, and her son who was living on the Ford estate, were quickly banished by Mrs. Ford. 
    While the overall economy was good, the worker class had it made. Unlike many Americans, especially those in rural areas and the poorest in big cities, Ford workers had it great. They had electricity, built in, not added on, to their virtually identical homes, they had refrigeration, not iceboxes, gas stoves and heat, indoor plumbing and bathrooms, city sewer, even trash pick-up. Theirs was the first neighborhood to receive US Mail delivery, and not once, but twice daily. There were company deals on household items, some groceries, and a wide variety of newspapers, books, and periodicals. Workers received annual paid vacations, something unheard of in the rest of the U.S. 
    With everything going so well, workers overlooked the fact that while their wages were stagnant and predictable, their families well provided, their bellies full, that their jobs themselves were monotonous and boring, unmotivating, lacking in creativity and a sense of pride of accomplishment, and without opportunity for advancement. The select few in upper management, however, purchased real estate, businesses, built ever larger houses, raked in exponentially increasing dividends on the unregulated stock market, and payed their investors handsomely…
    Until the stock market crashed!  

    I’ll leave the rest of the story for you to check out. Check out YouTube, Odyssey, Bitchute, Hulu, etc. for another view. When your children are older, study Henry Ford in your homeschool. There are many life lessons to be learned from studying the lives of others. Skip the MSM and American myth taught in public school and even in Catholic school textbooks. He wasn’t the ultimate in evil, but an intellectually brilliant, shrewd operator whose lust for wealth kept him on the straight and narrow rather than desire for morality or healthy fear of God.

    Offline SimpleMan

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    Re: Why are Americans "going gray" in regard to car colors?
    « Reply #7 on: August 22, 2025, 11:52:43 PM »
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  • I drive a gray Camry (2021 LE).  It's a simple, no-nonsense, no-frills car that, incidentally, hasn't had a single mechanical problem in 65K miles of driving, and that means a lot.  (The Wi-fi chip failed and had to be replaced, but that doesn't affect the running of the car itself.)  Gray is fairly neutral, there are probably very few people who actually dislike it, it doesn't draw heat in the summer the way a darker color would, dirt is not horribly obvious on it, and all of these things probably make for better resale value.  My car is as boring and nondescript as a car gets.  Some people like that.



    Offline Seraphina

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    Re: Why are Americans "going gray" in regard to car colors?
    « Reply #8 on: August 23, 2025, 01:14:23 AM »
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  • I’ve never had a car whose color I chose! It has to run well, be reliable, get fairly good gas mileage, have a defrost that works, no known chronic mechanical or electrical problems. It has to be a common model and make with out needing custom, expensive, or hard to find parts. The less bells and whistles, the better!  It just happens that I’ve never had a gray vehicle. The ugliest was the Pinto, color, appearance, and the way it drove! 
    As for my red car, my Dad bought it new because he’d always wanted a red car since he was a little boy. I think he knew it was his last car and last chance to strike it off his bucket list!  My Mom wasn’t crazy about it, but he was the car boss! There are actually a fair number of similar red SUV type vehicles on the road, driven mainly by older people, Boomers and Silent Generation! I’m in that demographic, so I don’t stick out in the 55+ community, assisted living, nursing home, health facilities, senior center. I’ve noticed a preponderance of red cars in the parking lot of the local novus ordo. It has a huge parking lot having been built in 1965. The entire back half of it is unused except by idling school buses for the driver’s 30 minute break. They loop around and back in gassing out the woods with diesel exhaust. On Sundays the lot is only about a quarter filled for 10:00 Mass. The parish is on the list for two other parishes to move in and merge into the synthesis of all synodal heretical parishes, or, excuse me, “Catholic Communities.” Parish sounds too Catholic. 
    I wonder if the priest is a 1950’s Boomer who drives a red car??? :jester::incense:

    Offline Gray2023

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    Re: Why are Americans "going gray" in regard to car colors?
    « Reply #9 on: August 23, 2025, 06:05:06 AM »
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  • Our cars are white, black, and blue.
    1 Corinthians: Chapter 13 "4 Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up; 5 Is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil;"

    Offline St Giles

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    Re: Why are Americans "going gray" in regard to car colors?
    « Reply #10 on: August 23, 2025, 11:03:35 AM »
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  • I think gray (road color) is more dangerous. They are harder to see.

    I drive a gray Camry (2021 LE).  It's a simple, no-nonsense, no-frills car that, incidentally, hasn't had a single mechanical problem in 65K miles of driving, and that means a lot.  (The Wi-fi chip failed and had to be replaced, but that doesn't affect the running of the car itself.)  Gray is fairly neutral, there are probably very few people who actually dislike it, it doesn't draw heat in the summer the way a darker color would, dirt is not horribly obvious on it, and all of these things probably make for better resale value.  My car is as boring and nondescript as a car gets.  Some people like that.


    Would the car not drive without wifi?
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    Offline SimpleMan

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    Re: Why are Americans "going gray" in regard to car colors?
    « Reply #11 on: August 23, 2025, 12:23:12 PM »
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  • I think gray (road color) is more dangerous. They are harder to see.
    Would the car not drive without wifi?
    It will, but for various reasons, we need that feature.

    Offline Cera

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    Re: Why are Americans "going gray" in regard to car colors?
    « Reply #12 on: August 23, 2025, 03:27:24 PM »
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  • silver, white, white - we've bought cars on the used market, and many of them aren't "coloured". But, I wouldn't want a bright coloured car because I'd stand out.
    This is what I was thinking. Even people with a limited grasp of the dire situation we are in seem to be "going gray" (which is a very old prepper term for not standing out.)
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    Offline Dominic

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    Re: Why are Americans "going gray" in regard to car colors?
    « Reply #13 on: August 23, 2025, 03:40:48 PM »
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  • Car companies have figured out that muted colors (gray/black/white) are more likely to see well, so they mass produce those colors (and charge extra for anything with a little color in it). The only cars nowadays that are brightly colored by default are luxury sports cars (Lamborghini, Ferrari, etc). 

    My car is black, but only because I was buying used and thus didn't have a choice. 

    Offline Seraphina

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    Re: Why are Americans "going gray" in regard to car colors?
    « Reply #14 on: August 23, 2025, 08:34:25 PM »
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  • My car is black, but only because I was buying used and thus didn't have a choice.
    You could have chosen not to buy it. Since you did buy it, you can choose to get it painted in the color of your choice.

    Gray may be on the way out. I’ve noticed a number of new cars on the road that are light blue, dark teal, and orange muted with a little brown. Last year my sister bought a Subaru Crosstrek in the orange color. At first, she stuck out, but since, cars of this color and similar oranges are popular. Two have appeared in driveways on my block and I sometimes see a nurse or home health assistant getting into a bright orange car in front of an elderly gentleman’s house. 
    This is my sister’s car, not actual vehicle, but just like it.