Are we getting less choice when we buy cars?

[ctallchris]

I looked at some new cars this weekend and i noticed a worrying trend.
I had a choice of 3 colours red blue and 6 shades of black. There was no british racing green, Gold , Magenta, Turquiose or choice of any kind. I'm not saying that i would choose a turqouise car but it's not exactly difficult to have a near infinite choice of paint colours on a modern production line. Likewise the choice of car interior was uniform. You could have the standard grey with grey cloth seats and aluminium effect plastic trim, or black with black cloth seats and aluminium effect plastic or for £3,000 extra you can get the full black leather with black leather trimmed interior and alluminium effect plastic.

Basically one choice of colour, Black.

I walked through the town center later and looked through car windows checking out the interior of just about every car i passed and discovered the only people who appear to do things differently are peugeot and ford.

in a ford fiesta you can get an interior which matches the exterior colour in a cheap car. In a £50,000 audi you get a single choice of colour. If i'm buying a car for that much money i should be able to speccify pink and yellow stripes if i wanted. it's not going to be a fleet car and it's not on finance so they can't complain about resale. It costs about £5 in coulorant to change the plastic they use for the interior from black to a deep cherry or dark green / blue. Black is much more expensive colour to use so why not even give us the option.

and they have the gall to mention personal and your car and tailored to you about a billion times in all their brochures

[hornetrider]

Definitely.

I bought a new MX5 and there was no choice of interior colour at all. It's black leather or the highway. Europe gets optional Recaro seats which are the dogs whotsits...we alas do not. Exterior colour choice is: black, silver, grey, red, blue. *yawn*

[busta]

Lotus have go the right idea still: Elise colours

[havoc]

Re: external paint, I think that's something to do with EU recycling laws, where they've got to include X percent of a grey recycled compound, hence the high number of silvers, blacks and greys on offer.

Re: interior - agree entirely, the new Fiesta is a lovely place to be.

[swamp]

I think Volkswagen will one day make a car where every single component, every bit of the car, is a shade of grey. Even the brake lights and number plates will be grey.

(Slightly OT, I know.)

Edited by swamp on Monday 23 August 13:05

[busta]

swamp said:

I think Volkswagen will one day make a car where every single component, every bit of the car, is a shade of grey. Even the brake lights and number plates will be grey.

(Slightly OT, I know.)

Edited by swamp on Monday 23 August 13:05

They already did!

[homerjay]

every car on the road is a shade of bloody grey.

[Risotto]

I'm fairly sure David Vivian was complaining about the exact opposite in his evo column a few issues ago. I think he cited the Fiat 500 and MINI as examples of the overwhelming choice on offer in ternms of int/ext colour.

I've seen some pretty odd Citroen DS colours too.

Besides which, offering a wide range of colours would mean manufacturers like Porsche wouldn't be able to charge thousands of pounds for their 'paint to sample' services!

Edited by Risotto on Monday 23 August 16:16

[havoc]

Risotto said:

I'm fairly sure David Vivian was complaining about the exact opposite in his evo column a few issues ago. I think he cited the Fiat 500 and MINI as examples of the overwhelming choice on offer in ternms of int/ext colour.

I've seen some pretty odd Citroen DS colours too.

Exceptions in the "car as fashion statement" market.
How many red 3-series are there out there (and that a claret-colour), or blue (dark, almost Navy)?
Or Merc C's (less colours)?
Or A4's (blue quite nice, can't remember a red except for cabrio/S4)
Or XF's?
Or Mondeos, Insignias, Passats, 407s, C5s, Lagunas, etc. etc. etc.

[Risotto]

havoc said:

Risotto said:

I'm fairly sure David Vivian was complaining about the exact opposite in his evo column a few issues ago. I think he cited the Fiat 500 and MINI as examples of the overwhelming choice on offer in ternms of int/ext colour.

I've seen some pretty odd Citroen DS colours too.

Exceptions in the "car as fashion statement" market.
How many red 3-series are there out there (and that a claret-colour), or blue (dark, almost Navy)?
Or Merc C's (less colours)?
Or A4's (blue quite nice, can't remember a red except for cabrio/S4)
Or XF's?
Or Mondeos, Insignias, Passats, 407s, C5s, Lagunas, etc. etc. etc.

Oh, I agree - as far as premium manufacturers are concerned, the choice of colours is limited but can you blame them? They've spent decades carefully controlling their PR and image. They're not going to put their upmarket image at risk by allowing some bell-end to spec one of their flagships in some horifically unfashionable shade.

They plan their colour ranges years in advance. They decide what's going to be popular and so the majority of customers therefore find a shade they like in the available range.

The current fad for black, white, grey, etc is simply a trend. Back in the mid 1990's it wasn't uncommon to see metallic turquoise Jaguars - but Jaguar don't want you to want one in that shade anymore, so they've popularised other colours. Personally, I thought the turquoise ones looked fecking awful at the time and they're even worse now...

Edited by Risotto on Monday 23 August 17:10

[havoc]

Risotto said:

They plan their colour ranges years in advance. They decide what's going to be popular and so the majority of customers therefore find a shade they like in the available range.

The current fad for black, white, grey, etc is simply a trend. Back in the mid 1990's it wasn't uncommon to see metallic turquoise Jaguars - but Jaguar don't want you to want one in that shade anymore, so they've popularised other colours. Personally, I thought the turquoise ones looked fecking awful at the time and they're even worse now...

Oh I agree...but there MUST be colours* (y'know, normal reds, blues, maybe a nice green) which suit these cars. Yet we perpetually get just shades of grey.


* as opposed to shades of grey

[RDMcG]

I think we bring it on ourselves. Many people will buy a grey/silver/black car because of potential resale value. You often see it here in terms of people expressing dislike for (say) the green on the Focus RS etc. Dealers want to shift inventory, and the safe colours do it. I love wilder colours and sometimes buy them, but its not a great idea from a depreciation point of view.......

[havoc]

RDMcG said:

I think we bring it on ourselves. Many people will buy a grey/silver/black car because of potential resale value. You often see it here in terms of people expressing dislike for (say) the green on the Focus RS etc. Dealers want to shift inventory, and the safe colours do it. I love wilder colours and sometimes buy them, but its not a great idea from a depreciation point of view.......

10 years ago you'd probably have been right. Now...the 'wilder colours' are the minority, so will probably go quite quickly.


It doesn't even have to be 'wilder colours' - say you were in the market for a small exec saloon/estate - would you go for a blue BMW or A4 over a grey/silver/black one? I would...yet so few of them are that colour. I'd probably pick red too...

[ctallchris]

Risotto said:

I'm fairly sure David Vivian was complaining about the exact opposite in his evo column a few issues ago. I think he cited the Fiat 500 and MINI as examples of the overwhelming choice on offer in ternms of int/ext colour.

I've seen some pretty odd Citroen DS colours too.

Besides which, offering a wide range of colours would mean manufacturers like Porsche wouldn't be able to charge thousands of pounds for their 'paint to sample' services!

Edited by Risotto on Monday 23 August 16:16

I can understand someone having a dislike for a colour of car. Most of the concepts Masonry come out with are goddamn awful. The Someone can have the choice and choose black though. you can buy a mini and just have the basic trim. you usually have to pay more for the personalisation. I have no problem with this neither should those who don't like choice after all they just don't pay for the paint.

The problem is if the option doesn't exist an audi ttRS comes in red blue or a shade of grey. On the interior you have the choice of 4 shades of grey.

I would even say the 500 is devoid of choice (4 colours and 4 interiors) yes you can shove stickers on it but £130 for a quick spray through a stencil seems a bit excessive
even mini have moved towards the uniform black dash :/

I suppose there just can't be the market

[LukeBird]

Yes.

[Boosted LS1]

I thought most cars were boring silver? I sat behind a row of 5 silver cars recently.

[Dick_Phallus]

I die a little inside when someone talks about getting a VAG car in black. It's always fking black...looks 'mint' innit.

Personally I love wild colours - there's an S-Type by me. V8 petrol, in white (WAYY before it become cool again) with red leather. Looks terrible, but I love it because you know that the owner of that car loves it. He went into the Jaguar dealer wanting a V8, wanting white and wanting red leather and bought it- and didn't take any salesman bullst about getting the diesel in grey for resale. I often think of knocking on his door and telling him he's my hero.

[ctallchris]

Dick_Phallus said:

I die a little inside when someone talks about getting a VAG car in black. It's always fking black...looks 'mint' innit.

Personally I love wild colours - there's an S-Type by me. V8 petrol, in white (WAYY before it become cool again) with red leather. Looks terrible, but I love it because you know that the owner of that car loves it. He went into the Jaguar dealer wanting a V8, wanting white and wanting red leather and bought it- and didn't take any salesman bullst about getting the diesel in grey for resale. I often think of knocking on his door and telling him he's my hero.

My favorite "odd" mix of colours has to be the tuscan in purple and green two tone.

Say to someone you are going for a purple and green car and they'll look at you like you're mad but it works