QOTD: Maintaining a Low Profile?

Cars, like their drivers, often fly so far below the radar that they may as well not exist at all. Despite the best intentions of designers to stimulate (but not over-stimulate) loyal buyers, a great number of vehicles roll off the drawing board and into reality with an exterior tailor-made to avoid being noticed.

Some vehicles are nothing less than rolling anonymity. Which, depending on your line of work, may be just the thing you’re looking for.

For criminals and private detectives and a good number of others, going unnoticed has its advantages. The question today is: which readily available vehicle perfectly fills this role?

I know exactly which vehicle I’d choose if remaining unseen topped my list of buying criteria. Sorry, Toyota.

A previous-generation (pre-2020) Corolla sedan, specifically one painted Slate Metallic or Galactic Aqua Mica (such non-vivid colors do not show up in Toyota’s image library), may well be the most anonymous vehicle available today. 2019 models are still flowing off lots, so availability is not an issue. How did I stumble on this not altogether unexpected choice? I realized, while walking the other day, that I was surrounded by them.

They made noise and took up physical space, yet my eyes almost failed to register their presence. Remember the movie Predator? These Corollas wear the same invisibility cloak. An added bonus is that they’re so common, so ubiquitous, that only a paranoid individual would assume the off-teal Corolla spotted here or there was the same one seen earlier.

Runner up? A current-gen Nissan Sentra in Gun Metallic gray, yet even this personification of blandness somehow manages to telegraph its presence to a greater degree than the Corolla.

If you absolutely needed to go unseen, what model would be your first choice?

[Images: Timothy Cain/TTAC, Toyota]