QOTD: Color, or Stealth?
There are a few manufacturers selling vehicles in this country that seemingly don’t want everyone to drive something painted a dull shade of grey or white. Large, teutonic sedans from Ingolstadt or Munich all seem to be on the greyscale (when was the last time you saw an A6 or 5 Series in any sort of bright color?), but even these manufacturers let loose with their sportier offerings. The natty Turbo Blue found on a TT RS is particularly eye-popping.
What’s your take? Given the option, if you were to buy a new car today, would it blend with the pavement — or would it be visible from space?
Your author is squarely in the latter camp, preferring palettes like those available from the gloriously unhinged folks at Dodge. Go Mango, Hellraisin, Sinamon Stick — the names are as delightful as the colors themselves. And, yes, those three names are real paint shades for 2020.
There is a case to be made for those who prefer to blend into the asphalt. Convention holds that a Challenger painted in eye-popping B5 Blue (not available for 2020) will get picked off by the gendarmes more easily than one dipped in a vat of Granite Crystal. I’m not sure that holds as true today as it did twenty or thirty years ago, but there’s no denying that the human eye will, of its own volition, spy the brightly colored car first. Whether the cop’s speed-reading equipment finds bright-colored cars faster is up for debate.
Bright colors? Or stealthy subterfuge? The choice is yours.
[Image: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles]
Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.
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I have a Sublime Challenger and a B5 Charger and can't for life of me understand why anyone would buy Destroyer Gray, but, to each his own.
My dream is to have the most dad-mobile of dad-mobiles you can find, and have it be an absolute monster of a sleeper. So, bone stock muted exterior (although not just white, black, and gray. Darker blues, greens, and burgundy like reds are always nice), but some kind of luxury sport sedan inside and underneath. I'd probably have to either learn how to be a master level resto-modder or spend a small fortune to do this, however. Example: if you could put the exterior of a mid-level CUV or even a mainstream large-ish sedan over something like the Audi RS5 or maybe a mid level Charger drive-train and suspension underneath (Hellcat would be too much). Alas, no such beast exists. So, yes. Stealth. Always.
Before black, white and fifty shades of gray became the norm it always struck me that in poor visibility it was invisible-color cars that would invariably be the ones with no headlights on, as though their drivers reflexively wanted to blend into the scenery. So I figured it was a personality trait. Now, of course, invisible colors are the norm so there goes that theory. Or maybe not, because driving a car painted a loud color takes a concerted effort today. When I was driving my Colorado (pumpkin) orange BMW 2002 in the early '70s that model was offered in 24 distinct hues, black being the LEAST common. BTW, that great color on the wide body Challenger at the top of this article is identical to one that was available on the E46 M3!
Strangely, there are still people who think that parking lights are appropriate while driving in twilight.