QOTD: Colored Brake Calipers
I'm in Sin City testing the Kia EV6 GT this week -- check back next week for the review -- and one thing I've noticed is the neon green brake calipers.
Lots of sporty cars have colored/painted brake calipers. In most cases, I dig the look. I want to throw it out to y'all -- do you dig it? Or would you prefer the calipers to be unpainted? If it's an option on a car you're buying, would you spring for it?
Sound off below.
[Image: Kia]
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Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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Not sure that in the future cars will need brakes with regen braking.
Front calipers on my car are painted red...did the brakes this past summer and wanted painted calipers to try and keep our rust belt winter salt spray from rotting them out. Would have preferred black but the only "acceptable" color I could lay my hands on from a REPUTABLE brand was red. They look okay I guess but neon green? No way.
FWIW rear calipers are zinc-coated and maybe 2 years old now...sure enough they're rusting 🤨
OEM or aftermarket high-performance brakes and calipers - OK.
OEM "basic brakes" - Not OK.
Something should look special only if it is special.
It seems like they’re copying Porsche, as their hybrid brand color is chartreuse, which they use on the badging and calipers. That being said, personally it depends on the type and color of the car. I only find them appropriate on sports cars or very sporty models (AMG, M, RS, etc.) and then in line with the color, a cherry red Ferrari with lime green calipers? No thanks! BUT, unfortunately they’ve become another useless gimmick that sells cars. When I worked for a dealer we had several vehicles come through with red, plastic covers clipped on them. We removed them of course, but customers who saw the pics online with them would not buy the car without red calipers of some sort. Both these cars were light blue with red calipers, the combo looked garrish.