So I’m sitting in the parking lot near Dunkin’ Donuts during my lunch hour. I’m looking across the lot at the various cars parked in a reasonable order and I can’t help but notice that the color selection of the majority vehicles is, for lack of a better word, muted. There are no oranges or lime greens or yellows like you’d find in the days gone by. Everything is a subtle color, if the color falls outside of a monochromatic selection at all.
I wonder why this is.
People often buy the vehicle that expresses their personality. This isn’t always the case, but people will most likely buy the color vehicle that they are attracted to, and judging by this completely unscientific survey I’m doing here, people are feeling rather subtle these days. They don’t want to stray far from a gray area. There are very few who make the bold choice.
I find this intriguing.
I want a bright green vehicle, but a certain Husbear frowns up on it. And considering the truck I have is white I’d either have to pay to have it repainted, or buy a whole new vehicle….
I’m always a proponent of buying a new vehicle.
As a stage designer I am constantly amazed at how many people are afraid of color. Maybe the lack of any interesting color palette in the auto market is a reflection of the fact that we no longer have any art classes in most of our schools. I think people just don’t feel comfortable making color choices.
I never made the correlation between the lack of art education in schools and the lack of interest in color but it makes perfect sense to me. Looking at the crowd I am sitting in as I write this comment, I notice that the folks around me are wearing very muted colors as well, though that can be blamed on the winter season, I suppose.
Cars are no longer the luxury personal items that they were when we were growing up, therefore we dont take the same pride in them. They are just another tool that gets us thru our life…. so they are functional, and gray… just like our hammers, and screwdrivers. and desktop PCs, wash and dryer, stove, etc. You can tell if someone is passionate about a particular task but the upgrades in their tools… cars, cordless drills, stainless steel appliances, etc. It’s based on your intrinsic value of the item and the pleasure you derive from it.