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Comment by cmauniada | Hacker News Reader

As others have mentioned, geography also plays a huge part. When I used to export vehicles to Afghanistan, I noticed that they didn't like dark colors at all. I was specially told by my broker to stay away from sending black cars or cars with darker shades i.e blue, because demand for them was very low.

The highest demand was for white cars, reason being is that the areas are quite dusty. So if you have a white car, it won't look very dirty with dust on it. In contrast if you have a black car, even the slightest dust will make it appear dirty. Its harder to keep a blacker color clean.

Also, for some reason green toyotas (sienna, tercel) always sold like hot pancakes in Cameroon. To this day I still don't know why.

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I think white cars are commonly preferred in hot climates, as there is a noticeable difference in the inside temperature of a white vs black that have both stood parked in the sun for most of the day.

Solar gain is a huge problem in a hot climate.

You can usually get into a white or silver car and drive it away. With a black car, you may have to leave the doors open for a few minutes to allow the broiling-hot air to escape. Interior temperatures can easily reach the far side of 120F.

Yes, my personal experience is 123F internal temperature around 4pm after car being parked whole day, one time in July in California. 110F many times.

That’s part of it (I remember reading a study that blank cars had a 2% reduction in fuel efficiency, speculated as attributable to their higher temperature requiring more air conditioning).

But white paint also withstands desert sun much better. Just a few years with a lot of outside exposure will make blues and greens in particular look sandblasted like they’ve been exposed to the weather forever

White also helps with visibility of the car, especially in dusty roads.

My memory told me Cameroon world cup teams have beautiful green jerseys and a google search confirmed that to be true.

A recent DPRK documentary pointed out that while a monochrome society used to be one of their explicitly propagandised goals, over the past decade they've become much more colourful. (under the influence of chinese tourists?)

There was a marketing theory I ran across back in the twentieth century, that societal colour palettes change in predictable ways. IIRC it was something like clothing is the first place a palette changes, then cars, then home appliances. But my memory is not the best.

The opposite reasoning from dusty white cars occurs for witches: they always have black cats, because who wants to always be cleaning white fur off the robes and pointy hat?

"Never drive black cattle in the dark."

Wow, very insightful! If you get a chance I would love to read the marketing theory.

(I will try to find it myself in the am too).

"Color forecasting" seems to be the term of art.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40691-017-0124-y

https://slate.com/culture/2012/04/pantone-color-forecasts-ar...

https://www.pantone.com/workflow/trend-forecasting

Do you have a link to the DPRK documentary?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StjIv33zJ9c&t=1960

Dashboards in older black cars used to literally melt in the summer. Getting into a black car in 35+ degrees heat is hell, have to turn on the A/C right away. A white or grey car is much more preferable under such conditions. And there is no disadvantage during winter, either.

Oh, so. that's where Modest Mouse's Dashboard came from. I always thought it was a (slight) exaggeration. At least we've still got the radio. :)

Some other comments have alluded to it, but heat is a big deal too. Black cars are non-trivially warmer baking in the sun for 12 hours.

When I was last in a dealership parking lot, it was a hot day and they had three of the same model in black, silver and white, all baking out in summer sun. The roof of the white car was noticeably cooler to the touch than the silver or black cars. It was actually quite remarkable to me how similar the silver and black felt.

There's an exhibit in the city gardens here that illustrates how cacti use colour to manage their heat in hot climates. The exhibit is four circles of paint in black, grey, green and white, and it's noticeably different on each! Even grey was noticeably cooler.

Extremely far-fetched: green cars are easier to convert to camouflage patterned military cars?

Why is that a thing that would be happening in Cameroon, again?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglophone_Crisis

The existence of Ambazonia doesn't translate to the general populace buying cars with the aim of turning them into camouflaged military vehicles in mind, no. What sort of Rambo fantasy is that?

Is there any interesting story behind why "Southern Cameroons" is in the geographical northwest of cameroon the country?

Edit: I see, it's political. They're southern in english, and northwest in french.

Bonus clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LndrLOLJgrs

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