I got a red car to fight against the tyranny of black/white/grey/silver I see in parking lots.
Seriously though, I have a light yellow car, because it’s always easy to find in the parking lots.
I do get the resale thing of course, but I’m keeping this bastard until it’ll be financially sound to swap to electronic, and by that time, it’ll sadly be worthless regardless of colour. Hell, the yellow may even increase it’a value by then because only future hipsters will want to buy it.
A couple of years ago, someone took me to a shop and didn't want to come inside with me and waited in the car. When I came out, I had to peak into each car because I couldn't tell one car from another on the car park. 100% of them were metal grey! (and since they more or less have the same shape nowadays...)
That was when I remembered how, in the 80s, people would mock eastern countries for having almost only a single type of car. "Imagine how sad that would be, you wouldn't want to live under such a regime." That would be the typical ultimate anti-communist argument in bar conversations...
Well, fast-forward 15 years and into the West, in the first decade of the XXIst century, basically all cars sold here (in France) were metal grey. Big change for the second decade: all cars sold were this time either black or white, yay... Can't wait for the fad of the present decade, 50 shades of grey perhaps?
To increase the depression rate, public transport was also often made grey; the rebirth of tramways: metal grey + black mirror windows in many places, trains as well. In the city in which I lived, they even replaced the much acclaimed blue/yellow/red livery of a few buses with white or grey. (This depended on cities, some kept colourful paints.) And then you'd get into your work building (for the external appearance, if it is new enough, no more brick cover, probably grey walls + mirror grey windows), and inside the floor carpet was grey, the partition walls were grey, the false ceiling was grey, the windows were grey (aluminium), most furniture was grey. Inside and outside, people wearing grey and black. Thanks you, joyful economic liberalism, for saving me from the boredom of planned state socialism :-)
Aerodynamics and safety legislation about things like gaps between engine and bonnet (hood) are harsh mistresses.
Leaves a lot less room from creativity especially combined with platforms/drive-train re-use setting basic floorplan sizes.
Honestly doesn't bother me, a car is a box with four wheels to go from A to B but I'm not a car guy, I like motorcycles and there at least there is still a lot of room for aesthetics.
Yeah, but it is also a bit of an excuse for everyone just copying a model that sold well in the previous year. You can find "sport" cars which are still pretty different and yet perfectly obey the legislations.
> I'm not a car guy
I'm not either. I probably only step in a car once a year (I do everything by bike).
However, we are talking about aesthetics. External aesthetics. That is, what is exposed and seen by others: other car drivers, motorbike riders, bicycle riders, pedestrians, horse riders, everyone passing by. The huge majority of the time, cars are just parked with no one inside.
This exposition is continuous. The number of cars in my country has doubled since the 80s (despite basically every home having a car already then). It is aggravated by the fact that nowadays the paint jobs are much more resistant and many people don't bother parking the cars in a garage or any kind of shelter and just leave them in the street, in the public space. Even in the country, in my village, the streets & roads are now surrounded by a never ending line of parked cars.
Those wheeled devices are seen much more than what they are used.
Ah, and sand with a bright orange roof on my hobby/project car.
The other day I parked in a line of 7 white vehicles in a row.
In my defense, I wanted orange, but the orange they offered was more of a red than an orange. They had two other types of red available, so that was ridiculous. Then I wanted a deep gray, but the Japanese tsunami wiped out the plant that made the pigment. I would have liked green, but their green option was also a terrible shade.
So, white. With black stripes.