Somebody posted this on the other site, thought I’d link to
The age of average by Alex Murrell https://www.alexmurrell.co.uk/articles/the-age-of-average
Somebody posted this on the other site, thought I’d link to
The age of average by Alex Murrell https://www.alexmurrell.co.uk/articles/the-age-of-average
Resale value. Monochromatic colors retain the highest resale value, which is why you see so many of them. It’s boring and awful. My car is orange because it makes me smile and I can easily find it in a parking lot.
On top of this, a lot of cars come into circulation through vehicle hire and corporate fleets. They get driven for a year, then sold on the used market.
Vehicle hire companies also all want specifically white/silver/grey cars for the same reason - they are inoffensive and unobtrusive to the people renting them, and they sell better afterwards too.
My orange Veloster was a corporate fleet car, though I get the point. It’s also a turbo and a manual, so they might’ve added it to the fleet particularly for the people that like a bit of fun.
Just to build on that a bit, I think it’s more so that resale value is considered higher because more people today aren’t trying to be as colorful as previous decades.
You see it in clothing, too, which people aren’t buying with the intention to resell. 1980’s clothing was a lot more colorful and flashy. In winter, everyone had those colorful windbreakers and ski jackets. Today, when I go out during winter and look at what kinds of coats people on the street are wearing, it’s basically just a sea of mostly black and beige in various styles.
Oh, for sure. Trying to find my black coat on the coatrack at work is always a pain. I miss the fun colors of the 80s. Still a huge fan of that teal.
A Washington Post color analysis of D.C. found shades of gray permeate neighborhoods where the White population has increased and the Black population has decreased.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/interactive/2025/gentrification-gray-changing-city-neighborhoods/
Obviously. White + black = gray.
(/s because I’m sure someone needs that for this.)
Looking at video games right now, which is one of the largest cultural touchstones of this age, I think that’s going to change soon. Right now, there are so many games using vibrant colors. Two examples that come to mind are The Finals and the upcoming Marathon.
This style is different than the past though. It isn’t color everywhere. It’s mostly white (or other neutral color) with very vibrant accents. It’s the style Mirror’s Edge (many of the devs now work on The Finals) did so long ago, but it didn’t stick. Now it looks like it’s going to stick around for a little while at least.
To take it further - cities and towns. Most cities have a fairly dull color palette (browns and greys). There are of course exceptions to this but most people live in very bland, non-offensive environments from cars, to clothing, to the houses and office buildings where they live and work.
I’ve always wondered why humans both love color and are scared of it at the same time?
But clothes you mix and match. I got a pair of comfortable and flattering trousers so I got a pair more in a different colour. And it’s a sort of grey green that I thought would be fine but somehow it clashes with almost everything I own.
You sure about that? I bought my Volvo impulsively in part because it was the fully equipped model in blue instead of any other color which was readily available…
It seems we’re cut from the same cloth. Unfortunately, the majority of people are boring.
https://www.kbb.com/car-advice/what-are-the-best-car-colors-to-buy/
I can also say, coming from a place that gets snow in the winter, I can see why white cars have an edge over others, which is that they’re better at hiding salt. They put salt on all the roads to melt snow and ice, but then it sticks to cars and shows up very noticeably on anything with darker/bolder colors.
I had a black mica Barina that never showed dirt. The mica in the paint had just the right amount of reflectivity that any additional dirt or dust just looked like more mica.