Friday, June 09, 2006

Dull Camouflaged Cars

When I was a kid and when I was a teenager and when I was a young mother, cars came in Real Colors. Like tans, greens, blues and yellows, sometimes bright, sometimes pastel and sometimes dark. Two-tones were popular, too. And the early station wagons featured real wood paneling.


Today, what do we have? Aside from Arrest-Me Red, car colors are either white or some shade of Can't-See-Me. Makes for a dull parking lot or street scene. Oh, yes, I have noticed that every year or so, the auto styling gurus allow one (1--count-em--1) Real Color to reach the showrooms. Usually it's a dark shade. And metallized. Blue. Green. The colors of scarab beetles.

Occasionally one of those wonderful fiesta-colored VW bugs made in Mexico shows up on our streets. Curious -- I couldn't find any good pictures of lime green or lavender or pink Mexican VWs when I went a-googling. Though cars from a vintage VW show at this site certainly come a variety of colors.

Things are a bit different in Japan, (thank you, Google) where the two-tone vehicle is preferred. And I learned tonight that an Italian firm has a two-tone luxury model on display. But it is, again, in colors dark enough to merit the Can't-See-Me tag.

Funny thing, in a Murphy's law sort of way: while I was riding home from the supermarket, I saw both a taxicab-yellow sports sedan and an incredibly BRIGHT orange family SUV. That's what comes of riding rather than walking -- I wasn't able to get a picture of either!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

PT Cruiser erupted in a lovely, head turning array of colors including my Cousin's yummy bing cherry and my favorite, burnt orange. Among PT Cruiser immages, I found a variety of interesting colors including a cranberry "woody", not real wood these days, but still, a stand out car for the individualist. Apart from a couple of nice blues and a bright yellow, 2006 Cruisers seem to be "can't see me" colors.
I wonder if you've discovered a consumer driven trend, the pc path to an all gray world......oooops as usual, I digress

Absolutely Love your blog! I begin every day reading Granny J.

Linda G.
Prescott

Granny J said...

Such wonderful words! As for the non-colors -- perhaps it is a bid for one area of privacy by being invisible
in a sea of sameness.

GrannyJ

 
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