Mistress Quickly

It was a beautiful sunny day yesterday and I saw a very pretty olive-skinned raven-haired girl sitting in her Sky Blue Citroen DS3. The colour made her look like a goddess even if her undeniably cute and stylish car didn’t quite live up to its namesake from the 50s. The car has been described as Anti Retro but that colour is very late fifties/early sixties. Mr Q’s 1961 TR is a very similar Powder Blue.

Saz’s mate says that blue is a colour that suits all skin tones and I don’t think it is an accident that the woman on the opening page of Colour me Beautiful is swathed in a light blue scarf.

I’m interested in the vagaries of style and fashion and am wondering how important colour is to UK Car Talk contributors and whether people’s choices are governed by how much they think a particular colour suits their personality or even their skin tone and looks.

How important is colour when making a car choice? (Also interested to hear what people think of the DS3)

MB

Colour is important to me as i'm quite particular, but it's about the car not me. Resale point of view is also important.

Only colour i've had second thoughts on from a perception point of view, is a white S. Love the colour, just think it could be seen as a bit gay Still would have bought one if I could have found it.

Skin tone and looks? Not a chance!

Gaspode

Oi Primer coloured boy... there is a white one up for grabs.

Put your money where your mouth is

chilled

It's entirely secondary to me. I'm not even that fussed about how a car looks in general. Indeed, I'm in the process of buying a 1 series hatchback so I clearly don't care about car looks

But colour matters so much more on certain cars than it does on others.

big jags/german saloons must be dark or silver.

Mid engined ferraris look best in red, front engined ferraris generally look better in colours other than red.

Lamborghinis MUST have loud colours. Whoever heard of a subtle lambo?

Small cars, colour not as important.

ge2

It depends on the car but if I get to choose it would probably be bright red.

My next Caterham will be Ferrari red (again) and if I my BMW race car ever needs a lot of paint it will be red.

If I'm buying used there might be colours I won't have, e.g. I wouldn't have bought the M3 in yellow but I'm generally not too fussy, it's a car not an item of clothing.

I don't think any hetro male would consider skin tone when choosing a car colour. Sounds complicated.

sound_wave

I think colour is important in a car. As alluded to here, certain cars look right in certain colours (as stated, red MR Ferrari's, loud coloured Lambos, BRG Mini's (real minis, that is!) )

It's also funny how car colours come into, and out of vogue quite quickly. Now it seems that white, or really gaudy metallics (a la new Fiesta) are the in thing, previously, it was silver, before that it was black. Back then, having a white car was seen as an extension of 'white van man' syndrome...
I wonder what the next vogue car colour will be?

RUSS H

Red every time, sets off my bald pate a treat. More so after a day of welding
without a screen.


Russ.

martin j

We will never have another red car, herself has dinged both red cars we had before and if the accident severity increases as it did between the first and second the next would be very serious. Now I'm sure you will all tell me it was just a coincidence but we're taking no chances.
As for the Citroen, if it's the new model I'm thinking of, the colours I've seen it in would not persuade me to sit in it let alone buy it.

Mistress Quickly

Somebody told me the other day that red cars are more likely to get rear-ended because the brake lights don't show up as much owing to lack of contrast.

Anish Kapoor said, "Red, of course, is the colour of the interior of our bodies. In a way it's inside out, red." It is loaded with symbolism.

I like the Ford Fiesta green Squeeze, nicer than the other Ford Cordial Lime.

Shiskine

Unlike Chilled (although I suspect it matters more than he's letting on), a car's colour is important to me. Not so much because I'm worried it may or may not go with my complexion or typical wardrobe, but because to me at least, the colour of a car invariably influences its overall look and appeal.

Some cars look great in darker colours whilst looking dreadful in silver or white and equally the opposite can be true. The Maserati Gran Turismo I drive past most days looks fantastic in black, whilst another silver one I see occasionally just looks odd in silver (particularly the rear view).

How a car looks to me, and of course what it might say about me to others, are important factors when buying.

Would Chilled really drive a cracking car in some hideous hairdresser colour ...


(I also like the new Fiesta but in white and think it also looks quite good in that raspberry colour they use in the ads)