DETROIT – For Elisha Jakubowski of Rochester, Mich., buying a new car has as much to do with Martha Stewart as Jackie Stewart.
Sure, Jakubowski looks at engine size, performance, styling and gas mileage when picking a new car. But if it’s not offered in a color she likes, she is moving on to a new model.
“I’m a woman. Of course, color’s important,” Jakubowski said while checking out the new cars and colors at the 2006 North American International Auto Show.
Those who track trends in the auto industry agree, noting a recent survey that reported that 34 percent of car buyers will opt for another model if they can’t get their first choice in a color they like.
Lifestyle trends
Color designers say that, after a period in the 1990s dominated by conservative, neutral colors, car buyers are celebrating the new millennium by expressing themselves and their individualism by buying cars with bolder colors.
Christopher Webb, exterior coloring trend designer from General Motors Corp.’s North American operations, said it is not much of a surprise. With the popularity of home decorating and designer television shows, people are painting their home interiors in more daring colors. Therefore, it is not much of a leap, style- and comfort-wise, for someone to go from a blue-walled home to a blue-colored car.
Car colors “follow lifestyle trends,” said Webb, who also is a member of the Color Marketing Group, a global color organization the forecasts color directions and trends.
“The average consumer is more design-savvy,” he said. “People want something unique.”
Basic black and beyond
But it wasn’t always that way. Henry Ford was credited with saying that customers could have his Model T in any color they wanted as long as it was black. Over the years more colors were introduced into car lineups.
Webb said the 1980s conspicuous-consumption era featured bolder-colored cars in bright reds and yellows. The 1990s were more conservative, dominated by neutrals such as black and white. In fact, the 1997 list of the most popular car colors includes light brown, dark green, white, black, silver, medium and dark red and dark blue.
“Now we’re back to a period of expressing individualism,” he said.
“Blue is returning as the biggest, most important color,” Webb said. “Red is important. Blue is important. You put them together and you get purple. There’s a purplish-red Rolls-Royce at the auto show. There’s a dark purple on the Chevy Equinox.”
Sandy Mathia, color design specialist for BASF’s Automotive OEM Coatings Solutions, said tinted grays are a way “to subtly introduce new colors.”
She also said that “saturated pastels – like a soft blue but not a baby blue” will be popular in the next few years.
“Silvers will be taking on more color and also popular will be dark colors that are almost black,” she said. “It will be colors you look twice at. It might be dark blue or dark red. I call them “head turners.”‘
Webb calls this trend “emerging hue” or “shifting pigment.” “It’s almost like a prism,” he said. “The color moves as you move around the car.”
Bolder, more daring colors, of course, look more at home on certain models compared to others. For instance, it makes sense that a fun, retro car such as the Chevy HHR would come in a color called “sunburst orange.” Don’t look for that color to be offered on the Cadillac DTS.
But Webb said bold colors on some luxury brands can work. He said Cadillac offered the Escalade EXT in a bright blue for a short time and it was the top-selling color.
He said this trend toward offering a certain color on a model for a limited time also is emerging. Chevrolet, Webb said, once offered only 99 vehicles in “anniversary red.” He said automakers in the future will offer colors for a short run on vehicles.
“People want something that others don’t have or can’t have,” he said.
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