News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of... by wlesieutre on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @12:59PM (#36047194)
That's a lot of work to paint 80% of new cars in the most boring colors possible
Re:Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of... by crazygringo on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @01:38PM (#36047855)
Then what's boring to you is clearly tasteful to the 80% of people buying them.

I personally like to express my personality in other ways. The last thing I want is a car screaming some garish hue. Especially since I can do things like match clothes to my mood and the season, but I can't get my car repainted every day or every three months.

Re:Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of... by wlesieutre on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @02:10PM (#36048402)
It's not even really up to customers today, most people (me included) will take whatever color is available as long as it's not hideous. That's how I'm ending up with a white car even though I'm not enthusiastic about it. I guess manufacturers know that, so it's no problem for them to keep cranking out the whites and grays.

Was talking to a Mazda salesperson recently and he was complaining that the first five or six of the new CX-90s they were being allocated are all white. Though looking at their website they have some red and dark blue ones on the way now, so maybe that was just the first production run.

Re:Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of... by crazygringo on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @02:26PM (#36048672)
It's still up to customers in the sense that car companies are cranking out whites and grays because that's where the most consumer demand is.

If people stopped buying white today, Mazda would stop producing it tomorrow.

Re:Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of... by wlesieutre on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @02:28PM (#36048702)
I get that they do it because it's boring and unobjectionable, but I stand by my original point that it is boring.
Re:Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of... by crazygringo on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @03:18PM (#36049387)
No, you're projecting "boring" onto it. That's how you feel about what they're buying, not how they feel.

I stand by my original point that it's tasteful. Classic shades of white, gray, silver, and black are in good taste, which is why people buy them. The buyers aren't saying "I want a boring color", they're saying "I want a tasteful shade".

Re:Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of... by wlesieutre on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @03:55PM (#36050007)
Maybe we can agree that it's tastefully boring

At least it's not beige, which would only be boring

Re:Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of... by crazygringo on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @04:28PM (#36050421)
> At least it's not beige

Ugh, if the 1990's are calling, tell them I'm not home!

Re:Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of... by wlesieutre on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @04:44PM (#36050618)
If you get a call from the 1990's tell Honda to bring back cypress green pearl

Meanwhile at Mazda, I can see "zircon sand" working for the CX-50, but I'm skeptical on the Miata https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a41995585/2023-mazda-miata...

Unless it's such a weird choice that it somehow transcends boringness?

Re:Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of... by elzbardico on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @06:31PM (#36051679)
Bach's fugues are tasteful, french cuisine is good taste. White and grey cars are just boring, the definition of good taste for the unimaginative petite bourgeoisie, the hallmark of conformity and middle-class sensitivity.

I have a grey car, but I am fully aware this is the case just because I am a terminally boring middle-class denizen, mass-produced, and absolutely non-remarkable for history.

Re:Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of... by lmm on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @07:10PM (#36051989)
McDonald's is "where the most consumer demand is" but that doesn't make it interesting food. White on a car is "good enough"; people have other priorities than getting the car in their favourite colour.
Re:Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of... by mhb on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @02:00PM (#36048233)
The gap between boring and garish is at least big enough to drive a Mini Cooper through.
Re:Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of... by Swizec on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @02:03PM (#36048297)
> Then what's boring to you is clearly tasteful to the 80% of people buying them.

Apparently this has to do with how the economy is doing. When times are tough, people like boring car colors. Something about ease of resale and broad palatability in car dealerships.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/22/most-cars-are-painted-one-of...

Re:Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of... by seabird on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @07:05PM (#36051959)
Not every car that isn't black/white/gray is garish, and at least in the US, most people have unbelievably bad taste when it comes to vehicles.
Re:Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of... by nicenewtemp84 on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @02:14PM (#36048475)
I worked in car sales for a decade.

If you like model xyz, and you like red, but we only have it in Silver, you'll probably buy it.

If you like model xyz, and dislike vibrant colors (very common), you won't buy the red one we have.

Re:Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of... by wlesieutre on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @02:22PM (#36048607)
It's true, if I weren't married I'd be getting Soul Red Crystal. Gorgeous color. But it's not for everyone, apparently.

And the blue option isn't available, so white is it. If they had literally any non-red color we would've bought it, but they didn't.

Re:Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of... by joezydeco on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @04:15PM (#36050256)
I have a deep blue crystal Mazda but I also lust for that Soul Red color. It's amazing.
Re:Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of... by wlesieutre on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @04:49PM (#36050689)
Can't believe I'm paying $400 for white, but even with that the overall price beats what I could get out of another dealer 100 miles away where they had a deep crystal blue on the lot. Beats paying thousands of dollars of markups for literally nothing.
Re:Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of... by sp332 on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @07:21PM (#36052080)
Re:Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of... by DannyBee on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @07:32PM (#36052147)
You can get whatever color you want in most luxury cars, you just have to pay and wait for it.

Audi will happily get you a Lamborghini yellow q5 if you want.

Re:Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of... by somerandomqaguy on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @08:54PM (#36052681)
Eh, boring has it's it's own merits. I dropped my bike and gouged the fairings a bit. The materials cost to repair one of the other colors for it is $170. My color needs $320 in material and more then double in labor costs.

Those really gorgeous colors are extremely expensive to repair.