Technicolor dreamcoats
There was no mistaking me yesterday at the auto show. I often wear one of the most colorful shirts you’ll ever see. David “Champ” Champion loathes that shirt, but then again, we’re talking about a guy who’s got about 20 khaki pants/blue polo shirt combinations.
Color is a very personal thing. I like to be easily identified in a crowded room and I’ve been pointed out as the guy that looks like a video test pattern. On the other side of the spectrum, Champ typically looks like he moonlights at Best Buy. <ducking>
Yesterday, GM introduced three Chevrolet microcar concepts. “The triplets,” as they’re called collectively, were unveiled in “Lunar Quartz”, “Blaze Orange”, and some type of lime color, and they’re brighter and frillier than a Car and Driver specs page. And like Car and Driver, these cars are decked out in splashy hues in a vain attempt to appeal to the youth market. Most twenty-somethings that I know deck themselves out in silver, black, and blue—that’s silver body piercings, black eye shadow, and blue tattoos. I think you’ve got to sell kids cars in these colors.
When the wraps come off upscale or luxury cars at auto shows, they’re typically silver, gray, navy, or black—all very businesslike colors. Lexus and Infiniti, however, let their hair down a little and sometimes introduce their cars in champagne or bronze. I’ve never seen a champagne colored 5-Series; apparently champagne is not serious enough for BMW.
We have a Subaru Forester Sports 2.5 XT in our test fleet at the moment. The Sports has the same turbocharged engine as the WRX. And Subaru decided to give it the same bright blue color scheme that’s become a trademark of the WRX—but it’s just wrong. Foresters are supposed to be the color of blueberries. (“Blueberry,” in fact, is the pet name my kids gave our 2001 Forester L). Honda’s unveiled the S2000 CR in WRX-like blue, I noticed yesterday. Copycats.
Even though all these cars come in many different colors, I typically think the Hummer H2 should always be yellow, the Mazda Miata and Volkswagen Jetta red, and the BMW X3 charcoal. When I think of an Audi A4, I think of it as black, when I picture an S4, it’s red. Corvettes can be yellow, red, and black—any color but white. White looks dreadful on a ‘Vette—it’s emasculating. The only cars that look good in white are Cadillacs. Cadillacs should be white.
Of course, this all comes from a guy who is about to cart out his summer wardrobe of 14 dazzling Aloha shirts.
