We reached Peak Boring in 2011

[matthew1]

95% of SUVs I see out there are monochrome. I love Volvo partly because they (still) sell red XC90s. Gen 1 and Gen 2. Consumers don't buy them often based on my observation, but they're available. Hooray for Volvo!

[pgill]

That’s a nice red

[abscate]

Me in Gott. 75% of cars aren’t even being painted in colors. No wonder our society is collapsing

Let’s see my fleet....

Bmw silver
S70 project silver
Grunhilde Green
T4 in Apple
Elizabeth blue
Shagkira blue
Evita stone Black
Catherine blue blue
Juliette blue blue
Clark Stone black
VW beetle Green

I actually will give Volvo kudos for 019 Stone Black. It’s a beautiful rich deep black colour vs the crap that’s on most cars today
VW Karman Ghia Rust

[matthew1]

I can't get up on my high horse because both of my Volvos were monochrome. I bought those used.

[BlackBart]

That's a really interesting graph, if it's accurate. Look at the minor but constant red band through there. Look at green nearly disappearing - that might be because of the 90s teals that fell out of fashion. Not too many British Racing Green cars these days. Look at the surge of white from 2008. Now, white is proven to be the safest color, the one you see first, but I don't think that's the reason. Post-recession frugality??

These choices are all wrapped up in trends in fashion, in fabrics, in women's makeup, in advertising graphics, and in the graphics industry telling us what the "hot color" will be in 2021. That practice has always pissed me off.

Full disclosure - I have bright red, black(bart), dark blue, and very dark (asphalt) grey.

[June]

BlackBart makes sense. Here in Florida white is popular because it stays the coolest temperature wise in the HOT sun. My S80 is Ice white because a blue one was not in stock and white is my second choice in car color and I didn't have a say. I hate not being able to get a blue interior. Interior colors have sucked for a good 25 years now. June

[BlackBart]

Have you seen, in the last couple of years, some companies offering some really interesting shades, in non-metallic paints? Toyota has a bunch of them. They jump out at you, and I think it's because they're simple bold colors, and there's no layering of metallics to dress them up. Sort of a 50s look.

Then Mazda is doing very deep and complicated multi-layered metallic colors - deep reds. I bet body shops love matching those. Honda has a nice very dark maroon/burgundy. A couple of companies have taken a dated teal (blue-green / turquoise), but darkened it way up with black to make a rich dark color. I saw a Chevy truck the other day in a really nice rich dark blue with green in it. Also, Ford has a nice one like that, more green. VW has a cool color - Great Falls Green. Depends on the light.

Check out Audi Sonoma Green here -
https://blog.fcpeuro.com/14-of-the-most ... cars-today
I see some new purples on there, they barely register on the graph.

That reminds me of cool colors from the 70s - Porsche painted cars Aubergine, a deep cool purple. And Signal Orange. BMW 2002s came in Inka Orange and Colorado Orange, and Malaga maroon, one of my favorites.

[volvolugnut]

I can appreciate most colors, but clear coat just makes any color look bad after enough sun exposure. About 15 years maybe around here. Yes, they look shiny without much effort when the clear coat is new. But, I never buy new so I get none of that benefit and all of the pealing.
volvolugnut

[matthew1]

If I had to guess, I'd say the 90s explosion of color was the result of the end of the Cold War. It was a pretty carefree time. Also, Earth Day, recycling, and a new generation of Gen Xers felt concerned about the environment, thus the greens.

[June]

Unfortunately Volvo never offered a wide array of colors on one model including interior offerings. My second car the 78 Mercury Grand Marquis did come in lots of colors and lots of pictures of the various offerings were available online. So I selected pictures of the 78 to illustrate how color changes the whole look of a car inside and out. I sure wish Volvo would start offering colors like some of these... Also two tone cars were stylish in my eyes and Volvo kind of is doing two toned with the XC40. I love all the colors of the 70s!!!

Someone above mentioned some Japanese cars are coming in colors like orange, but I'll bet the interior choices are the same boring/ tired tan, blackish, or grayish. Volvo was offering some odd colors like orange leather on some R models, but not now! All we need is for Volvo to think 1970s Mercury when offering choices of paint and interior colors

There were many more colors and combinations including white silver grey metallic and black. Mine was a yellow 2 door with 1/4 brown alligator skin top, thick brown trim down the sides with the brown interior. It was my favorite color combination of all the cars I owned. June