Battleship Grey Gloss painted cars everywhere

[OneOfMany]

reminds of a car in gray primer waiting for its finish coat.

Exactly. Who knew I was a trendsetter in 76 when I scuffed the beige on my Vega, and painted it Grey primer . Did the interior in gloss urethane Grey porch enamel to predate the 90s monochrome era as well.

 

[TorRed]

My wife went through a series of gray and silver cars in the 80s, 90s and early 2000. She kept getting rear ended, hit in parking lots and even nearly direct head-on hit going around a curve in our neighborhood once. It finally dawned on us that those gray and silver cars nearly match and blend into weathered asphalt and concrete pavement and people who aren’t completely alert just weren't seeing her. So she switched to a black car in 2012 and a white one in 2020 and although she is still backing challenged, no one has run into her since.

It even extended to me when I bought a graphite 2008 Mustang GT. One morning I was tooling down a sweeping street in front of a school at about 30 mph and a teacher coming the other direction made a full speed left turn right into the front driver side fender and door of it, knocking me off the road and totaling the car. The cop looked at it and said he thought I was lucky to be alive. No explanation other than she just didn’t see me. And what did I do - stupidly fell in love with a 2012 silver, 6-speed GT that I couldn’t resist. Wish I still had it.

I ALMOST bought a new 2000ish silver/gray WS6 Trans Am and before we went inside to sign the papers my wife pointed out that it 100% blended in with the older asphalt it was parked on. We'd been hit several times recently commuting in & out of Atlanta and because of that walked away. Would love to have bought & kept that car but based on my 'car trading' years probably wouldn't have...

 

[Coelacanth]

It's an interesting viewpoint about all these ho-hum cars, especially the plethora of silvers and the more recent battleship greys, being 'invisible' in traffic and no doubt a cause of many collisions...I hadn't considered that, yet another reason to detest this trend.

 

[TorRed]

I picked white with no stripes for my 21 Hellcat Durango for three reasons; 1) I live in Central Florida and it's very hot here 8 months of the year 2) I didn't want it to stick out, liked the stealth nature of blending in on the road and 3) I actually like the white on what is a large SUV by today's standards.

 

[#41]

Ah, the allure of gloss primer gray. I just don't get it.

 

[33 IMP]

The freeway off ramp to my house overlooks a couple huge new car dealers, with probably a thousand new cars on the lot. I would estimate that between 5% and 10% (closer to five) are blue or red. Green and brown are nonexistant. The rest is black, white, or silver. There must be something available besides black, white, silver gray, blue or red!?

 

[Coelacanth]

I've always hated white, from back in the day when Mom had a white 1982 LeBaron convertible. I don't know if there's a car that emasculates you more than that one, other than a Miata, perhaps. I will go out on a limb and say that I've seen a nice pearlescent white finish on some cars, I think Teslas have this pearl white color. I'd choose that before Agreeable Grey, but both would be near the bottom of the color chart for me.

The colors I'm drawn to now are metallics or pearls that are so dark they're almost black, but when the sun hits them, they glimmer. Like Porsche Jet Green Metallic, or a deep almost-black burgundy or midnight blue.

 

[MarPar]

Yeah, color is a problem. Ended up with 2 this color just to avoid black, white, or gray. No high impacts were available.

View attachment 1749558

The Unicorn!!

My favorite color scheme EVER, is coral and gray on 55 chevies. Mopar and Ford did similar, a year or three later.
So, I had my Tina painted a dark metallic gray, was going to add a pink (coral) accent stripe, never got around to it.
I now own four red cars, even though I don't particularly like red. Oh well.....

View attachment 1749600

View attachment 1749601

Is that an Opel??

 

[33 IMP]

The Unicorn!!



Is that an Opel??

Yep.

 

[mrhemi]

My wife and I refer to this as "Tremclad" grey, or, "Rustoleum" grey in the US.

 

[Coelacanth]

I chuckle at the paint name "Destroyer Grey"...sure does make a craptacular color sound cool. I like "Rustoleum Grey".

 

[BB BELLA]

there's many different hues and sheen effects. I'm thinking Audi started the trend and my preference is Audi's "nardo gray"
It shows a cars lines nicely in all lights and will accentuate flaws. you need a perfect body to wear it well!

 

[Richard Cranium]

I've always hated white, from back in the day when Mom had a white 1982 LeBaron convertible. I don't know if there's a car that emasculates you more than that one, other than a Miata, perhaps.

I strongly disagree.

 

[1967coronet]

I mean the following as no intentional insult to anyone.
I find many these bland colors to be extremely boring. Yeah, black, white or 20 different shades of silver seem to be the default color choices for the masses. The silvers or metallic grays are not as bad but that flat gray looks like a clear coat over gray primer. Some people love it. I don’t.
In the musclecar era, it was GREEN.
Many of new car buyers just buy what is on the dealers lot so you’re at the mercy of what is available.
I can’t drive a car or truck with any color that blends in. I like a vibrant hue like this

View attachment 1749545

View attachment 1749546

I do need to point out you do have a grey
and white dog........

 

[padam]

I wonder if that lack of color has anything to do with the reduction of VOCs from the paint process.

 

[copper67sat]

My guess is that cost is the big driver for the limited colors. Cars have gotten expensive and many only care about cost, not color. Higher end models often have more options.

There were only 4 base colors available when we bought our Durango in '22 - black, white, gray and red. Red was very hard to find and it was an upcharge, but it is a 2-coat pearl. Ours is a V6 GT, so it's a mid-range model, but well-optioned. There may have been other colors available on high end or special edition models.

 

[bandit67]

The gunmetal grays with poly looks fine with me on some, but, I agree ,that pale gray looks like crap. But, as a manufacturer I would sell you one, cause you prolly gonna want another car {another color} pretty soon.....

 

[AR67GTX]

My guess is that cost is the big driver for the limited colors. Cars have gotten expensive and many only care about cost, not color. Higher end models often have more options.

There were only 4 base colors available when we bought our Durango in '22 - black, white, gray and red. Red was very hard to find and it was an upcharge, but it is a 2-coat pearl. Ours is a V6 GT, so it's a mid-range model, but well-optioned. There may have been other colors available on high end or special edition models.

I suspect so. When I bought my 23 RAM 1500 off the lot last year they had mostly black and white ones. I would have liked the dark blue but settled for the tri-coat Pearl white as my wife has a Lexus in this color and it doesn’t show dirt and dust as bad as my favorite color - black. At 73, hand washing a full size truck is a major project so I was looking for an excuse to not have to do it as often.

The same thing is happening with interior colors too. In the leather Limited RAM series I could basically have any color I wanted, as long as it was black. There are a couple other colors available but from what I’ve seen they are pretty rare. I actually have always liked black interiors so it wasn’t an issue for me but I would never be able to get my wife to buy a car with a black interior.

 

[Thunderlugs]

The only car that looks good in that shade of gray, are the LO cars of 1968.

 

[qkcuda]

I am not a fan of any of the new battleship colours. I have , however, been a fan of silver since I bought my first 68 Barracuda and my 66 race car. In fact that is where qkcuda name came from, my first race car Quicksilver. My second one was a silver/gold colour available in 69 and that car had Quicksilver II painted on the hood scoop. Most of the new vehicles I got to order (not already on the lot) were silver. I just bought my wife a 2024 Ford Maverick hybrid in guess what...silver. I couldn't believe that some of those battleship colours were actually an extra cost option.