Motoring Discussion > White: The New Black? Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Robin O'Reliant Replies: 43

 White: The New Black? - Robin O'Reliant
After disappearing for a number of years while boring old silver became the colour of choice, I notice the number of new and nearly new white cars of all shapes and sizes is increasing rapidly. Three down my little cul de sac (All Audis, BTW), one new and two no more than eighteen months old plus more of various makes seen out and about.

Just here, or is it the same everywhere?
 White: The New Black? - CGNorwich
White has been the " In " colour for the past two or three years. Not keen personally.


 White: The New Black? - Old Navy
A commercial vehicle colour and it always looks dirty.
 White: The New Black? - mikeyb
A lot more white cars here over the last couple of years, but I think its quite a model specific colour.

Most cars look OK in black, or silver, but some look awful in white.

Saw a new Merc in white with a black roof - that looked really good
 White: The New Black? - CGNorwich
Confirming white is the most popular.

www.carwow.co.uk/news/White-most-popular-colour-1675
 White: The New Black? - R.P.
My new Triumph Tiger is a lovely shade of white..lovely multicoloured shades when the light catches it. 500 miles in a fortnight...going for its first service. Still shiny..
 White: The New Black? - WillDeBeest
I think Audi started it in about 2007 by launching the A5 in white. Others followed suit and the proportion of white cars has steadily grown as 1990s colours and 2000s silvers and greys have fallen away.

One factor is the rise in personal leasing, where metallic colours are very much not a no-cost option or offered FOC by the lease company as in my company car days. White is a free option, and suits many cars better than fire-engine red or I'm-a-nonconformist-too black. But a white Mondeo looks like a chest freezer on wheels, and a white Jaguar just says you couldn't really afford it in the first place.
 White: The New Black? - R.P.
I found some photos of my white Beemer on Flickr only the other day
 White: The New Black? - mikeyb
>> But a white Mondeo looks like a chest freezer on wheels, and a
>> white Jaguar just says you couldn't really afford it in the first place.
>>

Funny you should say that- I noticed one of the parents at school pick up in a XF Sportbrake in white - looked quite odd
 White: The New Black? - legacylad
Where's Michael Jackson when you need him?
 White: The New Black? - MD
>> Where's Michael Jackson when you need him?
>>
Down under.
 White: The New Black? - Runfer D'Hills
One of the Mercs available when I was looking a couple of weeks ago was white with a "black" sunroof and "black" privacy glass. Reminded me of a liquorice Allsort on wheels. Guess I could have lived with it I suppose but it would never have been clean ( or looked clean anyway ) with my usage.

I wasn't entirely sure I wanted a silver one and had a darker grey been available without waiting I might have done that, and I didn't want another black car just now having had two in a row.

Now that I've got the silver one I'm pleased with it, it sits nicely with the black trim to my eyes.

To be honest, there aren't many colours I couldn't get on with but I'm not keen on yellow, beige or pale pastels like light blue or light green. Most dark colours are OK in the main and some cars suit a bright red in my view.

I had a white Golf Gti a long time ago but living in a rural area the tailgate was always so filthy it was once described by a friend, who had certain way with words, as looking like a pair of Y fronts with a permanent skid mark up the back.

Sort of put me off white cars a bit that...

;-)
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Thu 26 May 16 at 22:04
 White: The New Black? - WillDeBeest
Silver suits the E estate. Unfussy, businesslike, Not Black.
 White: The New Black? - Runfer D'Hills
It looked very nice in black ( with the beige interior ) for ooooh, about ten miles after each wash...

;-)
 White: The New Black? - MD
>> My new Triumph Tiger is a lovely shade of white..lovely multicoloured shades when the light
>> catches it. 500 miles in a fortnight...going for its first service. Still shiny..
>>
PICTURES.......
 White: The New Black? - R.P.
I'll take some tomorrow.....!
 White: The New Black? - Runfer D'Hills
Parked far enough back that a certain person won't reverse into it?

;-)
 White: The New Black? - R.P.
There is that. The scars were still on the Scoot as the new owner rode off into the sunset (well the pouring rain) on it...he was happy enough.
 White: The New Black? - Dog
I just asked the ole woman what she thinks the most popular car colour is in the EUK.

She is an 'as long as it starts and runs' merchant, so I'd have put money on her not knowing white is right.

I'd have lost my 50p on that bet. She also said she's seen a hell-of-a-lot of white SUV's on the frog and toads of late.

 White: The New Black? - bathtub tom
It's often the only 'no cost option'.

Why all the fuss, or are all the cheapskates here not prepared to own up?

 White: The New Black? - Cliff Pope
Who cares? Everything comes around - most of my previous Volvo 240s were white, this one's red.

Anything but a pre-war Rolls looks naff in black.
 White: The New Black? - Clk Sec
>> Anything but a pre-war Rolls looks naff in black.
>>

Nonsense. Many cars look good in black. Some ugly cars look slightly better in black.
 White: The New Black? - diddy1234
My Duster is in white.
The base colours are white or grey but in grey I think it looks horrible.

I was thinking of blue colour when I brought mine but that was another £545 so instead, I opted for the 4 years servicing for £500 instead of a nice colour.

It's not a bad white colour and it has kind of grown on me over time.
 White: The New Black? - martin aston
Tastes change. Cars are following bathrooms which have gone white now. The once popular coloured suites are no more.

Was there ever an avocado coloured car? I seem to recall Rover in the 70/80s had a sort of army green colour that got close. Before they went down the pan.........
 White: The New Black? - mikeyb

>> Was there ever an avocado coloured car? I seem to recall Rover in the 70/80s
>> had a sort of army green colour that got close. Before they went down the
>> pan.........
>>

Quite few naff colours in the BL line up

www.mgexp.com/article/bmc-paint.html

GN-40 - GLEN GREEN looks pretty close to a bathroom suite I had
 White: The New Black? - Haywain
" Cars are following bathrooms which have gone white now."

Remember this? I think it's possibly what started the shift.

youtu.be/J3766FEkaqQ


 White: The New Black? - Duncan
>> She also said she's seen a hell-of-a-lot
>> of white SUV's on the frog and toads of late.

It is the convention to use the first part only of a rhyming slang* phrase. So that in your example, one would only use 'frogs', instead of 'frog and toads'.

I believe I have had to pull you up about this before young Dog. Don't let it happen again.

*Of course this means that rhyming slang doesn't rhyme. Keeps the grockles on their toes.
 White: The New Black? - Shiny
New white paint technology came out about 5 years ago and it is much deeper and whiter.
Audi use, it, Nissan don't. Look at a Juke next to a Q3 and you will see.
Last edited by: Shiny on Fri 27 May 16 at 14:47
 White: The New Black? - rtj70
White cars became more popular when the iPod came out. White became cool. It was also usually a solid paint and therefore a no cost option.

It became so popular that many manufacturers now charge extra for white. And some offer two different whites.
 White: The New Black? - Manatee
I've had three white cars. 1983 Golf, 1996 Galaxy, 1987 Orion. I don't remember any of them fondly, but I don't mind the colour. One black car, a 1994 Saab 900SE. It never looked clean, except when it was very clean, but I loved it for its seats. Great car, even if if was mocked for being a Cavalier dressed up.
 White: The New Black? - No FM2R
I've has a white Hillman Hunter, a white Hillman Minx and a white Mini.

Currently I have a Nissan pick-up, a Dodge Ram and some Korean saloon car all of which are white.

I like white.
 White: The New Black? - Robin O'Reliant
I like white, but I've never owned a white car.

I knew silver was doomed when the local plod started buying silver cars for their patrol vehicles because they had a better resale value. As with any government organisation they got on the bandwagon years too late. And they look pants in plod livery too.
 White: The New Black? - Alastairw
My very first car, an original Fiat Panda, was white. Haven't had another white one since. I don't recall it being hard to keep clean, though silver is definitely easier.
 White: The New Black? - Armel Coussine
I have owned two white cars: a very serviceable Escort 1600 estate with the twin cam engine, and an old VW 411 Variant, a 1700cc (I think) flat four, the engine very compactly placed under an insulated hatch in the floor of the rear boot. The exhaust parts were complicated and expensive. It had very fine big strong bumpers. The front boot was enormous, you could get a couple of smallish people in there.

That car ended up looking like a German fuzz car, when I replaced its dog-eared front boot cover with a much shinier navy blue one from a 412. Then it became quite colourful when a graunched (not by me, it came like that) rear wing/quarter panel was replaced with an orange one from a breaker's yard. Its suspension parts and dampers were also expensive. The thing cost me a fortune although I did most of the actual work myself.

It was noisy, rattly and a bit smoky and thirsty but went well and smoothly. However, uptight citizens in newer cars hated it on sight. People are such philistines.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sat 28 May 16 at 16:33
 White: The New Black? - Armel Coussine
I had a black car for a while, a 1936 or so 6cyl 1.5 litre Fiat with the spare wheel on the boot lid, a very fine Mussolini-secret-police wagon it was too. It went very well but the front suspension would get into an appalling dynamic wobble from time to time. You either had to press on even faster or come almost to a halt, depending on mood, courage and circumstances.

The rear doors were rear hinged and the front ones front hinged, so that the whole side of the car could be opened, perhaps in order to club suspects into it more easily for a proper drubbing on the way to the torture chambers.

Really stylish motor that was. It wasn't even mine strictly speaking but I really miss it.
 White: The New Black? - Armel Coussine
>> The front boot was enormous, you could get a couple of smallish people in there.

When the boot was empty the car had a nose-high stance which I disliked so much that I put a hundredweight of sand in the boot just for cosmetic reasons, despite the manifest inefficiency of carrying weight for no reason.

The front suspension struts were hugely expensive. You had to buy the whole assembly. It had a little conical-roller bearing at the top - the whole strut rotated with the steering.
 White: The New Black? - Armel Coussine
The front wings of my 411 were scuffed, a dab of paint or even greyish primer here and there.

At a very busy hustling Paris roundabout, the scufffed right wing of my car came into contact with the scuffed black left wing of a Parisian CX.

I was a bit worried for a moment, but the CX driver just gave a charming Parisian shrug.
 White: The New Black? - legacylad
Think I've only had one of each...a white Hillman Avenger estate ( although it had go faster stripes) and a third hand, slightly rusty RS2000 which I road rallied.
Tell a lie... Just remembered the Audi 80 Sport was black ( third hand again and bought off my X5 owning best pal).
 White: The New Black? - Bromptonaut
When my Dad first owned a car in mid fifties they were nearly all black, both his A30 and successor A35 were that shade. Later, in sixties/seventies, and having firm's cars, he had a reputation for preferring bright colours. Amongst hem a Simca 1500 estate, GBN 611D, in Tomato Red and a Ford Granada, AWT 867S, in signal yellow.
 White: The New Black? - CGNorwich
What happened to two tone cars? there was an Austin Metropolitan down our street when I was small. In a world of black cars it was really unusual and striking
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Sat 28 May 16 at 21:11
 White: The New Black? - Skip
I have only had two white cars an HC Viva - BDB. 382L followed by an Allegro - SNX 122M which had a maroon vinyl interior ! My car history is unlikely to make anyone jealous :-(
 White: The New Black? - mikeyb
I had a Peugeot 405 SRi in white - chosen more due to its price tag than colour
 White: The New Black? - Dog
I've had a few. I've also had some white cars: A girly-looking Sirocco. Civic. An olde Engerlish white Jaaag. BX. Disco. And quite a few white vans (all Jap) I also had a cream Zephyr :(
 White: The New Black? - Auntie Lockbrakes
I used to live in Dubai, a place full of vain, self-important wannabees. Loads of folk had huge bling-bling 4WDs, and guess what trendy colour they chose..? Black. In a country where 40 degree heat is not uncommon for half of the year... Doh!
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