I found the article on the right interesting.
An employee of Glass's Guide suggests that for more expensive cars, black paint commands a premium over silver, with silver as the standard price, black is worth £500 more, white is worth £2,500 less.
As someone just in the process of speccing a new car, I have been debating this very thing with myself!
Does this apply to all body styles? I am probably going to buy an estate, will it all look a bit like a hearse if painted black?
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Whenever I replace my company car the lease company always try to insist that the colour is that of the latest craze to try and keep the resale value high,even stipulating that it has to be metalic.Well as I have to pay the tax as its a perk, my response is up yours if you want to chose the colour / finish you pay the tax.
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rustbucket (the original)
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My leasing company has agreed deals with car makers to get metalic/pearlescent paint FOC (still goes on the p11d price tho so you pay tax on it.)
I have decided that if I go for the Seat Altea or the Skoda they will be black. They have a really nice black. I hope the undercoat is not light grey tho....
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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If your fortunate, you can still buy cars that DON'T charge a premium for Metallic/Pearlescent finish.
Black does look good, but its a rhubarb and custard of a job to keep it that way.
Personally, I'm glad tht silver/grey is no longer the 'one to have' - grey cars look so dull.
IMO, a black estate looks fine, but if you go the tint route, I can seemwhere the hearse ideas come from.
MTC
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It seems some manufacturers have cottoned onto the fact that solid black was popular/reducing sales of metallics.
Some brands now charge for solid black so that most paint colours are now an optional extra - quite ridiculous really
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Seat has two non metalic colours
Red ( looks quite good actually but might fade) and White (which dont look at ALL good)
the rest are all metalics, quite poor colour chices actually - just as well the two shades of black they do look rather fine on the car,
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Black can look good on some larger cars. It doesnt do anything for small hatchbacks. I have been looking at the Yaris which still looks good in silver. I always think that black does not age very well and looks awfull when it fades.
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"They have a really nice black."
Interesting - what shade of black is it?
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There is also a dial on it that goes all the way up to 11!
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Soupytwist !
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"They have a really nice black." Interesting - what shade of black is it?
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I remember being taught at school, that black is not a colour, it is either (a) the absortion of all light or (b) the reflection of all light (or something like that). I am sorry, I can't recall which!
So all black colours should be the same; however, in the real world they aren't. Black colours do vary.
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They have Tinta black and black magic. All blacks are not the same black.
One has more spinklles in it than the other.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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They have Tinta black and black magic. All blacks are not the same black. One has more spinklles in it than the other.
So is one flat black and the other metallic black? I see quite a lot of Alteas and Leons in black and they do look good. But then its always been one of my preferred 'colours' for cars.
My Audi 80 quattro was metallic black, and it would have a very slight brownish tinge (only visible when studied in bright sunlight) rather than tending towards a dark grey effect.
;o)
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> So is one flat black and the other metallic black?
No both metalics, just one has more metalic in it, which reflects the predominant ambient colour around it so its black that changes shade.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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But would a black that isn't quite black really be just a very dark grey?
I've never compared two new black cars from different manufacturers side by side, but black has always looked black to me.
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"You see, ordinary shops sell what look like black socks, but if you look closely, you'll see that they're very, very, very, very, very, very, very dark blue."
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Never buy black socks in a normal shop. They'll shaft you every time!
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"You see ordinary shops sell what look like black socks but if you look closely you'll see that they're very very very very very very very dark blue."
didn't he go on to say "They'll shaft you every time " ?
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Are there any midnight blue cars? When I was 21 our tailor made me a dinner suit in midnight blue. He assured me it would look blacker than ones in black material. He was right - it still does! Could be a good colour for undertakers and purveyors of iffy substances?
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"They have a really nice black." Interesting - what shade of black is it?
Yes! you prempted me with that comment. Just how black is black. If I could keep my car in a vacuum or live in California, then I might consider a black car (on second thoughts - NO) however in the real world and myself being a trifle fanatical about cleaning my car, then the only colour for me and my ageing bones, is the ubiquitous SILVER.
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>>Yes! you prempted me with that comment. Just how black is black
There's a surprising degree of variability between different blacks - I suspect Stargazer will know quite a bit about black anti-reflective coatings in telescope applications.
For optical instruments, if you want to have parts in front of the detector, typically, you want to make them non-reflective, and so, you make them black. You can then characterise how good the black coating is by measuring how much light they reflect back from a known source. A camera for a solar mission made by my colleagues uses a black coating on the baffle plates, which, I'm told is the "blackest black" that there is which is space qualified, and we had to send the baffles to California to be blacked, and then, as this high performance coating is delicate, the baffles had to handled "with kid gloves" during the build to avoid any damage.
In a part I'm currently working on, we don't yet know where the stray light beams are, and so we want to be able to apply local spots of black when we have the part up and running. The difficulty is in finding space qualified black paint or tape! Not easy! Something that would cost pennies in the lab will cost us hundreds (thousands if we need to do the testing to get it space qualified)
Number_Cruncher
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I don't care ! I'd rather have a car in a colour that only needs occasional washing to look okay, rather than one that needs a wash every 100 yards !
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Black is a really nice colour, particularly for a large car. Minus points, of course, the need for very regular washing and stone chips that stick out like a sore thumb.
Clk Sec
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My old 406 estate is black with beige leather int, I still think it looks the dogs dangly bits WHEN it's clean. One day when it dies or I can afford another car I expect it will be black.
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Black is a really nice colour particularly for a large car. Minus points of course the need for very regular washing and stone chips that stick out like a sore thumb.
And they turn into saunas when parked in the sun on a hot day. So if you specify a leather interior, make sure its a light coloured one or you'll roast when you sit in - literally!
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Just bought a Skoda Octavia in Black Magic. Looks very nice. Just been to Halfords to take advantage of their 3-for-2 offer and stock up on polish, wax and wash mits so I can help prevent those swirls on the paintwork.
It may take more looking after but boy does it look nice.
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>>black is the new silver>>
Because of the ever increasing fuel prices the idea is that, rather than driving, you will need to spend most of your time keeping that black paintwork looking passable...:-)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Ewilldebeest - am I the only one to spot the Father Ted reference? IIRC Ted goes on to tell Dougal that 'they shaft you every time!"
I like black cars - I've got two. SWMBO says our house looks like a chapel of rest.
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Just bought a Skoda Octavia in Black Magic. Looks very nice. Just been to Halfords to take advantage of their 3-for-2 offer and stock up on polish wax and wash mits so I can help prevent those swirls on the paintwork. It may take more looking after but boy does it look nice.
But surely, the point is that it will only look nice for a nanosecond. My silver car looks 'nice' as well but within an hour or so, at this time of the year, you can see that it is getting covered in pollen just by observing the film on the windows even though, unlike yours, the bodywork still looks acceptable.
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My neighbour has three black cars, i.e an Audi A6, Porsche Cayenne and a BMW 3 series but there again, they never wash their own cars but have a skivvy, sorry, a valeting firm in to clean them all!
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TVM, I hate to break it to you but the undercoat on the Black Magic Fabia is grey/white if the scratched up one in our work car park is anything to go by, as is the undercoat on my Golf, which is Diamond Black (damn those fence posts and our stupid parking situation!).
To me, silver cars are a bit dull, although the really light reflex silver looks great on a Golf where the rubbing strips have been specced to be painted too, and the Golf GTi looks simply gorgeous in white.
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>>really light reflex silver looks great on a Golf where the rubbing strips have been specced to be painted too, >>
My Bora (Reflex Silver) is entirely in that colour, including the rubbing strips and front and rear bumpers; some Golf and Bora models have black rubbing strips/sections on the doors and bumpers and, to me, it spoils the overall look.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Black rubbing strips on bumpers and doors - how sensible, it'll never catch on!
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TVM I hate to break it to you but the undercoat on the Black Magic Fabia is grey/white if the scratched up one in our work car park is anything to go by as is the undercoat on my Golf which is Diamond Black (damn those fence posts and our stupid parking situation!).
Afraid I can confirm the Black Magic undercoat is white, as demonstrated on mine where I didn't clean some bird droppings off fully.
Actually, on a similarish theme, browsing eBay I came across something from the 70s resprayed in poo brown. It suited it really well though, but can't see that being the new silver anytime soon.
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d
black is a pig to keep clean, unless paint technology has moved on since mine. Which I doubt.
JH
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Silver seems to be turning into a bit of an old man's colour. All the flat caps round here drive them. I hated it from day one, it shows a total lack of imagination. It is one step up from biege.
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"....and the Golf GTi looks simply gorgeous in white. "
Yes it does, doesn't it! But I don't think that applies to all - somehow I can't imagine a white Audi.
Colour choice is a strange thing - we can't see much of the outside of the car when we're in it (if you have an MPV you can't see any of it) - and we don't, unless we're particularly sad, spend much time gazing at it from outside. But we 're very fussy about colour - at least in this country. I think the French don't care much, but favour silver or beige so that they don't need to wash their cars too often.
I wouldn't personally go for black - quite apart fron the hassle of keeping it clean, even though one can't see much of it from inside, one knows it's there, and it can feel hot and claustrophobic in summer. After three silver cars in a row - the current one because I had to have one that was in stock to get the good PCP deal - I need a change. Light metallic blue perhaps.
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SWMBO's Gti in Diamond Black does look good, the white (which is almost a sort of ivory) looks pretty as well, seen a gunmetal grey one around and that looks smart. I like my silver Beemers, sorry I will start wearing a flat cap when I find a shop that sells them...
The only BM that looks really good in solid white is the old 5 series, that looks good in any colour..
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I can't imagine a white Audi.
Tho strangely the first Audi Quattros looked fabulous in white. Another good looker in white was the BMW 2002 turbo.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Black, silver, white... all dreary.
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> Black, silver, white... all dreary
and you hue of choice is?
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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"BMW 2002 turbo"
Was there any other colour ? :-0
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they came in silver.
Both had the multi colour flashes.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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www.bmw2002turbo.nl/
Oh yes, where are my flares and tank top ?
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Original Quattro in white - tasty, ditto Delta Integrale or a Mk1 Golf. Maybe white and angular cars go together.
Thank you to the poster above for the Spinal Tap reference. It's always a pleasure to be reminded of that.
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That's nothing Pug compared to some of these,
www.barryboys.co.uk/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=12
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TVM & Rustbucket are right any extras, as if paint is an extra ho ho, are liable for tax as a 'benefit'. I had a company car several years ago and it turned up with metallic paint and a more powerful engine, all free of charge from a altruistic leasing company. I asked them to remove the car and replace it with what I requested. After a tussle they eventually agreed to pay the difference their spec made to my P11D tax. I got a cheque for over £600 quid. There is a god. Concrete
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Even if black is the latest trendy colour I still won't get one, just like I wouldn't have a silver one. I prefer colours which are highly visible to other drivers. I'm more interested in my safety than the effect of the colour on the resale value of my car.
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L\'escargot.
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I prefer colours which are highly visible to other drivers. I'm more interested in my safety than the effect of the colour on the resale value of my car. -- L\'escargot.
OK, so which colour then?
Fire Engine Red?;
Stark White?;
Lime Green?;
Purple?;
Mauve?
The last snail I saw was done out in a very drab mud colour! ; - ]]
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Fire Engine Red?;
Yup. The ultimate (if it was available) would be Coventry Fire Engine Yellow. Now that really is noticeable ~ which is why it was formulated (in the 1960s, by the University of Warwick) in the first place. It's no longer allowed for Coventry's fire engines, ever since the Home Office decreed that all municipal fire service vehicles must be red.
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L\'escargot.
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Wonder if the bloke that made the decision to oreder Police fleets, to pay a premium, buying silver cars, 'cos they'll have a higher residual, still has a job.
& didn't Police cars ALWAYS used to be black, anyway??
I'll also confess, that I owe a (small) part of my (even smaller) wealth, to black cars. My yard used to be FULL of ex MOD Metros, must have sold dozens, in factory black. Must say they even looked quite smart, after we re-silvered the wheels, stickered the coachlines & quality polish was applied - but why, oh why, was a tan interior the choice??
Generally, though, I'm not the bigest fan of black cars.
VB
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Definitely agree with TVM. The original Quattros looked stunning in white...the original factory rally car colour I believe.....and I thought my old Pug 205 Gti (B211 UCP) looked great in silver.
Strange how you remember car registrations from decades ago but I cannot remember where I went walking last weekend!
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Lime green! Or Kawasaki green! Or that nice purple they used, or the light blue.
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Black is THE only colour for large luxury executive cars, e.g. Mercedes. My own car is a black Mercedes C class estate . As a proffessional chauffeur for over 40yrs if you want to "cut the mustard" then it has to be black.!!
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Incidently, whilst "in the mob" served as G.O.C.`s driver, cars were always black and cleanness was measured, i.e. when cleaned a six inch ruler was held against the body work and if you could`nt read all the measurement markings in the reflection a friendly sergeant would suggest you might like to clean it again laddie! At least I think they used to put it that way !!
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One further piece of information which may be of use to you, when cleaning your car do not wash it the way joe public all over the country does it every sunday morning, starting with the roof and lashings of soapy shampoo! Start by hosing down ALL of the car to soften any dirt, then start with your shampoo at the bottom of the car, soaping each panel then rinsing off with clear water before going on to the next panel working your way up to roof level. This ensures that the car is always wet with CLEAN water until you are ready to chamois the vehicle dry. One further tip, once cleaned the tyres need to be blacked, not with the muck you buy from accessory shops, but with plain old boot polish ! A fraction of the cost, takes me approx 5 mins to do all wheels on the vehicle, is good for the rubber and looks a million dollars. Clean your black car as described and it will look at home in Downing Street !!
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I think I have actually just fallen in love.... with the white A5 HJ's just done a review of on the homepage.
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I think I have actually just fallen in love.... with the white A5 >>
You will probably find that you have fewer arguments too.
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