Many people here say that people don’t want to be targeted by cops but I don’t feel like cops target colored cars specifically. At least where I live I feel like they target stereotypical vehicles, which would mean a combination of brand and model, color, tinted windows, any visible modding etc., and also the body style of the car. For example a gray roadster will have a higher chance to be targeted by the police than a yellow minivan. A modded car will always be stopped more than average.
So the way to not get targeted is to get a car that screams “mother/father of two in an unhappy marriage”. Or go to the other extream and get whatever the mafia drives if you have the money. I have never seen a G-class Mercedes stopped by the police.
Eh. A car is a tool, it doesn’t matter very much what color is it. Black is good for soaking up sunlight in the winter to help clear snow off naturally, light is better in hotter climate to cut down on heat absorption.
Blame this on the car insurance companies. They claim that certain car colors are less likely to be in a wreck.
Also blame car manufacturers. Some colors cost more than others. Check the sticker price next time you’re in the market.
I miss cars that would last for 30 years more than choice of color.
Can’t stand out. Cops’ll notice you.
there’s a study that shows that car colorfulness is positively correlated to being in a good mood for longer periods of time (i.e. not having depression)
so, car colors reflect the mood of a society. and that they’re all gray today is a bad sign.
there’s a number of additional signs to read the mood of society. i was told by a colleague that the length of women’s skirts is another indication (the shorter the skirt length, the better society’s mood is overall).
i also believe that the music they play i.e. in the supermarket is a good indicator. the more love songs on the radio, the better the mood of society. the more break-up songs on the radio, the worse the mood of society.
Peak automotive engineering!
There used to be a sense of whimsy and fun in stuff.
45 years of neoliberal nosediving. Kills all emotion, passion, and personality in pursuit of money.
What you miss is the oversaturated color in earlier photography.
i think that’s why i liked anime so much as a kid. lots of oversaturated colors there.
Literally looking at a car I want to buy and the 4 colors are white, black, grey, and blue. Blue is actually just a cold silver. It barely looks blue.
On my current car, I ended up with white because the only one I saw in blue was charging $1k more than the one I got that had a higher trim package. They called me the day after I signed the purchase agreement to say that they decided to lower their asking price to $2k below what I paid. I still think about that…
Yes.
Sick of the gray in cars, clothing, buildings, etc. etc. etc.
The cars in the second picture are more colorful and interesting than what we have now
yeah, the golden light does a lot of the beauty there
Everyone wants a car that blends in so that they are less of a target for cops.
Part of why I drive a Volvo.
If you see a Volvo speeding you think “Gee, that doctor must be in a big hurry”
That’s apparently apocryphal. The rate of pullover tracks with the most common car color (currently white). Driver behavior (speeding, illegal turning, etc) and other outstanding features (lapsed registration, broken tail light) are the most common proximate causes for a pull over.
Not me! I’ll take a flashy sports car over a boring beige box any day of the week.
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“Mr. Moneybags”? LMAO I can easily name 5 excellent, reliable sports cars you can use as a daily driver for under $10K:
- Nissan 350Z/Infiniti G35
- Mazda Miata
- Genesis Coupe
- Civic Si
- VW GTI
My GTI was good at hiding from cops until I got my exhaust.
Worth it.
Everyone wants a car that blends in so that they are less of a target for
copspredators.Race red mustang gt. I’ll take the heat off y’all.
For most of us, that is not a concern at all.
It should be a concern for literally anyone in America right now. Unless you’re white and actively linking boots, you’re a target.
Sounds about white.
I’m white and OP has hella privilege if they’ve never been concerned about cops targeting them. They were all over my ass in the 90s for having long hair and driving beaters. They’d lock on and follow until they had an excuse.
Oh, that’d be an interesting study I’d read about! Any sociology majors out there who need a thesis? lol
Been loving the new colors! Yeah, they’re toned down, not Hot Wheels colors, but I’m into the new grey-blues and grey-greens, never seen those before.
Only one I’m not into is the green-yellow, uh, things, I’ve seen. We have a tiny Florida spider that exact color and it makes me think of an arachnid. (I’m fine with spiders, just not cars colored like the freaky ones.)
I would argue this is 2010’s and people just can’t afford the new colorful 2020 cars, they all seem bright and colorful.
Every new car I see on any car lot other than a Volkswagen one is just full of white, black, blue and red.
The new microbusses and old beetles (both kinds) are colorful. One lot a few blocks away even has a jetta with that “lego” thing going on where every panel is a different color. I always liked when they did that.
Toyota is famous for their wildly colorful cars in the TRD lineup. Magma Orange, nori green, and that like Smurf blue color.
Ford has a vibrant blue as well. GM doesn’t deviate from bare colors much, but Ram/dodge will as well. Patriot blue, fire engine red, delmonico red, and plum crazy.
Porsche has full paint to sample.
Mercedes is basically famous for black cars so…
Anyways, cars have colorful variants, just the consumer base either isn’t willing to wait for the order, or they don’t want to pay the extra 500-900 dollars most non-standard paint color costs.
Also, a lot of manufacturers offer up tri coat white metallic which obviously looks boring from afar, but up close is very vibrant.
we tried to buy a vw electric microbus last year and they wanted $100,000; most dealers got TWO in 2024 if they got any, and so VW just let them set whatever price they thought they could get. fucking bonkers way to run a car company.
Not just the color. Each make and model used to look distinct and unique. Now they all have the same vague SUV shape. It makes sense aerodynamics and safety standards are a thing but it still feels so corporate and almost dystopian.
The funnier interpretation IMO is that they’re all trying to be either wagons or minivans while maintaining plausible deniability.
No it’s an SUV! Right right…
But SUVs are neither aerodynamic nor safe (for others)…*
*In comparison with normal cars.
There are also things like safety standards and whatnot, there’s more nuance here beyond some shape conspiracy lol
It’s largely roll over protection safety requirements have increased dramatically. So you get massive pillars that have to distribute force into the rest of the body.
Which also has to handle that load, or prevent intrusion laterally from side impacts.
It’s largely driven by safety designs.
They typically look like a mildly used bar of soap on wheels.
It’s carsinisation but for cars. Everything evolves into a type of SUV. It makes sense since physics kind of dictates how aerodynamics works and engineers just have to work around that.
I’m looking forward to the day when we don’t have rear-view mirrors and just use cameras. Kind of surprised we haven’t just gone that direction already. Screens and camera tech has gotten good enough that we can do that pretty efficiently.
The issue I have with some of the more “modern” cars is getting rid of the door handles on the outside. These pop-out things are just a hazard for people in colder climates or places where dust and other ingress can cause problems opening the door. Although, it would be nice to have my kids walk up to the door and not jerk on the handle 2-3 times before I can get the keys out to unlock it.
Mirrors just work. No electricity, no lenses to get covered and blocked.
Cameras are good for the places mirrors can’t see, but otherwise it’s more shoving electronics in places were it’s not needed driving up cost, complexity, and decreasing repairability.
I like function over form for safety items. Simple, reliable, and imo there is beauty in something clearly being designed for a purpose.
Another factor that seems to get ignored with mirrors vs cameras is depth. A mirror is still a 3D reflection and there’s usually enough depth information to judge distances pretty well. You lose all sense of scale and distance with a lens and screen.
objects in mirror are closer than they appear
(i still have zero idea what this means…is the object closer in the mirror or is closer irl?)
That label is used for convex mirrors that show a wider area at the tradeoff of shrinking things. You get some depth perception in a mirror (unlike a camera, as otacon pointed out), but the shrinkage in a convex mirror throws that off. The object itself (not the reflection) is physically closer to you than what your depth perception on the reflection would indicate.
I suppose cameras can give you a better field of view than a mirror can though.
Sure but if they break, it’s a more expensive repair, one that I may be able to do myself whereas replacing a mirror or mirror housing isn’t that hard.
I want less computerization of cars, personally. Or at least a repairable, customizable, and FOSS system, if I have to have computers in my car.
“If they break”, oh yes, let’s fund a strawman.
Go see what a broken mirror costs today.
Glass alone, if heated (many are) $100+. Actual motorized mirror: $300+. Then there’s painting to match.
Cameras would be smaller, less likely to get damaged, and are pretty commodity tech these days.
“If they break”, oh yes, let’s fund a strawman.
…you don’t think car parts break? Or are you the type to just get a new one every few years so you’ve never experienced it?
Glass alone, if heated (many are) $100+. Actual motorized mirror: $300+. Then there’s painting to match.
Who exactly is the one building a strawman, here? 🤔 sources, please
Cameras would be smaller, less likely to get damaged, and are pretty commodity tech these days.
Fair, debatable, and fair. Definitely not cheaper than a mirror, though. Maybe on a luxury car, absolutely not on anything more common.
Try $30 and fuck painting. Old car better.
They do, but know what works better? A single panel in front of you with all the views - you don’t even have to turn your head.
As someone who’s raced, "Wink" mirrors demonstrated this fantastically: multi-panel rear-view mirrors where you could see everything behind and beside you in a single mirror.
I used one in my daily driver when I had a neck injury (whiplash) and could barely turn my head for 2 years. Way easier to see all around you, and better too.
The tech for a camera system has been available and trivial since the 90’s. A single 4" tall wide screen on the dash, or built into the center rear view would work.
Clearly you’ve never driven in rain, snow, fog. Side mirrors are very problematic. Cameras can be better protected, and done right even deal with rain and ajow a lot better.
I know of those mirrors and surprise, I have driven in adverse conditions.
I’m not saying there aren’t better ways. But cameras in their current implementation isn’t the answer.
There becomes a point where there is too much in front of a driver. I also believe the frequent “feedback” from driving assists causes me, at least, to take my eyes off the road to figure out what it’s beeping at me for and it’s usually because the system doesn’t recognize a bend in the road or the car in front of me is turning.
One of my cars is a Chevy Bolt EUV. The rear view mirror, in place of the classic switch to change between day and night mode, has a switch that alternates the view between reflection and camera.
There are far more sedan shapes over SUV ones on the road, but with that said I agree with your reasoning. It’s natural that the most efficient shapes are adopted en masse so everyone can benefit. Same with other things like safety standards/regulations.
I can’t remember which car magazine did it, but about 6-8 years ago, the cover was a profile of every crossover in the US market. I was able to pick out the Honda but couldn’t tell any of the others apart.
Aerodynamics and safety get everyone to a generally uniform shape, but then they focus group it to death.
