Monday, November 01, 2004
Yellow is the New Red (*)
by Tom Bozzo
This is not exactly news to anyone who has closely followed the sports car market. In '97, a friend (and fellow car-nut) and I sharply disagreed over a "Dakar Yellow" BMW M3 coupe at the Madison auto show. The M3 has traditionally been available in a few outlandish colors not available on lesser 3-Series trims. We both loved the car's mechanicals, but when I got my '98, I opted for metallic black. (I subsequently instructed Suzanne and my mother to institutionalize me if I ever get another black car in this climate.) The current E46-based M3 has been available in "Phoenix Yellow Metallic," with a Dijon mustard tone.
The retro-whatever Chevrolet SSR (distinguished mostly by the commercial using the Philip Steir remix of "Magic Carpet Ride" for the "Go" soundtrack) was shown in yellow in 2001. In the upper reaches of the market, Lamborghinis have been drawing even more attention to their outlandish lines with yellows for some years.
The money quote from the Times is that yellow is "a real impulse color." Yep. My friend and I are now both happy with our cars in good old silver.
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(*) This is funny if you have a toddler who is still in the process of getting his colors down.
Hot on the heels of Circuits' review of cat-blogging, the Times' car page covers the ascendancy of yellow (registration req'd) as the look-at-me color of choice for show-off cars.
This is not exactly news to anyone who has closely followed the sports car market. In '97, a friend (and fellow car-nut) and I sharply disagreed over a "Dakar Yellow" BMW M3 coupe at the Madison auto show. The M3 has traditionally been available in a few outlandish colors not available on lesser 3-Series trims. We both loved the car's mechanicals, but when I got my '98, I opted for metallic black. (I subsequently instructed Suzanne and my mother to institutionalize me if I ever get another black car in this climate.) The current E46-based M3 has been available in "Phoenix Yellow Metallic," with a Dijon mustard tone.
The retro-whatever Chevrolet SSR (distinguished mostly by the commercial using the Philip Steir remix of "Magic Carpet Ride" for the "Go" soundtrack) was shown in yellow in 2001. In the upper reaches of the market, Lamborghinis have been drawing even more attention to their outlandish lines with yellows for some years.
The money quote from the Times is that yellow is "a real impulse color." Yep. My friend and I are now both happy with our cars in good old silver.
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(*) This is funny if you have a toddler who is still in the process of getting his colors down.
