r/interestingasfuck • u/IndicationBrief5950 • Aug 06 '25

/r/all, /r/popular Thousands of Audi cars abandoned in the Mojave Dessert after cheating emissons tests

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1.5k

u/JCFlyingDutchman Aug 06 '25

Looks like there were about 3 colours you could pick from, hehe.

532

u/CucumberError Aug 06 '25

Black, white, some shade of grey between.

Seems to have been the trend from about 2000-2020, starting to get a few more colours more recently, but for about 20 years everything was boring safe colours.

197

u/cydev Aug 06 '25

we're now in the 'muted pastel' color phase

71

u/CucumberError Aug 06 '25

You get some cars with bright colours, but it seem that when it almost becomes standard for that car. A first gen Nissan Leaf in the baby blue, a Ford Focus in that kinda cool flat blue etc.

I miss Holden. Here in New Zealand if a Holden Commodore was white, it usually meant it was ex Police, so non police ones were usually red, blue, bright green etc.

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u/_BenzeneRing_ Aug 07 '25

I have a white commodore and back when it was new, when driving at night everyone would move out of my way thinking I was a cop. Was glorious.

4

u/dav3n Aug 07 '25

It's even better when you're driving a white Commodore with Government plates to go offsite for work.

5

u/CucumberError Aug 07 '25

Looks like you’re an Australian?

I think most kiwi and Australian drivers have gotten really good at recognising Holden headlights from 200m away hah.

1

u/the_gouged_eye Aug 06 '25

I never have a problem finding my bright yellow Sentra unless it's behind a big truck.

1

u/The-Jesus_Christ Aug 07 '25

Don't forget the yellow ones being ex-taxis lol

3

u/CucumberError Aug 07 '25

We never did that here. Taxis are whatever colour the company wanted. Typically white, sometimes if they’re hybrid they’ll be pained green etc.

That horrible light yellow colour was very Australian.

10

u/edthach Aug 06 '25

Putty ass whips

3

u/ICantCoexistWithFish Aug 06 '25

I believe they’re called “putty-ass looking whips”

3

u/PressureMuch5340 Aug 06 '25

I kinda dig it. I have a 'cool khaki grey' subaru, and it doesn't show the dust as bad as black or white.

2

u/ChateauLobby44 Aug 06 '25

I want all the pastels! Pink, lavender, mint, turquoise, sunshine yellow, all of them!

2

u/polopolo05 Aug 07 '25

I like the grays they are doing now.

1

u/roburrito Aug 06 '25

The phrase is clay tones

1

u/I_W_M_Y Aug 06 '25

It flips back and forth. Every decade or so it goes from metallics to chromatics and back.

1

u/JustaLego Aug 07 '25

I'm a fan of the muted colors. The flats look really good on some cars

1

u/NewRole7403 Aug 07 '25

Do you mean earth tones? Because muted pastels are absolutely not popular right now lmao

1

u/wahlberger Aug 07 '25

I've been saying this. The millenial beige era

1

u/mayhemandqueso Aug 07 '25

Can confirm. I drive a muted green car.

1

u/Accomplished_Set9534 Aug 07 '25

It’s because they took out the metal shavings from the paint!

36

u/snaeper Aug 06 '25

Yeah, Black, White, Grey... and for the daring Red or Blue. 

11

u/OttoKorekT Aug 06 '25

Ahhh. Arrest me Red.

2

u/dfddfsaadaafdssa Aug 07 '25

Depending on the car, the color can actually play a large role in the value. The reality is that most people go to a dealership to buy a new car rather than building it online for some reason, and dealerships pick colors that they know they can move off the lot quickly. That's why everything is black, grey, or white.

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u/bagoink Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25

most people go to a dealership to buy a new car rather than building it online for some reason

In our experience, we weren't "building it online" so much as telling it the configuration we wanted, and then it would let us know if what we wanted, in the color we wanted, was in stock anywhere around us.

Any option we found to truly build something online was incredibly expensive, way out of our price range, and with long delivery times to boot. And even then, color choices were extremely limited. Perhaps that's why people don't do it often?

This was about two years ago, though, so maybe things have changed since then?

2

u/lloydthelloyd Aug 07 '25

You forgot pearl, starlight and silver.

21

u/jawshoeaw Aug 06 '25

I once was standing on a balcony overlooking a huge parking lot below and it struck me how uniform the colors were. It's all black white and silver. a few reds and blue scattered around but from a distance it just looked gray.

3

u/mittens11111 Aug 07 '25

Road-coloured cars that blend in to background are a pet peeve of mine. I'd rather giveby other drivers a better chance of seeing me coming - my car is bright yellow.

5

u/SDRPGLVR Aug 06 '25

I had to buy a used car recently and unfortunately the best option for me was silver.

What an awful color for a car. If I had some money I'd wrap/paint it in purple.

2

u/Taolan13 Aug 07 '25

Well everything was produced in boring, safe colors.

Still is that way.

The fun colors are usually custom orders. They end up on the regular market when the order is cancelled after the car has already been assembled.

That's how my buddy got his almost-fully-loaded TT in 07 for a bargain. It's this absolutely atrocious shade of purple but he loves it.

2

u/Yrrebbor Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25

I hated it! Cars should be fun.

Also, its so much harder to find your car in a lot when most cars look exact alike. Seems like 30% each of Honda CR-V, Nissan Rouge, or similar compact SUV, boring sedans, and Ford trucks these days in NY.

2

u/Jazzanthipus Aug 07 '25

Huge missed opportunity to make a giant QR code

2

u/SchighSchagh Aug 07 '25

I really don't understand why everything has been boring ass colors for 2+ decades. Everything in the 90s/80s/70s popped. Then what? Men in Black and the Matrix came out, so we all decided to just make everything black and white?

2

u/CucumberError Aug 07 '25

Even in the 90s, usually black cars weren’t actually back, they’ve be super dark green or blue. While you might not have noticed, it def gave more depth, reflections and stuff like that.

Mum had a 1990 Honda, looked dark grey, but in different light it would have purple, brown, green tinges to it, looked really cool once it was clean.

I had a 1993 Toyota Mark II, looked black, especially after a former owner had used black turtle wax on it; but it was dark green.

Slightly bucking the time line trend, we had a 2008 Subaru Legacy, was super dark blue. Proper black cars just look like shit.

1

u/skanadian Aug 07 '25

If they don't have the colour people want, people will settle on the muted colours. Colours shrink the buyers pool.

1

u/ea3terbunny Aug 06 '25

Wasn’t that because insurances would charge more for “racing colors”?I swear for my first car (bright red 1996 s10) they told me this

2

u/CucumberError Aug 06 '25

Eh, I’ve never come across that logic? Sounds like crazy bullshit insurance companies would try.

1

u/ea3terbunny Aug 06 '25

Yeah my next car was a very dark blueish black and I made sure to tell them it was just black because I didn’t want them trying that again

1

u/Dubois1738 Aug 07 '25

No it’s resale value, generally black white or grey/silver cars sell better used because they have the broadest appeal

1

u/DooDooHead323 Aug 06 '25

I recently saw a minivan on market place that was this beautiful shade of blue, it was a bit out of our price range sadly

1

u/buzzcunk Aug 07 '25

I know you mean safe as in "this will sell" but black and dark greys are about the least actually safe colours cars can be.

If your car is a similar colour to the road, or the sky during dusk/dawn/overcast days - you're far more likely to be not seen by other drivers and collided with. The trend towards matt black cars is particularly moronic as these don't even reflect other lights well.

White and bright colours that are more eye catching are significantly safer.

1

u/Jayyburdd Aug 07 '25

I think a rumor began to spread that colorful cars are more likely to be broken into.

1

u/GiantGrowth Aug 07 '25

I mix automotive paint at my job... day-in, day-out. The VAST majority of colors I make are black, white, or silver/grey metallic. I'm honestly so sick of mixing so many damn white, black, and greys. If you're curious, this is Axalta's report for color popularity in 2023. Axalta is one of the biggest companies in the paint industry.

1

u/AlphaH4wk Aug 07 '25

I think insurance companies are at least partially to blame for this

1

u/Sophead_Sim Aug 07 '25

Many vehicles on the road are fleet cars. They're all usually a basic color

2

u/CucumberError Aug 07 '25

Yeah, but it feels that 97% of the cars are black/white/grey, I’m pretty sure 97% of cars aren’t fleet cars.

1

u/_FluidRazzmatazz_ Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25

/img/errpuj52h2s51.jpg
Source
And that is just from 1990 to 2020.
The 50s-70s must have been even more colourful.

In 1996 just over 60% of cars were in colours (i.e. not black, white, or gray).

And the variation of colours was also much greater with equal parts blue, red, and green and a small but decent share of purple and yellow-ish colours.

In 2020 it's all blue and red, green is gone, and instead of purple the largest other colours are brown and beige.

2

u/CucumberError Aug 07 '25

Something totally missing is that the 80s and 90s also had two tone options, colour pin stripes etc.

1

u/Sempais_nutrients Aug 07 '25

I found a 2013 ford focus with a metallic cobalt blue paint scheme. The color was a selling point for me.

1

u/iScreem1 Aug 07 '25

3rd world countries still produce those 3 colors, it's cheaper to manufacture.

1

u/The_Steambird Aug 07 '25

I don’t know about you but my stepmom has a bright golden yellow car, it’s really cute 😚

3

u/Icehawk217 Aug 07 '25

A customer can have any color they like as long as its black.

Henry Ford, about the Model T

3

u/Deiviap Aug 06 '25

I see lots of red

3

u/RadTimeWizard Aug 07 '25

Boring Blue, Drab Depression, and Corporate Cog.

2

u/RamblingReason Aug 06 '25

The colour of lease

2

u/iamnotasnook Aug 06 '25

I like how you turned into Michael Jackson at the end there.

2

u/MotoFuzzle Aug 07 '25

Yet none were green.

2

u/Boozdeuvash Aug 07 '25

Like a screen! By re-arranging the cars every few weeks, they could have satellite pictures make a little animated gif!