What Shocked You Today

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What Shocked You Today

On a different note I see on Auto Mundial Fiat are going to stop selling the UK favourite colour of grey 500s and concentrating on Italian National colours. Have they run out of paint?
 
On a different note I see on Auto Mundial Fiat are going to stop selling the UK favourite colour of grey 500s and concentrating on Italian National colours. Have they run out of paint?
Last week, on my walk down to the library, I popped in to our local wee car sales garage - just to say hello and maintain good relations - They were the people who did me such a good deal on the Ibiza. Of course we talked cars and I mentioned I liked the look of the Captur. "Sold a number of those", he said, "popular cars so there's a good choice although the 0.9 litre is more common. In fact I've got one coming in soon in that nice grey". What is it about grey that makes it so popular? I think it just looks drab.
 
Last week, on my walk down to the library, I popped in to our local wee car sales garage - just to say hello and maintain good relations - They were the people who did me such a good deal on the Ibiza. Of course we talked cars and I mentioned I liked the look of the Captur. "Sold a number of those", he said, "popular cars so there's a good choice although the 0.9 litre is more common. In fact I've got one coming in soon in that nice grey". What is it about grey that makes it so popular? I think it just looks drab.
Like at lot of colours, it suits some cars but not all…so they blanket cover their full ranges. Most cars, in my opinion, don’t suit white, it looks pucker on the Panda Cross but not on the rest of the range. My favourite for suiting cars was the electric green 131, not to everyone’s taste, but I think it worked
 
What is it about grey that makes it so popular? I think it just looks drab.
Leasing companies...

While in theory you spec a car...in practice most give the choice of the least offensive colours in order to maximize resale.

So just because you can buy an orange car...doesn't mean a leasing companies would let you spec it.

I looked at a few a few years ago and most cars you had the choice of white, black or grey...this is why most German cars you see are in all the colours of a black and white photograph given they tend to start as either company or lease cars.
 
Like at lot of colours, it suits some cars but not all…so they blanket cover their full ranges. Most cars, in my opinion, don’t suit white, it looks pucker on the Panda Cross but not on the rest of the range. My favourite for suiting cars was the electric green 131, not to everyone’s taste, but I think it worked
Well, there you go, all in the eye of the beholder? I think white really suits our Panda!

Green, especially a lighter green, was always very difficult to sell when I was selling the Dafs. We had one such colour - Averto - which was so difficult to shift that I got a wee bit extra bonus if I sold one and the factory added an extra vehicle to our annual allocation! It was always a bit of a shock when you looked up the year of manufacture against the chassis number though. I guess they had a field full of them somewhere? Any green was always an unpopular colour up here and I asked the boss about it one day. He explained that green was considered an unlucky colour by many.

Edit. I absolutely hate the trend for black wheels that seems to be one of the things they do on the more "blingy" cars in a model range. Quite like a mid grey wheel though.
 
Quite like a mid grey wheel though.
I think the Mazda may have had it's wheels refinished shortly before we bought her and I like the mid/dark grey they chose - or is that a standard Mazda colour? @StevenRB45

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While we're on about white cars, don't you think Becky looks good in her white "coat"?

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Contrasts nicely with the black door handles, bumper trims and dark glass sunroof? My younger boy - signwriter/vehicle wrapper - wants to apply black vinyl to the "B" pillars so it matches the "C" pillar finish. I think might actually look pretty good? don't think I'll go for the carbon fibre look though? He's been doing a lot of carbon fibre dashboard and interior trim finishes just of late so has plenty of offcuts.

Edit. Only thing about white is it doesn't show off a shine like a colour does. Just look at twink, the red Ibiza, behind her to see what I mean. The Mazda is a little better at it but it's a pearlescent finish whereas Becky is a standard, non metallic, white.
 
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Some years ago I read that dark colour cars are more likely to be involved in accidents as people pull out and don't see them.
Many years ago I went on an MOT Testers course and we used the instructors own car as a test model, He was well known and feared in the trade, me being me, I did the test and put on the sheet, failed O/S/R lamp lens broken, he read it and ran over to his car , then realised I was taking the pi**, funny enough we were good friends after that.
By the way Jock, is that an oil leak under the front of your car in the photo?;)
 
@Pugglt Auld Jock Well at least white hides dents beautifully..

The Gunmetal wheels may be standard...they may not. Those wheels were done in both flat silver and gunmetal at points. I think it'll be a run out "colour" edition which did get gunmetal wheels.

The done thing these days is the floating roof look...wrap middle pillar and A pillar although probably works better with a contrast roof. On ours they decided to fit a fake rear quarterlight..the pillars mark it out as an early car. Later ones have Piano black pillars as well...

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Well, there you go, all in the eye of the beholder? I think white really suits our Panda!

Green, especially a lighter green, was always very difficult to sell when I was selling the Dafs. We had one such colour - Averto - which was so difficult to shift that I got a wee bit extra bonus if I sold one and the factory added an extra vehicle to our annual allocation! It was always a bit of a shock when you looked up the year of manufacture against the chassis number though. I guess they had a field full of them somewhere? Any green was always an unpopular colour up here and I asked the boss about it one day. He explained that green was considered an unlucky colour by many.

Edit. I absolutely hate the trend for black wheels that seems to be one of the things they do on the more "blingy" cars in a model range. Quite like a mid grey wheel though.
Yep, just my opinion…but yes, black out the door posts as on the 4x4s, I think it’s the mass of white I don’t like, the crosses have all that contrasting black plastic that breaks it up
 
Some years ago I read that dark colour cars are more likely to be involved in accidents as people pull out and don't see them.
By the way Jock, is that an oil leak under the front of your car in the photo?;)
Think you are probably right about the colours. My Cordoba was "Bengal Yellow" a bright yellow. We never lost it in a car park! But also it was very noticeable that people were aware of you when trying to join a busy road from a side street or when changing lanes on a busy roundabout.

I seem to remember that one of the midlands fire services painted their entire fleet bright yellow a few years back as they found there were less incidents involving their vehicles in this colour than when they were the traditional red.

As to the oil leak? Ha ha, nice try at panicking me! Are you looking at the picture with Becky in it? The pictures were not taken on the same day and it was raining on the day I shot the one with Becky (Panda) in it. In fact Twink's degree of power unit oil tightness is exceptional - a rival for any Japanese vehicle I've worked on. She just doesn't leak oil anywhere! Oops, shouldn't have said that should I?
 
@Pugglt Auld Jock Well at least white hides dents beautifully..

The Gunmetal wheels may be standard...they may not. Those wheels were done in both flat silver and gunmetal at points. I think it'll be a run out "colour" edition which did get gunmetal wheels.
I agree with that. Becky hides her "war wounds" well.

The Mazda, being a 2014 plate, must be one of the last built before the facelift. It has a very "clean" look to it with far less by way of badging compared to the almost identical 2013 plate car which parks in the next street to us. Unfortunately that one (2013 plate) doesn't have alloys so I can't do a comparison, but you may be right about it being a "runout" special. In fact, applying that thinking, maybe they ran out of badges?
 
I agree with that. Becky hides her "war wounds" well.

The Mazda, being a 2014 plate, must be one of the last built before the facelift. It has a very "clean" look to it with far less by way of badging compared to the almost identical 2013 plate car which parks in the next street to us. Unfortunately that one (2013 plate) doesn't have alloys so I can't do a comparison, but you may be right about it being a "runout" special. In fact, applying that thinking, maybe they ran out of badges?

Believe it's a "Sport Colour" body kit and wheels off a 1.5 but 1.3 engine and choice of 3 pearl colours.


It only ran about 4 months so don't think they made any badging.
 
Believe it's a "Sport Colour" body kit and wheels off a 1.5 but 1.3 engine and choice of 3 pearl colours.


It only ran about 4 months so don't think they made any badging.
I think that's exactly what it is Steven. Thanks. The car's out at their house so I can't just pop outside to look at it but the spec given for the "sport" does seem to fit.
 
I think that's exactly what it is Steven. Thanks. The car's out at their house so I can't just pop outside to look at it but the spec given for the "sport" does seem to fit.
They are quite a rare car..

Less than 1000 registered.

 
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