Do you want white, black or gray?
Everything has already been said about the decline in the number of paint colors offered and sold. However, there is one specific car model for which the range is so limited that it can still be called remarkable. This car is not available in colors, but only in seven achromatic shades.
We often see the transition from colors to shades. This often seems to go hand in hand with what a particular car manufacturer wants to convey. The driving design statement that we know as the Hyundai Ioniq 5, for example, is available in different shades that are not very different from each other, although there is some blue or green to be seen here and there.
Reducing the number of options and colors is also a tactic. Tesla, for example, only offers five paint colors in order to streamline production and keep costs low. The supply of Chinese cars is also often limited. At the same time, there are manufacturers who choose to ‘push’ a particular model in a very striking color. Stellantis is lord and master in this, and offers a striking and distinctive color as a ‘free option’ for every model. Anyone who wants something to choose from when it comes to colors is often happy with the offerings from premium manufacturers. Mercedes, BMW and Audi often have tasty colors on the options list, although we all know that here too the majority leave the showroom in black, gray or white.
The complete ‘color’ range of the Range Rover Velar.
All the more remarkable that the most drab new car we could find is not a ready-made Chinese or cheap hatchback. The dubious honor goes to the Range Rover Velar. This medium-sized Range Rover was once available in some nice shades, but things went wrong with the facelift. The seven shades are optimistically called ‘colours’ by Range Rover in the configurator, but actually have nothing to do with that. We note two types of white, one black and one silver, supplemented with ‘Carpatian Gray’ and ‘Zadar Gray’. The seventh shade has the hopeful name ‘Varesine Blue’, but has considerably more to do with gray than with blue.
Nice gray, right? Yes, so this is the ‘blue’…
The fact that Land Rover, of all places, offers this sad list of shades is extra remarkable because the British have the most beautiful colors at home. The full-size Range Rover, for example, is available in all possible shades, from dark green to champagne and from bright blue to orange. Velar drivers apparently don’t want that, but it is a shame. However?
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl