For car color choices, U.S. buyers stick with staid

You'd think consumers' tastes in car colors would have become more adventurous in these modern times. Strangely, it seems the opposite is true.

In the 1950s, automakers offered cars in two-tone or even three- tone paint schemes, with a choice of up to six different interior colors.

Today, multitone paint jobs are virtually extinct -- with the exception of some limited edition models -- and the dominant colors on the road are white, silver and black.

For designers like Tom Tremont, vice president of advanced design for DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group, the public's timorous attitude about colors can be frustrating.

"I hear people say they want more dramatic colors," Tremont said. "But when they go into the showroom, they seem to pick the same old choices.

Tremont thinks the spirit of the times may have made car buyers more daring half a century ago.

"In the '50s people were very optimistic," he said. "It was an innocent time. Today, cars are so much more complicated and serious."

That complexity makes automakers want to simplify the manufacturing process as much as possible, which leads to offering fewer exterior and interior color options to streamline plant operations.

Still, Tremont and his colleagues are probing the possibilities for livening up the color palette on future models.

There may be some room for novel colors on performance cars and so- called buzz models, like the PT Cruiser.

"Perhaps we could bring back some of the muscle car colors from the '60s and '70s," Tremont suggested, "oranges and lime greens, for example."

Don't expect to see such color choices on mainstream family cars, however.

"I doubt we'll ever have orange Camrys," joked Tremont.

Around the world, Americans are not the only ones with staid tastes when it comes to automobile colors.

In Europe, Germans are even more conservative, preferring dark exterior colors and even darker interiors. French automakers, on the other hand, such as Renault, have been known to offer highly unusual color schemes and fabrics.

Tremont notes there's an element of, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" to the question of color selection.

After all, if automakers don't offer Americans an array of exciting, daring colors on new cars and trucks, how do they know buyers aren't interested?

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