I started drinking coffee just after starting my first job out of college. I was working as an estimator/project manager trainee for an electrical contractor in Syracuse. One early morning in January, I found myself on a job site, freezing my tail off and gladly accepting the offer of a cup. Lots of cream and sugar made it possible to drink and I was grateful for the warmth it provided. It’s amazing how fast an addiction can take hold. From that day forward, I was a coffee drinker.
Later, I moved to Boston and took a job with an electrical distributor. Every morning, a catering truck would pull into the warehouse and we would all line up for coffee and donuts. This is where I learned that if you want black coffee in Boston, the correct way to order it is “regular, no cream, no sugar”. And what, you ask, does this have to do with cars? Well, if you haven’t guessed by now, stay with me and I will tell you.
I’ve always had a fondness for small, cheap cars. No luxury for me. My first car was a 1965 Opel Kadett L. About as cheap as you could find in 1971 unless you opted for the basic Kadett. From there I owned a VW Beetle, Toyota Corolla, Dodge Colt…you get the idea. If it was under 2 liters and had a manual gearbox, I was interested. In 2011 I was shopping for a replacement for my 2007 Mazda 3 hatchback.
Around this time, Scion introduced their updated TC and I was drawn to the Release Series 7.0 in this amazing shade of yellow called High Voltage. According to Wikipedia, only 2,200 were produced and I never saw one in real life.
After giving up on ever finding a yellow TC, I shifted my attention to locating a TC in this new color called Cement. Ultimately, I passed on the TC and I regret that to this day, but this was the beginning of my interest in this type of paint. Not metallic, not flat, but a rich, creamy shade of gray. While variations on this non-metallic paint are quite ubiquitous now, this was quite a new thing in 2011. In fact, Scion might have been the first to introduce it. Sort of like getting just the right amount of cream in that coffee.
Of course, since then, many other makes have jumped on board. Starting with Audi and their 2013 shade called Nardo Gray. Hmmm, it kind of looks like Cement. Maybe a touch more blue.
And here’s Ford’s Leadfoot, circa 2018.
Honda joined the fray in 2017 with a variation on the gray called Sonic Gray Pearl. Really more of a blue than gray.
As these creamy shades started to proliferate, my wife Maggie and I started to play a little game. When we spotted one of these paint jobs we would call it yes or no. Kind of like when you don’t quite put enough cream in that coffee. It just looks wrong, so you add a splash. And heaven forbid you add too much cream. You might as well pour it out and start over. By our rules, it needs to be a variation of gray. It can be blue-gray or green-gray. But not tan. Never tan.
Yes, I realize that this Audi Q8 is actually the epitomy of a perfect coffee with cream, but no, not tan. And not this car. These creamy paints don’t work on every car.
And don’t add too much cream, then it’s just milk.
I tried to do some research on how these paints are produced and who came up with the idea first. If someone out there knows, please post in the comment section. The best answer I could come up with was something along the lines of the local paint rep showing up at Toyota one day and said “hey, take a look at this sample that the boys in the lab came up with, whaddya think?” I have noticed that some are truly non-metallic and some are not. The Audi above is showing something they call Sakhir Gold Metallic. As with all paints, lighting is the key to how they look in real life.
These two Fords are both done in Cactus Gray. I shot both at a Ford dealer on the same day. It’s hard to tell from these photos, but in real life the Maverick was a bit greener and the Bronco a bit bluer.
I’m guessing we’re reaching the age of peak cream. Like a lot of trends, there is a limited appetite for things that are different. My guess is that these colors will hit maybe 2-3% of the overall market and then consumer interest will start to wane. What I have noticed lately is newer shades, somewhat less creamy.
Like this Kia Niro in Cityscape Green. It’s still creamy, but if this were your coffee and you didn’t drink it black, you would want to add a splash more half and half.
What’s really exciting is that colors of all sorts are finally make a comeback. Here are just some of the options available on the 2024 Ford Bronco Sport. Maybe the era of black, silver, gray, and white is finally coming to a close? We can always hope!
Bring back colour! For interiors too. I just can’t imagine waking up one morning and thinking
“my next car will be grey”
Don’t get me started on the satin paint/wrap trend…..
Sorry, but I don’t understand it. You open with a headline and an opening image about “creamy colors”. But the text deals with cement-colored gray tones that are better used for warships than for cars.
I too started drinking coffee at my first real job as a mechanical engineer for an aerospace company. The first day at work they gave me a stack of dry, dry, dry technical information to read. I quickly realized drastic action was required lest my head go thud on the desk. I embraced coffee (plenty on cream & sugar) and never looked back…
Before I even started drinking coffee, one of my bosses asked me to get him a cup. “Just a little cream. See the color of the wood on this desk? I want the coffee that color and no lighter.”
I have noticed the proliferation of non-metallic paint finishes in recent years. They all remind me of the color selections available around 1950, before metallics started to become common. I think some of them come off better than others.
This is the first time I remember seeing so many variations at once, but it’s not the first time we have seen isolated reappearances of these colors. I remember the late 70s when Ford brought out its “Dove Gray”. It was so unusual then, and reminded me of paint colors from an earlier era.
I like your metaphor of adding “creamer” to what would otherwise be saturated pigments to arrive at the various colors of the featured cars.
I’m also a huge coffee fan. Having worked a few jobs that required me to be up way before the crack of dawn, I grew to adore coffee. A little too much. I’m down to just two cups a day now, but there was a time when I could go through an entire pot over the course of one day. I still love the taste.
Creative, that you used an analogy to cream, in the texture of these currently popular colours. As they alternately, somewhat reminded me of the texture of plastic and/or plastic coatings. Great report and predictions, as it likely will run its course in the next few years. Though, I do like the look. I find it works well on autos/trucks with outdoorsy images, in natural colours. Matches many design trends. Lends a humility, and austerity, to high end and pricey product, that presents well, in current times.
I generally like the overall increase in subtly, and refinement, we are seeing in automotive design. While this website has always appealed to me, I do feel that much auto design today has greater attraction, than many eras of the past.
My grandmother, born in the US but living in NI, gave me my first coffee ( a very milky one) aged two. I have never drunk tea in the ensuing 7 decades. Child abuse!
In the mid ’70s GM too had some non-metallic colors featured for a few years, not gray, but the ones I recall were a sort of blue-gray, a pea gray-green that we had on our ’75 Cad, deV, and a buttery yellow-gold. These were frequently seen in the ’74-76 era and possibly into the downsized B & C time as well. I liked them then and now. But I’ll be happy to see the present cement trend end, hopefully soon, in cars as well as the current fad in house interiors… boring!
I believe the Audi TT was actually the first in the “modern era”, ca. 2000 to feature the gray colors, they even offered two at the same time, “Aviator Gray” was the lighter one if I remember correctly and then there was a darker one as well.
They all look just “gray” when viewed individually but when viewed with more than one example side by side (i.e. a Honda next to a Jeep next to a Toyota next to a Chevy they tend to take on very different tonality, as well as lighting having a dramatic effect on how they look during a given day. Some appear green, some blue, but all are quite different. People seem to like them enough to buy them, rarely is the gray car the one left on the dealer lot.
They also tend to pair very well with different color interiors, such as brown, cinnamon, darker red etc…making for quite the dramatic effect.
If your coffee is gray, you have a problem. Nice to see an detailed observation of automotive colors, but any shade of gray makes one look like a mothballed Navy ship or an abandoned motor pool truck -even if it’s shiny. Slate Stone Age Canyon Fossil is still gray. No amount of word play changes it. My Town Car is listed as draped in French Linen or covered in Pueblo Gold, but it still was painted beige at the Wixom plant. Then again my 2009 G8GT was Panther Black and most likely make with real panthers.
Someone in our neighbourhood just bought a new Bronco in grey. It looks a lot like the US Navy vehicles we used to see occasionally here on Vancouver Island when USN submarines were working out of Nanoose Bay. I’ve seen a few other vehicles such as Toyota trucks in a similair shade. Popular now, but it’ll be interesting to see what resale is in a few years. I wonder how long it will be before someone offers a factory camoflauge option?
I used to drink my 5 or 6 cups of coffee a day black, but since I’ve retired I’m down to 1 cup in the morning with cream. Much easier on the system!
Now I know why when I order my coffee black, they ask if I want cream or sugar. A not very interesting fact, Starbucks says 30% of their coffee orders are black.
Regarding Coffee:
Growing up, my Dad always loved coffee in the morning. When I was about 8 years old, he started putting a tablespoon or so in my milk at breakfast if I was having milk and I was smitten with the flavor.
As an adult, I limit myself to two cups per day, both in the morning. One when I get up, and one for the road. Just 1/2&1/2, no sugar for me, until a recent health issue has me giving up the fattier dairy products like that. Now I have it with unsweetened vanilla oat milk. To make that creamy, I have a latte foamer that works amazingly.
Regarding the Car Colors, or lack thereof:
My ‘83 T-Bird was a non-metallic grey. It was a Turbo-Coupe (and Fila) color, although mine was just a base V6. This color was so light, it looked white… until it snowed. Many were surprised when they saw it for the first time with snow on it. I’d say, “I tried to tell you all this car was grey!”
By 1986, Ford made their light grey darker, more like the Dove Gray that JPC shows above on that Marquis.
Looks like primer with a shiny finish to me…I DON’T care for gray/grey at all!!
These Grey’s are either “primer” Grey or “wooden porch” floor Grey, both of which are somewhere between depressing and simply awful. I will never own a Grey car, no matter how powerful, useful, inexpensive or economical. Ugh….
I know I’ve seen these creamy, non-metallic gray and blue cement-like colors, but until reading this article, I hadn’t thought about how popular they’ve become. Today while driving around, I seemed to see them everywhere.
I’m not quite sure how I feel about these colors. At least they’re something different than the white/silver/black palette that’s taken over everywhere, but some of it’s not too much of an improvement. Cement seems like a pretty depressing color to me. The F-150 and Audi photos here just appear so… dull. I think the bluish hues are much better.
These grey cars bring forth a pet peeve I have about living in Seattle; so many houses painted grey. Why? The sky is grey enough 70% of the time. Psychologists at UW should do a study!
Gray primer clearcoat, or whatever it’s called, is a “Hell no!” for me. I would never ever buy anything that kind of color, IMHO, the Destroyer Grey was hands down the worst color offered by Mopar in recent years. My pick as second worst, F8 Green, is light years ahead of DG. The worst palate of color choices recently that I’m aware of is for the Hyundai Santa Cruz. When white is the best “color”, something is wrong. I see one in that weird green “Sage Gray” a lot, and wonder, “Who the F would buy that?”
Personally I don’t see what is wrong with gray especially dove gray which is very, very close to haze gray. I love haze gray… on a warship that is as mentioned above several times. I also like dark gray or better known as deck gray.
A friend of mine has a dark grey Superminx estate its an Audi colour I was told her car looks great.
BMC white was complex and included green.
BMW white pops. Maybe a little blue was added (or phosphoros😂)
These horrible shades of grey are turning the world into a dreary landscape. This trend needs to end. I’m sure a lot of the people buying these boring dreary colors live in grey houses with grey interiors. Our country is turning into a black and white movie.
On my new Corolla hybrid, color choice was the non metallic white, for the sake of long term prevention of UV damage to the clearcoat. Interior had the choice of dungeon black ( you need a flashlight to find your phone). Two tone grey, nicely done, but the mocha/ Macadamia combo gave the interior an Italian look, but no demand so couldn’t be had. (Think people don’t even know what macadamians are) All the delay worked for the good, went with the grey and switched to a hybrid instead of a base LE with the strange “Launch” 1st gear CVT.
That’s not even a little bit of a joke. I very quickly picked up a hard caffeine addiction my first year in university, when I was 18. By the time I was 23, it was very evident that the stuff was bad for me in a bunch of ways. It took me about thirteen years of trying to quit before it stuck. Numerous aspects of life are enormously better without, but I had to go through hell to get here.
As to car colours, or non-colours: I will never understand paying Audi-Bimmer-Merc money for a car painted shop-floor grey.
Hear, Hear!
Totally agree about the shop-floor grey. And the idea that “Cement” should be an attractive name for a color? Ok…
As others have said, I think that this is a fad that will pass.
Yeah, I was on 8 super-strong macchiatos a day ay my peak, which was far too long, and likewise not-good for me. Especially not when combined with the 40-a-day cigg affliction which lasted the same too-long time (and IS connected scientifically, it turns out).
Coffee is now a once-a-day controlled-substance administration for me, because it tumbles upward in a hell of a harmful hurry if I don’t. No milk any more. (Btw, drip coffee isn’t coffee, nor is anything from US chain coffees of any sort). And without milk, it’s just the same of colour as lots and lots of cars currently out there – well, the ones that aren’t grey or white.
I live in a part of the world that, contrary to tourism images, is grey-skied and not terribly warm for what seems about 70% of the year, and I’m afraid those new greys – which aren’t ugly – would just add to the general drabbery of a city famous for the fact that every well-dressed person has worn variations of black for the past 40 years. It’s also a legitimate coffee capital (from a large Italian and Greek inheritance)
Yep, coffee fashionistas in black, in a city of undistinguished grey-concrete downtown architecture, under grey skies, so no more grey for me.
Somehow, these dull, muted non-metallic colors do not work at all for me on modern vehicles. Rounded bodies of VW beetles and 1940’s American cars did carry them well.
Yes! Must be something to do with curves and reflections is my guess. Today’s lot are all a bit angular for that.
My garage floor is a creamy, non-metallic gray. It looks like cement. It IS painted cement. I’m happy with that. The cars on that garage floor, though, are bright blue and yellow. They don’t blend in with my garage floor. I’m happy with that, too.
A few months ago, the Economics of Everday Things podcast had a feature on car colors which focused on Subaru’s development of grey/blue car colors, inspired by hiking/camping community gear. Available on Spotify, here’s the YouTube link:
“Everyday” (grrr)