Of the numerous cars I have owned, I have only had one white (89 Crown Victoria LX. Believe many in warm climates find white is a practical choice. Also white is also easy to look clean as opposed to dark colors, which seem to attract dust even when just washed and waxed. Current Town Car Signature Limited is called CASHMERE and has been ceramic coated. Attracts a lot of questions about color and is so easy to keep clean. Not quite white.😎
Is that still the case? I thought white appliance popularity went out after the 90s. Seems everything in the last decade or two is black and/or silver (stainless).
I wonder if the 80-series Corolla sedans were used cars or going on clearance, since there’s already a 90-series liftback (Sprinter Cielo in Japan, Geo Prizm hatchback in America, Corolla Seca in Australia) in stock.
I’m thinking at least some of them were used cars since they have license plates visible. Of course that is based on how things work in the US where plates aren’t issued until the vehicle is sold the first time.
I drove by a BMW dealership about a year ago which had their new car storage to the side, which I drover through. EVERY SINGLE ONE was a greyscale color (white, silver, gray, charcoal, black); not even a dark red or blue mixed in.
I have this experience regularly at the local dealerships, Honda Jeep whatever. Nothing wrong with a black or gray or white car, but why do they all have to be those colors?
Because 90% of people will settle for a bland color that blends in but the majority of those same people will refuse to settle for an orange or purple or yellow car. The dealer stocks what will sell quickest/most often to the greatest cross-section of people.
But even this past year when more cars were ordered than ever before in the US, I believe most people still chose the same boring colors. It doesn’t help that many of the most interesting colors now actually cost more to purchase than one or two regular ones.
There was a time, not so many years/decades ago, when silver was quite the rare and avant-garde color for a car. Same with white.
But face it, most people are boring. And generally too lazy to plan ahead and order what they (say) they like. They are also often scared that a mainstream car will be more difficult to sell down the road if it’s a non-mainstream color.
Not automotive related, but when I see these old pictures, I often feel compelled to look up what the area now looks like. I assume this is the location (Google StreetView below and link here: https://goo.gl/maps/r8Tck77hJcUxbGTq7 . It appears that the showroom has been torn down – the dealership having moved to a more modern building.
But I’m extremely impressed by the buildings that replaced it. In the US, we would never see such newer attractive buildings, blending in so well in an older area. Everything new here is three times larger than the surrounding buildings, built with cheap materials, and in a trendy architectural style that will look outdated within a decade. I don’t know if this example is typical of new construction in the Netherlands, but if so, congratulations on a job well done.
All torn down, indeed. Originally it was clearly a so called T-farm (a T-shaped farmhouse). The address was Zijveld 56, Beneden-Leeuwen. Yes, those new houses are typical, style- and construction-wise.
The current workshop/showroom was opened in 2004, Veesteeg 6, same town. These days, third generation (combined with the second generation) family business.
Let’s go back further in time. The founder started the business in the farm of an uncle, back in 1965. (and a Toyota dealership since 1968!) Extensions of the main building followed, throughout the years.
Eric703
Posted February 20, 2023 at 3:22 PM
Ah – that makes sense. Thanks.
And incidentally, I’d never realized before that Mobil gas was sold in Europe.
Scoutdude
Posted February 20, 2023 at 4:40 PM
That is what I pictured in my mind when seeing the post. Someone saw a need for a service station in the area and put in a couple of pumps and the service bay. Then when the Toyota sales rep came a knocking he signed up and eventually added the brick showroom.
Johannes Dutch
Posted February 21, 2023 at 5:21 AM
This is how I remember the place, which is pretty much its “final stage” before everything was torn down. The pumps in front of the house were already long gone, there was a garden instead. It says “motorolie” on the BP sign.
Eric703
Posted February 21, 2023 at 5:31 AM
This is the closest equivalent in my part of the world. An RV dealer in rapidly urbanizing Fairfax, Virginia located on a former farm sometime in the 1960s, reused some of the farm buildings and then built its own office facility.
This picture is from the late 1970s, shortly before it was torn down. The site is now a fast food restaurant.
Johannes Dutch
Posted February 21, 2023 at 5:41 AM
Great find and picture Eric, certainly a near equivalent, history-wise and all (a former farm).
Nice detective work! Yes, that’s something you wouldn’t see in U.S. much, tearing down a business to build single family homes. If it does happen, the houses would be as large as could fit on the lot. More likely they would be three story narrow affairs, such that you could fit five in the space they took to build two here.
Here in the Mid-Atlantic, the only place you’d see new development built in scale and character with existing structures is in tightly regulated historic districts, and even in those places, developers’ interests are prevailing more than they used to. In most areas, like you said, new houses are often 3- or 4- stories high and loom over their neighbors. I’d love to see new houses like the ones shown here built around here!
checkdithuis says the 1900 ft² house is worth €550K. There are lots of historic districts in my US city that tightly control not only the size and style of new houses but go so far as to require owners to get planning permission to change the paint color of the doors and windows.
I really like white cars, though ironically the only ones we’ve owned have been my wife’s two VW’s. Though I did pick those specific cars 😀. When buying our Land Cruiser, Forester and Tacoma I really wanted white, but could not find any with the configuration I wanted; and for our current Transit van I wanted white but my wife put her foot down and we got a rare one-year only brown/beige/gold/green color very similar to our old Prius, which she had also picked out.
Count me as a fan of white. Yes, it is perhaps boring yet I can’t block out the experience of living in Arizona for many years, where white is a preferred color due to its heat-reflecting qualities and not showing dust as easily. I think a good quality white is more durable to large quantities of UV rays and more tolerant of neglect, too.
It even looks good on certain cars, and looks bad on very few.
While it may be a boring color today, there was a time when it was an exciting new hue in automobiles. See JP Cavanaugh’s excellent history of white cars
Back in the 90s, the first car I bought myself was white. I had a wish list for a local dealer for when he went to auctions, color wasn’t a dealbreaker. He came back with a car that was almost everything I wanted but was white. I totally loathed the color in the beginning. But learned to like it. Now it’s my favorite for the old cars with sharp angular styling. White with black trim.
I recall reading that the Japanese prefer white because it’s one of the easiest colors to repair, and it’s easily cleaned, plus white cars stay cooler. As an aside that is why Landrovers had white or Limestone roof panels for many years.
Personally I’ve only owned one two white vehicles, both used although in the late 80s my family had The Great White Fleet since all three cars were white. Currently I buck the trend since the two main vehicles in the fleet are red. My son is the opposite, three of the four vehicles he has owned are white, although two were trucks. Some cars look good in white, some don’t, the 2003 Buick LeSabre we use as the family beater is nicknamed Moby Dick because it is the great white whale. In Moby’s defense he is a cockroach of the road with 213,000 miles and literally outlived his first two owners
I like white cars but of the off white to cream shade varieties, including pearlescents. These pure white whites that seem to prevail today are just too harsh looking, it might look good on one car but 10 of them together is a real eyesore, just look at how they clash with the environment around them, it’s not a neutral color in the context of nature or the built environment.
When white was somewhat rare on popular cars, I thought it could add a great deal of freshness, and elegance, to a car’s design.
I thought the Spirit of America Vega, Nova, and Impala, each looked great. As a kid, I loved the special edition GMC and Chev pickups, and Chevrolet Malibu, GM offered to promote the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
All white factory body kit, wheel, and trim packages were offered by various car makers at their peak in the late 80s and early 90s. I liked the look a lot, at the time.
My cars that have been white were accidental; I chose them for other reasons but they happened to be white. There were only two: a Ford Taurus and a Dodge Aspen (but that one had a blue vinyl roof).
For combustion engine powered cars, heat is free, cold (A/C) isn’t. So white is the most rational choice. Cooler in the summer. More visible to others at night.
I like white. It shows off the designers’ intention with the lines, and compliments sparse usage of chrome. Maybe a white Malibu or such would be considered an appliance.
That said, the 6 month old order for a new car involves dark blue since a dark blue Lariat has always been on my bucket list. If the order falls through, then the Plan B is a white Mazda or Honda.
I lived on a unique block of bungalows in an old part of Houston 30 years ago, unique in that it was “self-contained” – 14 houses on the front and back part with no continuation of one of the streets. A developer wanted to buy all 14 houses to clear them out and put in 40 3-story townhomes. Six of us held out since we were deeply uninterested in1) leaving our homes, and 2) watching the developer change the entire fabric of the wonderfully walkable neighborhood (Houston has no….zoning….laws. None. It’s a shitshow.). After 2 years of constant pressure and occasional calls from a threatening attorney the developer finally gave up, although I’m quite surprised they didn’t go to court and make some wild claim of eminent domain. Texas has a history of supporting such ventures.
Dealers want a quick sale. On another message board about 10-15 years ago, a Honda salesman was complaining about people being picky about color. Seems like since then, color choice is more limited, probably due to dealers’ complaints.
But also, buyers today just get an xUV as ‘transportation’ and care about room, utility and gadgets. Color? Whatever is coming in from the truck. Not like the days of pages of many colors or paint, interiors, with matching landau roofs. Or the two or three tone paints in the ’50s.
When we bought our Honda Pilot a few years ago, the dealer we bought from the salesman pretty much told us you can’t order a Honda. You pretty much pick out from dealer stock or what comes in on the truck that closest meets your needs. There are no factory options, just dealer installed ones. We had the dealer install a luggage rack and a class 3 trailer towing package.
If you want a specific trim level and color you may have to wait 3 to 6 months.
Plain white , this the most popular color? Partly because #1 these paints are at no additional cost on several basic models from several manufacturers which will offer you gray and black as the only alternative ( like base Civic in canada ) #2 Love mine on my white Rav4 . An application defect from the factory give me free repaint for life on every body panels affected .Some other Toyota models are also affected by this recall that Toyota is not calling a recall but an “extended paint warranty” .It will come back to earth with a fresh coat provided it continues to peel
White would never be in my top five colors for a car. However I do have a white car mainly because it was what was available when I went looking for one. being a Spring Special meant only four choices being black, red, silver, and white. All with black vinyl top. So if you had a choice what would you have picked? Me, probably the white out of those four.
My friend was looking at Hyudai Santa Cruz’es, and we both thought it was just beyond sad that the only two even remotely decent colors they came in were black and white. I’ve never seen a more pitiful color palette on a vehicle, ever. And no, he didn’t buy a Santa Cruz. The color choices did affect his decision, but the main reason was he didn’t think it was worth anywhere near what they wanted for it.
Of the numerous cars I have owned, I have only had one white (89 Crown Victoria LX. Believe many in warm climates find white is a practical choice. Also white is also easy to look clean as opposed to dark colors, which seem to attract dust even when just washed and waxed. Current Town Car Signature Limited is called CASHMERE and has been ceramic coated. Attracts a lot of questions about color and is so easy to keep clean. Not quite white.😎
Quite popular on refrigerators & washing machines too. All in line with the trend to treat cars as appliances.
Exactly what I thought – they look like a fleet of refrigerators out there.
Is that still the case? I thought white appliance popularity went out after the 90s. Seems everything in the last decade or two is black and/or silver (stainless).
Ten Toyotas in undercoat – waiting for dressing …
I wonder if the 80-series Corolla sedans were used cars or going on clearance, since there’s already a 90-series liftback (Sprinter Cielo in Japan, Geo Prizm hatchback in America, Corolla Seca in Australia) in stock.
Maybe it’s late September and it’s Toyotathon time at Dealin’ Dutch’s Toyota! Gotta move those 80s out, the trucks full of 90s are coming!
I’m thinking at least some of them were used cars since they have license plates visible. Of course that is based on how things work in the US where plates aren’t issued until the vehicle is sold the first time.
I drove by a BMW dealership about a year ago which had their new car storage to the side, which I drover through. EVERY SINGLE ONE was a greyscale color (white, silver, gray, charcoal, black); not even a dark red or blue mixed in.
Well, boaring. But saving costs for raw materials, in particular colouring minerals.
I have this experience regularly at the local dealerships, Honda Jeep whatever. Nothing wrong with a black or gray or white car, but why do they all have to be those colors?
Because 90% of people will settle for a bland color that blends in but the majority of those same people will refuse to settle for an orange or purple or yellow car. The dealer stocks what will sell quickest/most often to the greatest cross-section of people.
But even this past year when more cars were ordered than ever before in the US, I believe most people still chose the same boring colors. It doesn’t help that many of the most interesting colors now actually cost more to purchase than one or two regular ones.
There was a time, not so many years/decades ago, when silver was quite the rare and avant-garde color for a car. Same with white.
But face it, most people are boring. And generally too lazy to plan ahead and order what they (say) they like. They are also often scared that a mainstream car will be more difficult to sell down the road if it’s a non-mainstream color.
Not automotive related, but when I see these old pictures, I often feel compelled to look up what the area now looks like. I assume this is the location (Google StreetView below and link here: https://goo.gl/maps/r8Tck77hJcUxbGTq7 . It appears that the showroom has been torn down – the dealership having moved to a more modern building.
But I’m extremely impressed by the buildings that replaced it. In the US, we would never see such newer attractive buildings, blending in so well in an older area. Everything new here is three times larger than the surrounding buildings, built with cheap materials, and in a trendy architectural style that will look outdated within a decade. I don’t know if this example is typical of new construction in the Netherlands, but if so, congratulations on a job well done.
I just knew I could count on you 🙂 🙂
All torn down, indeed. Originally it was clearly a so called T-farm (a T-shaped farmhouse). The address was Zijveld 56, Beneden-Leeuwen. Yes, those new houses are typical, style- and construction-wise.
The current workshop/showroom was opened in 2004, Veesteeg 6, same town. These days, third generation (combined with the second generation) family business.
Thanks Johannes! I’ve heard of T-farms from some of your other posts — didn’t recognize this building as one of them.
Again, great-looking houses here.
Let’s go back further in time. The founder started the business in the farm of an uncle, back in 1965. (and a Toyota dealership since 1968!) Extensions of the main building followed, throughout the years.
Ah – that makes sense. Thanks.
And incidentally, I’d never realized before that Mobil gas was sold in Europe.
That is what I pictured in my mind when seeing the post. Someone saw a need for a service station in the area and put in a couple of pumps and the service bay. Then when the Toyota sales rep came a knocking he signed up and eventually added the brick showroom.
This is how I remember the place, which is pretty much its “final stage” before everything was torn down. The pumps in front of the house were already long gone, there was a garden instead. It says “motorolie” on the BP sign.
This is the closest equivalent in my part of the world. An RV dealer in rapidly urbanizing Fairfax, Virginia located on a former farm sometime in the 1960s, reused some of the farm buildings and then built its own office facility.
This picture is from the late 1970s, shortly before it was torn down. The site is now a fast food restaurant.
Great find and picture Eric, certainly a near equivalent, history-wise and all (a former farm).
Nice detective work! Yes, that’s something you wouldn’t see in U.S. much, tearing down a business to build single family homes. If it does happen, the houses would be as large as could fit on the lot. More likely they would be three story narrow affairs, such that you could fit five in the space they took to build two here.
Here in the Mid-Atlantic, the only place you’d see new development built in scale and character with existing structures is in tightly regulated historic districts, and even in those places, developers’ interests are prevailing more than they used to. In most areas, like you said, new houses are often 3- or 4- stories high and loom over their neighbors. I’d love to see new houses like the ones shown here built around here!
checkdithuis says the 1900 ft² house is worth €550K. There are lots of historic districts in my US city that tightly control not only the size and style of new houses but go so far as to require owners to get planning permission to change the paint color of the doors and windows.
I really like white cars, though ironically the only ones we’ve owned have been my wife’s two VW’s. Though I did pick those specific cars 😀. When buying our Land Cruiser, Forester and Tacoma I really wanted white, but could not find any with the configuration I wanted; and for our current Transit van I wanted white but my wife put her foot down and we got a rare one-year only brown/beige/gold/green color very similar to our old Prius, which she had also picked out.
Count me as a fan of white. Yes, it is perhaps boring yet I can’t block out the experience of living in Arizona for many years, where white is a preferred color due to its heat-reflecting qualities and not showing dust as easily. I think a good quality white is more durable to large quantities of UV rays and more tolerant of neglect, too.
It even looks good on certain cars, and looks bad on very few.
While it may be a boring color today, there was a time when it was an exciting new hue in automobiles. See JP Cavanaugh’s excellent history of white cars
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/automotive-history-the-long-road-to-the-white-car-part-1/
We only but white cars for exactly the reasons Jon mentions. Could not be more satisfied.
Back in the 90s, the first car I bought myself was white. I had a wish list for a local dealer for when he went to auctions, color wasn’t a dealbreaker. He came back with a car that was almost everything I wanted but was white. I totally loathed the color in the beginning. But learned to like it. Now it’s my favorite for the old cars with sharp angular styling. White with black trim.
I recall reading that the Japanese prefer white because it’s one of the easiest colors to repair, and it’s easily cleaned, plus white cars stay cooler. As an aside that is why Landrovers had white or Limestone roof panels for many years.
Personally I’ve only owned one two white vehicles, both used although in the late 80s my family had The Great White Fleet since all three cars were white. Currently I buck the trend since the two main vehicles in the fleet are red. My son is the opposite, three of the four vehicles he has owned are white, although two were trucks. Some cars look good in white, some don’t, the 2003 Buick LeSabre we use as the family beater is nicknamed Moby Dick because it is the great white whale. In Moby’s defense he is a cockroach of the road with 213,000 miles and literally outlived his first two owners
I like white cars but of the off white to cream shade varieties, including pearlescents. These pure white whites that seem to prevail today are just too harsh looking, it might look good on one car but 10 of them together is a real eyesore, just look at how they clash with the environment around them, it’s not a neutral color in the context of nature or the built environment.
When white was somewhat rare on popular cars, I thought it could add a great deal of freshness, and elegance, to a car’s design.
I thought the Spirit of America Vega, Nova, and Impala, each looked great. As a kid, I loved the special edition GMC and Chev pickups, and Chevrolet Malibu, GM offered to promote the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
Malibu.
1975 era Nova looked very clean in white.
All white factory body kit, wheel, and trim packages were offered by various car makers at their peak in the late 80s and early 90s. I liked the look a lot, at the time.
My cars that have been white were accidental; I chose them for other reasons but they happened to be white. There were only two: a Ford Taurus and a Dodge Aspen (but that one had a blue vinyl roof).
For combustion engine powered cars, heat is free, cold (A/C) isn’t. So white is the most rational choice. Cooler in the summer. More visible to others at night.
More visible…but not if you have snow bank at each street corner.
I like white. It shows off the designers’ intention with the lines, and compliments sparse usage of chrome. Maybe a white Malibu or such would be considered an appliance.
That said, the 6 month old order for a new car involves dark blue since a dark blue Lariat has always been on my bucket list. If the order falls through, then the Plan B is a white Mazda or Honda.
I lived on a unique block of bungalows in an old part of Houston 30 years ago, unique in that it was “self-contained” – 14 houses on the front and back part with no continuation of one of the streets. A developer wanted to buy all 14 houses to clear them out and put in 40 3-story townhomes. Six of us held out since we were deeply uninterested in1) leaving our homes, and 2) watching the developer change the entire fabric of the wonderfully walkable neighborhood (Houston has no….zoning….laws. None. It’s a shitshow.). After 2 years of constant pressure and occasional calls from a threatening attorney the developer finally gave up, although I’m quite surprised they didn’t go to court and make some wild claim of eminent domain. Texas has a history of supporting such ventures.
Dealers want a quick sale. On another message board about 10-15 years ago, a Honda salesman was complaining about people being picky about color. Seems like since then, color choice is more limited, probably due to dealers’ complaints.
But also, buyers today just get an xUV as ‘transportation’ and care about room, utility and gadgets. Color? Whatever is coming in from the truck. Not like the days of pages of many colors or paint, interiors, with matching landau roofs. Or the two or three tone paints in the ’50s.
Who knows if styles will change again?
When we bought our Honda Pilot a few years ago, the dealer we bought from the salesman pretty much told us you can’t order a Honda. You pretty much pick out from dealer stock or what comes in on the truck that closest meets your needs. There are no factory options, just dealer installed ones. We had the dealer install a luggage rack and a class 3 trailer towing package.
If you want a specific trim level and color you may have to wait 3 to 6 months.
Plain white , this the most popular color? Partly because #1 these paints are at no additional cost on several basic models from several manufacturers which will offer you gray and black as the only alternative ( like base Civic in canada ) #2 Love mine on my white Rav4 . An application defect from the factory give me free repaint for life on every body panels affected .Some other Toyota models are also affected by this recall that Toyota is not calling a recall but an “extended paint warranty” .It will come back to earth with a fresh coat provided it continues to peel
White would never be in my top five colors for a car. However I do have a white car mainly because it was what was available when I went looking for one. being a Spring Special meant only four choices being black, red, silver, and white. All with black vinyl top. So if you had a choice what would you have picked? Me, probably the white out of those four.
My friend was looking at Hyudai Santa Cruz’es, and we both thought it was just beyond sad that the only two even remotely decent colors they came in were black and white. I’ve never seen a more pitiful color palette on a vehicle, ever. And no, he didn’t buy a Santa Cruz. The color choices did affect his decision, but the main reason was he didn’t think it was worth anywhere near what they wanted for it.