Colors on new cars

[Barry M Wheeler #2189]

I received a very nice packet today in the mail from Cadillac. Included was a sales brochure for the 2016 ATS. The dealership didn't have any base models in stock, so I thought I'd see what they had in red nearby. Lo and behold, it was an extra cost colour. Nearly a thousand dollars. ($995.) Then, I saw the figure "1" next to most of the colors on the chart. You can only get Black or Silver and not pay extra for it.

They did figure out that old people don't like to mess with the thumb drive and went back to CD players being available.

Why do they work so hard at getting every last nickle out of their customers? I got the usual "these incentives expire today..." from the salesman. He got me a payment "lower" than I'm paying now. Like $3.00 a month. The one thing I learned when I was selling cars is that there is ALWAYS going to be an incentive to buy. They simply have too many cars to turn to not make it attractive to the customer.

So, I am not going over to the dealership this afternoon and rush into anything. I don't like to do that. (And I still hate the heating/cooling system.) I bet if I went in tomorrow, that "somehow" they would get me the rebates "if I would buy today."

[Dave Ventresca]

what is thumb drive?Dave

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

I think it is an actual book that requires the operator to turn the pages with their thumb, as to "thumb through the pages" 

Bruce.

[Barry M Wheeler #2189]

You are supposed to load all your CDs on it and stick it in the receptacle like the one on your computer. Having a Senior Moment this morning. This was supposed to be "up to date and easy."

[Daddio]

Regarding the limited colour selection.  That's why my wife (a few years ago) went with a Lincoln rather than a CTS.  She wanted red, Lincoln had a nice red standard while it was an expensive option on the CTS. That, and the fact Lincoln had heated / cooled seats std. On the CTS you had to buy a "luxury package" to get them, along with a bunch of other options we didn't want. She traded in her Fleetwood and never regretted it.

[Chris Cummings]

I agree with the posts so far.  My big gripe, though, is with the extremely limited range of color selections in the first place.  It seems that for most cars (not just Cadillacs) you get six to eight color options.  Most of those are black, white, and gradations of gray (including metallic gray otherwise known as "silver").  Then there will be a beige or tan, and then there will be up to three actual colors, generally a red, a blue and a green.  But they will be so dark as to almost be black.  Only specialty models have eye-catching colors like orange or yellow, or bright hues of the other colors.  When you're driving down the Interstate, you're watching a black-and-white movie, punctuated occasionally by a colorized vehicle here or there.

I blame customers for defaulting to "resale silver" or white because they view the car as a temporary appliance they will get rid of in a few years or when the lease runs out.  And I blame the car companies for not making cars that inspire an emotional attachment on the owner's part.  But part of the blame is on the ruthless regulators and the eco-enforcers for forcing all cars to tend towards the exact same aerodynamic non-protruding shape.  And then there's the restrictions on paint processes and component chemicals that make any paint job an expensive proposition.

So the shapes of the cars become dull and boring, and instead of achieving visual interest with color creativity, everyone just gives in to the relentless push towards soul-less generic tools.  (And then there's the insidious takeover of the market by "crossovers."  How can you get emotional about a chunky tall station wagon?)

Maybe I'm out to lunch to think that more colors and more creative use of them could be a good thing for the industry.  But in the early '30s, Cadillac offered at least a dozen each of brown, red, green and blue colors, and a good selection of other shades.  Maybe the economics are just too oppressive to make it possible.  But it would be nice.

Thanks for reading my rant!

Chris Cummings

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

The most unsafe colours that anyone can paint ant motor vehicle in Silver, Grey, Black, or any of those shade-variants.

Maybe the factories want people to crash their cars so they can make more to replace them.

The safest colours are Yellow then White.

Bruce.

[Scot Minesinger]

I looked at the CT6 colors and they were red, blue, green, white, silver, gray and black (two shades of black).  I would not want a tan, brown, light blue, yellow, light green car and so these colors are OK for me.  The interior had four color choices, light tan, med tan, red-ish tan (looked the coolest to me), and black - all very nice.  The color is not super important to me.  I do like a black Cadillac though.  There is a beautiful CT6 in our neighborhood in black - really a sharp car.  Thinking this is a decent selection.  Honestly plunking down 70k for a CT6, I just could not order it in yellow.

Even buying other makes when new, color choice has never been an issue for me.  I have three 1970 Cadillacs in red, black, and silver - all bought used with no choice really on the color, just luck (or some would say bad luck) that they are modern colors of today.

[Blade]

Buy slightly used with a few miles and save more than the price of the 'extra color'.

Example: https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/l-Used-2016-Cadillac-ATS-V-Sedan-t57626

[Jim Salmi #21340]

Chris:  So true.  Everything (cars, houses, music, politics, etc.) has become a soul-less commodity.  Cold rationality has replaced fun and glamour, and we are the poorer for it.  I dearly miss the days of soaped up dealer windows and breathless sneak-preview press releases about the "all new" cars coming in September.  Yeah, it was all a con, but we were all in on it and it was fun.

[Scot Minesinger]

All,

Going on line and looking at the colors available for the CT6, I could not find that I would want that is missing.  Would you really order a Dunbarton Green CT6 (available on the 76 Cadillacs, but resembled a 50's color)?  The reason you might not order it is that it would be hard to sell as a used car when you were ready to trade it in.  Why is that?- people do not want them.  Cadillac cannot be investing in selling colors no one wants but were neat decades ago.

The public has made the move to more bland less glamorous cars where they are more of an appliance to get from point A to point B unfortunately.  No car company can afford to offer colors or products no one buys.  If the was a strong demand for Baby Blue, Yellow and etc., color cars Cadillac and others would profit from it.

The past was fun, but the present is better, and the future looks brighter.  Looking forward to self driving luxurious Cadillacs in a decade or two. 

[Maynard Krebs]

"Self-driving cars":  about as much fun as creating a pregnancy via artificial insemination!