In 1909, Henry Ford, famously said of the company’s newest model, the Model T, ‘Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black.’.
But in fact when the Model T first came on the market, customers could get almost any common colour except black. In fact, the first black Model T didn’t roll off the assembly line until five years later.
Gradually over time manufacturers began to produce cars in a wide variety of shades and colours, although there is some evidence from researchers that during periods of economic depression the vast majority of cars were in shades of black or grey.
The high point for brightly-coloured cars was in the 1970s, according to Car Dealer magazine. Since then, cars colours have become much more staid, with an emphasis on silver, grey, black and white, although some smaller city cars, like the Kia Picanto and the Skoda Citigo, have been produced in brighter colours including green.
Green has steadily fallen out of favour, with the RAC reporting that its popularity had declined by 30% in the three years up to 2016, making up 3.5% of the UK’s total cars.
But Car Dealer magazine predicts that there will be a revival in colours as motorists are looking to personalise their cars. It reports that green, beige, yellow, brown and gold have made it into the top 10 choices for the first time, according to the company CAP Automotive.
In the USA, while still the most rare colour green is already making a comeback with The newswheel producing a list of models and makes in green for 2019.
What does having a green car say about your personality? Well, according to littlethings.com “you have a very strong sense of self and don’t care what others think of you…. You’re gentle and patient, but your peace-loving nature does tempt others to take advantage of you sometimes.”
There is one bonus to having a green car, they are relatively rare, so their resale value tends to be higher.
And these days, with so much concern about the environment, climate change and global warming perhaps it is time for the colour to make a comeback.
If you are interested in one of the interesting new green colour cars, I have a ’66’ Audi A4 2.0TDi Sport Ultra Avant Manual in Gotland Green metallic with Atlas Beige Milano leather interior which is in outstanding condition both inside and out
