We’re all painfully conscious of how vastly life has modified in the US over the previous few a long time, and never in lots of constructive regards. To not get political, however Wendy’s has achieved away with its iconic solariums, Pizza Hut’s iconic crimson shingle roofs have turn into a factor of the previous, espresso outlets that have been as soon as crammed with cozy sofas and lounge chairs are actually filled with metallic stools and wood benches, and the vehicles on American roads have nearly all gone grey.
We was once a correct nation, man. A rustic that at one level offered almost as many crimson vehicles as white ones, and almost as many inexperienced vehicles as black ones. Now the preferred non-grayscale shade is blue, which accounts for simply 9.1% of all new vehicles. To make issues worse, we now know that the variety of new vehicles painted a boring shade of grayscale has almost doubled since 1996, up 47.3% in line with knowledge from iseecars.com.
We have beforehand coated the nation’s not-so-gradual descent into monotonous grayscale on a number of events, however that does not make issues any much less bleak. Final 12 months we even wrote about how brilliant paint colours really improve a automobile’s resale worth, and but America’s grey delight remains to be working robust, and it sickens me.
Why is every little thing getting so boring?
I used to be born in late 1995, so although I haven’t got particularly vivid recollections of the ’90s, I’ll always remember how colourful every little thing was. From Nickelodeon’s zany brilliant shade schemes to the neon carpets in Chuck E. Cheese to the neon indicators adorning the partitions of Targets, nothing was seemingly full and not using a splash of shade.
Taking a look at common colours in 1996, white was nonetheless the preferred shade at 22.1% of the market, however crimson was the second hottest shade at 20.1%. Now, crimson vehicles account for a measly 7% of the market. Black vehicles have been the third-most common shade in 1996 accounting for 14.2% of latest vehicles offered, however in 2025, black was the second-most common shade, with 23.4% of latest vehicles offered painted this low-key shade. Grey has seen essentially the most important rise in recognition, adorning simply 3.6% of latest vehicles offered in 1996, however the boring hue was slathered on 22.9% of latest vehicles in 2025 — up a mind-boggling 528.4%.
The remainder of the highest 13 hottest automobile colours are equally unexciting, with the recognition of blue, crimson, inexperienced, brown, beige, yellow, gold, and purple vehicles dropping between 1996 and 2025. The one actual shade that gained in recognition was orange, which went up from 0.2% of the market in 1996 to a staggering 0.3% of all new vehicles offered in 2025. I am all about inclusivity, however all this grey delight is de facto making me query what kind of nation the U.S. is turning into.
