The 7-series BMW blocking Friday evening traffic in front of Scoozi had a classic pewter-colored body with silver trim. Parked curbside ahead of it were a dark Mercedes-Benz sedan and a golden-beige Lexus coupe.
The grays and blacks and navy blues that have hogged the palettes of many luxury-car builders recently have been making way for some more interesting hues. But the jury is still out on how much of an inroad into tradition these brighter tones will make.
Green, formerly a no-no, is about to become a core color by Cadillac. Purples, out for years except with the hot-rod set, are back. White has been named most-popular color among luxury-car buyers (and we were taught that white is not really a color!). Reds are OK, especially if they are rich-looking and the vehicle is a roadster.
Mercedes-Benz, one of the more conservative when it comes to colors, is going two-tone. Rival BMW offers a daffodil yellow on its 3-series.
“(Dark) green has become so popular, it’s now a basic for us,” said Ben Lever, general marketing manager for Ford’s Lincoln-Mercury Division. “I think some of the color’s success comes from the image of British Racing Green. Not too long ago it was a no-no; now it’s a yes-yes.”
When all is said and done, however, white is the most popular color among buyers of Lincoln-Mercurys and other luxury cars. “It sounds plain, but it does help resale values,” Lever said.
It’s also what Lexus buyers are telling Toyota’s luxury car division, said Don Brown, national product planning manager for Toyota and Lexus. Last year, 20 percent of all Lexus models sold in this country were white. Though customer input is valued at Toyota, he said, consumers tend to think in terms of what they like today rather than what will be hot tomorrow.
Toyota and the other makers are active in national-level marketing groups concerned with color trends. Various industries learn from one another. Fashion and interior decorating may be more cutting-edge in using emerging colors.
The infatuation with green that began a few years ago also can be tied to environmental concerns, Brown said. In the past, green might have had a two-year run, he said. This time around, it likely will hold on for most of the decade or until we lose interest in rain forests and clean water.
“We all hear this kind of information at the same time,” said Nancy Bartlett, manager of color textiles for Cadillac. “It’s how we interpret it that differentiates one maker from another.”
Bartlett said color is among the primary concerns of many buyers. And though Cadillac is devoted to pleasing and keeping its more conservative, long-time buyers, the General Motors division also is looking to attract younger drivers. Calypso green, a jazzier, bluer green available on Eldorado and Seville models, is meant to appeal to people younger than 55, Bartlett said.
“Green is becoming a (basic) color for us,” she said. “We even will offer a crystal green leather interior in 1996.”
Cadillac typically keeps a specific exterior color in its program for a two-year cycle. New arrivals are tested and re-tested before getting into the lineup. A red available on 1995 models had the ultimate examination. Division General Manager John Grettenberger drove a scarlet DeVille for a week. Bartlett said it passed muster.
“Golds and earth tones appear to be the next color trend,” said Harvey Hug, GM design staff member at the Technical Center in Warren, Mich.
In the search for earth-tone browns and beiges, someone suggested Hug dig up a dappled stone from a patio outside the Design Center. Hug produced a broken brick and pointed to several hue possibilities.
A couple of decades ago, a Cadillac executive was determined to offer an interior similar to the color of an associate’s cowboy-style boots, Hug said. The story has it that one of those worn-and not too fragrant-boots made the rounds until a similar brown color was developed. Hug indicated that the result wasn’t all that successful.
Cadillac, and other luxury car owners, have definite ideas about which colors they want.
Domestic luxury-car fan and buyer William Wagner, a professor of marketing at the University of Missouri at Columbia, thinks conservative is the only way to go.
“I think color is extremely important,” said Wagner, who prefers grays and dark blues. Wagner said his most successful friends also select carefully-a gold-tone is about as bright as they tend to go, he said.
“I’m interested at who has bright colors,” he said. “Sometimes wives or women buyers chose them. Some men might pick a bright color the first time they get a luxury car-to kind of show off. Thereafter, they seem to get more conservative.”
At Highland Park Lincoln-Mercury, less flashy is more popular. Some of the trendy hues are too bright for big cars, said dealership President Alan Frisch.
“Our Lincoln Mark VIII buyers order black, dark green and pearl white,” he said. A light metallic blue didn’t work on the Town Car, he said.
Cadillac had a similar experience with a brighter blue on its DeVille series.
Mercedes-Benz spokesman Chuck Johnsen said the U.S. contingent has to “beg Germany” for more color. Mercedes’ 190 series included several hundred emerald green models when it closed out the line last year. They were enormously successful.
“It was such a big hit, we have made the color available on some of the 1994s,” Johnsen said. Mercedes’ marketing literature for 1994 show some reds, silver blues and greens, including two-tone paint jobs with a darker version below the beltline. Still, silvers, browns and whites seem to proliferate on dealer lots. The higher the price of the car, the more conservative the customer’s color choice, Johnsen said.
At Eitel Dahm BMW in the Detroit suburb of Eastpointe, a bright yellow 3-series coupe struts its stuff in the showroom. But it’s the exception that proves the rule. “If I ordered only black, green and white, I’d have 90 percent of what I need,” said sales manager Wayne Youngblood.
BUYERS STRIKING GOLD
A love-hate relationship. That’s how it is with gold-tone badging and trim on upper-moderate and luxury cars.
For some, it’s a way to personalize or dress up a car. Others want their upscale coupes and sedans the way they come from the factory, with chrome-colored nameplates.
Gold badging caught on early with buyers of the Lexus’ flagship sedan, the LS400, which debuted in 1989 as a 1990 model, said Don Brown, national product planning manager for Toyota and Lexus, in Torrance, Calif. “Its popularity caught us off-guard,” he said. Lexus dealers order gold from aftermarket suppliers and change a car’s trim at the dealership, he said.
“I’d say between 10 and 15 percent of our customers are choosing gold badging,” said Alan Frisch, president of Highland Park Lincoln-Mercury, in Highland Park. The popular option adds about $295 to the price of a car, he added.
Don Morton, of A & M Specialists, an auto industry supplier in Detroit whose love affair with vehicles goes back to high school (he’s now in his 60s) and who has been active in racing and customizing cars for decades, prefers the traditional chrome. “I suppose the anodized gold looks nice on some cars, but I put it in the category of fake convertible tops. Why would you want to do either to a car?”
Cadillac spokeswoman Nancy Bartlett, at the General Motors design building in Warren, Mich., said gold trim on the division’s limited-edition cars does very well. In fact, she said, gold always has been popular among some buyers.
“It appeals to a range of owners-not just older or younger or people living in certain parts of the country,” Bartlett said. “It’s part of the Cadillac experience for many.”
In Bloomfield Hills, Mich., Chuck Ghesquierre of Estate Motors (Mercedes-Benz) thought in his case it is a domestic versus import thing.
“We’ve sold literally no Mercedes-Benzes with gold badging,” Ghesquierre said. “At our Cadillac store, it does very well.”
Ghesquierre said Estate Motors had a Mercedes with gold trim on its used-car lot for months. “We changed it to silver, and it sold right away,” he said.
“While our buyers may not be hesitant in their professional dealings, when it comes to cars, they are very conservative,” he said.
