Black

Fashion, comes and goes. In the eighties black was an optional extra. Then it became rather common. For a time it was silver, then white. But I see too many white cars now so white must be passé now.

It's probably because solid black is one of a very limited range of 'free' colours available when choosing a new car.

Alpine White and Jet Black are the only free colours available on a

Black is acutally a bloody nightmare to colour match, as is white. Park up black or white cars from different manufacturers together and you'll see the wide variances in shades available!

Black is a pain in the arse to keep clean, though - I love a shiny clean black car, but having had 3 now, I couldn't face it again. (My 520d is Mediterranean Blue, although I think Black Sapphire looks better).

I did have a black Fiat 132 2000 long time ago. Somehow I felt more important; more menacing :) Black is often used in movies for baddies. I think you had to pay a premium for black for the first VW Golf GTI.

No, it isn't.

I have noticed a special effect of shiny black coloured cars: It is the best colour for producing a mirror imagine.

Obama has several black cars, there is always a decoy car when he uses the car to attend functions, and he chooses the one to ride in "on the day".

I also heard that he has a trio of helicopters, again choosing the one to fly on the day.

I also heard that on his visit to meet the Queen, his demand to use 3 helicopters was rejected by Her Maj because last time he ruined her lawn.

No verification, but I hope it is true. ;-)

That's ok, I've had mine over two years now, and it still looks great. I always try to park next to other white cars, because I just know they aren't going to fling their doors open.

It's worked so far.

I heard that when the presidental car is decommissioned, it is destroyed by army gunfire. Partly to test the security and partly to erase manufacturing secrets.

That isn't so. There are as big a range of 'blacks' as colours.

So not bullet proof, then? Or do the US military make sure they have weapons which can pierce the presidential car's armour? ;-)

Think most could think of better ways of doing that.

With the possibility of Donald Trump as President, I'd think it a good idea.

I've been told black's a nightmare to match, but then I've been told that about lots of colours (red, especially), and I've seen some grim matches of silver. Anyone know what is (relatively) easy?

The guy who sprayed my white Alfa 75 claims otherwise!

I had the Alfa and a white Nissan Primera at the same time - I think he may have had a point!

The snag is all paints weather to some extent. Some worse than others. To do an exact match to weathered paint needs considerable skill.

In other words, a repair to a near new car might well be invisible. To a few years old one, likely not.

even if paint matches when the repair is new, a few years on it will be noticeable in many cases

Yes. Pal has a white SD1 Rover he's owned for ages. Over the years various small paintwork done as you'd expect on a car which gets enjoyed and cared for. At a first glance it looked very good, but he was not happy with all the various shades of white. He's just spent 12 grand on a full strip down bare metal respray.

My elderly Mother made a comment that with all these big white saloons becoming fashionable do the business men driving them realise they look like they are on the way to take a bride to a wedding.

G.Harman

Of course he would lol

It was really police cars going to white which made the colour unpopular after being so common. They did that for resale reasons. Then changed to silver when that became the most popular colour.