I'm so tired of black or grey (and their variants)

Gang, This is just a rant. Feel free to ignore. Anyway, just for S&Gs, I did a search last night on Porsche.com for an 03 or 04 996 Turbo Coupe. No other restrictions. I got about 8 pages of results. The VAST majority of the cars were gray/silver or black. A couple of Guard's Red. No Speed Yellow. No Arena Red. One White. There's nothing wrong with black or grey but I'm just tired of those colors. They just don't excite me anymore. Now that I think of it, I've only ever seen ONE 996 Turbo in Speed Yellow. I wonder why they're so rare? -Charles

Hi Charles, couldn't agree any more. I too am looking for a color that WOW'S me when I buy my GT3. I currently have a 996C2 that is arena red and love the color. FYI....went on a local PCA chapter lighthouse tour this past weekend with about 20 p-cars and one was a SY Turbo. Pic attached for your viewing enjoyment

Charles - I agree totally. When I was looking for my 996 there were 9 ga-zillion black/silver/gray cars. I also decided I didn't want black interior, and many times when I found a car with the exterior color I liked, it would have... you guessed it... BLACK interior. I passed on 3 or 4 Midnight Blue cars I really liked because of the black interior. After 4 months or searching I found the car I currently have, Lapis Blue with Graphite Gray interior and deviating Metropol Blue carpet. I have only seen two other cars on the 'net with this interior combo, so I think it is "relatively" uncommon.

I lucked out when I started looking for a 986/996: I also thought silver and black were too common, but one of the first cars I found was midnight blue with a natural brown interior. I love it dearly!

What you got against black man it is a great color. Except I will never have another one. too much trouble.

We had a speed yellow on our lot at the Porsche Center San Antonio. When I first saw it, I thought, that thing is going to be gone tomorrow. It lasted like 2 months, I couldnt believe it. The price was decent from what I remember.

same here -i have black, looks amazing when clean, but thats about it. My next one will likely be red or blue...

It all depends on what you want (and to a certain degree where you live). As former owner of a Speed Yellow 993 with Gray interior (in an area with few Porsche), I would never have a Speed Yellow car as a daily driver, not to mention a Porsche. Way to much attention for my liking. My 993 wasn't even daily driven, but I was always getting comments like I saw you X.... My daily driven Artic Silver 996 now blends and I get very few if any comments about seeing me out and about and I love it. My next Porsche will be Black or Dark Gray. Porsches get enough attention in the midwest and I don't need yellow or red screaming "hey look at me." As for interior, my biggest complaint with non-black interiors in a Porsche is that if you get a gray, beige, brown, etc. interior you get the same color dash (unless you spend big bucks to get the full leather and bi-color) and I don't like non black colored dashes. I never warmed up to the Gray dash on my 993.

Grey & Black were very popular colors - not just for cars - the last 10 years or so. You will start to see more colors going forward.

Yea, I totally agree with all of you. Black is spectacular. For all of about 15 minutes after you finish detailing it. I can say that because my first Boxster was black. Anyway, I even did an eBay search a little while ago. 2003 or 2004 911 Turbo with a Manual Transmission. No other qualifications. I couldn't find even ONE in Guards Red or Speed Yellow that wasn't also a cabriolet. (I want a coupe). I'm probably going to have to give in and find a dark grey one. On the upside, there should be plenty of them to pick from. -Charles

I work for a company that manufactures exterior, architectural coatings (paint) for curtain wall and panel systems. Our industry seems to trend after OEM automotive. Our mica and metallic based products (silver) are easily 30% of our sales. A significant number. Silver anodize is very popular in window and door systems. Remember back in the early nineties when the metallic teal was big? Then white pearl? It was so too in architectural, subsequently. Colors seem to make swings in popularity every five to seven years.

Go white, yellow or red - awesome looking cars, low maintenance paintwork, (white hides imperfections surprising well and always looks nice, but I'm biased), easy touchup and not everyone and their dog has those colors.... I too was unimpressed by how difficult it was to find a none blk/silver/grey car.

I agree. And this post is depressing me - hopefully there are still some lovers of black out there when I sell my car (to get into a C4S or TT - not black...)

I agree. I didn't want silver or black. Luckily I found a Lapis Blue with a Metropol Blue interior and I love it.

I agree. Before buying my car, I test drove a Lapis Blue with Beige interior and couldn't get past the Beige dash and steering wheel, so I passed.

Thats why I jumped on my lapis blue cab !

yeah, and I'm not a fan of the tan interior either... black looks nicer for longer, doesn't show the dirt and wear, but all those black/silver/grey cars out there for some reason love to have tan interiors, what is it with that?

I used to chat with a sales of P-car dealer, he told me the reason for more BK/GY/SV cars out there is because these color is easy to sell. For other color like Speed yellow, Red, or blue, they have to wait for somebody really likes it; on the other hand, they make good profit out of these colors.

Ha! ha! Yea, they probably do. My local dealer had a Guards Red 997 C2 Cab on the showroom floor. Red stitching, red seat belts, red guage faces, red console. Nav, PSM, PSE, Autodim mirrors, leather, memory seats, some carbon fiber... I forget the rest. Someone drove it home two days later. I talked to the salesman who ordered it from Porsche. He said he knew it would sell very quickly. There's a killer 997 GT3 in Guards Red that I see around town every now and then. I guess I just like the really sharp colors... -Charles

I get compliments all the time with my seal gray. I love gray and black personally. If black wasn't so hard to take care of, I'd have gotten it. The most popular color is artic silver. That's the color that I can't stand anymore. Too light and plain. Still not sure if I like SY. It'd get old IMO. White is very cool except Careera white is too bleached. I'd like to get an off-white or pearl white if possible. Blue is another good color IMO.

Glacier White has a nice cool blue tint to it that looks really nice and unlike the metallic colors the touch-up is really easy.

I made a huge mistake with the black. It looks like a mean ***** after I wash it, but 3 days later, I feel I'm a disgrace to the respectable 911 drivers who keep their cars clean. I like the new burnt-orange color on the 997 they introduced with the new Targa. Now THAT's a color.

Do your fellow 911 drivers make you drive it only during "vampire hours" so it can't be seen in the light of day? If so, you ARE a disgrace to the brand!

I have to check it out some day. Blue tint sounds ultra sexy! I'd love to get it w a light blue tint in the windows like MB offers. Maybe a blue soft top to complement it all.

Agree that silver/grey/black are the most popular colors. They tend to resell a lot quicker and are considered 'safer colors'. Perhaps don't draw as much attention. The 911 looks fantastic in black (I'm obviously bias to that), but it is hard to keep clean. IMHO the red and blue also looks great. Yellow looks especially good on the TT and white looks fantastic on the GT3. Same goes for MB's though - mostly black or silver. I went outside the norm with my CLK and went with "ice blue" - great color and very unique, but the other three cars we have are black, silver and dark grey ... sigh. Interestingly, according to the porsche and mercedes dealers here, N. Americans are much more conservative in their color choice with black/silver not being as popular in Europe. Not sure what that says ...

Owned two black cars. The second one was brand new and got misted with white paint from painters spraying a building a block away That was the end of black for me. Have been doing red for a long time and wanted to switch and settled on zenith blue...found one in two years of looking and it did not check out. So when a red one came along I jumped as I was really ready for a new car.

Steve, you can clay bar the over spray paint out. Try the meguire clay bar. It takes 30 min per car and less if only a section is needed. America fashion is typically much more conservative and simple compared to europe. You don't see bright color much. This is why we don't see too many funky color cars.

SpeedGelb is the new black !!!! how about this for a racing team...

Only reason I bought black.......makes me look thinner and the color goes with everything.

I think you are right as your avatar tells the story

Actually, I do like silver a lot, but I agree it's pretty common. Not all colors scream "look at me" if that's not what you want. There are some very nice blues and, of course, my fave color.

Irish, that's a great yellow pic. I'd love a SY TT, about 10 days a year. The rest of the time, I don't want to scream "conspicuous consumption", so black or gray it is.

This is how racism started. Tread lightly!

What are you talking about Gant?

He's making a comment on color preference. He just forgot the smiley.

Oh ya, sorry.

Brain fart. I didn't even think about the "color" issue. I was just stumped. That's all. Damn I need to drink more caffeine more in the afternoon

many have remarked (correctly) about the problems in upkeep on black. Midnight blue can also fall into that category as it is so dark. I have always purchased white or ivory pearl cars in the past but in the 996, I think: "ho hum". For whatever reason, my favorite car color does not show off the 996 well (to my eye). Older models (esp Targas) do look fantastic in white tho. Yellow and red, well I've only got so much $ in my speeding ticket fund... That pretty much leaves Seal Gray and Arctic Silver. I thought I liked the Silver but was very happy to get the Gray. It's almot as eyecatching as the Black, with a small fraction of the upkeep issues.

It took me a several months to find the car i have now...red/tan. I get a lot of comments about not seeing many red 911's. It's funny, I used to have an '86 guards red carerra and it was kind of the "silver" back then. It seemed like there were a ton of red 80's / 90's P-cars. It is my daily driver. It looks great when it's clean or dirty. Great color.

M Fig, you got that right about the 80's. Red was it. White was also popular towards the end of the 80's. Tan interior never goes out of style, however, and you just cannot go wrong with a red car, save for attracting the most attention. Sometimes that price is worth it.

I wonder why I never see the Carmon Red color, or why no one even mentions it. It's not as "in-your-face" as the Guards Red, and not as subtle as the many Silvers out there today. Just wondering if there is a curse or something no-one is mentioning here.