Black cars! We all love them, I think, even if we don’t love owning them so much, because they look terrible when dirty. But if I’ve got pay-for-a-weekly-detail money, I’d definitely consider going black. And I mean black black, not some metal-flake anthracite or really dark silver-gray Midnight Rensezvous or whatever.
Exactly how much I want the car to be black depends on the car in question. I like my obnoxious sports and/or muscle cars to be equally obnoxious in their paint hues – lime green, banana yellow, bright AF orange – you get it. Ditto off-roady things and convertibles and hot-hatches, anything meant to put fun ahead of practicality. Give me a nice, bright color there.
Of course, it all depends on the specific car. The Subaru WRX is something I’d expect to want in a snazzy shade like the nice red below, but I don’t love the goofy plastic wheel-well surrounds and the black lipstick on the nose. But put a coat of black on the WRX, and it’s all homogenized nicely. I’m sure we can all think of a bunch of other plastic-not-so-fantastic cars that would benefit from a blackout treatment.
If we’re talking luxury or some kind of grown-upness (or sinister adulting), that’s where I think black cars really look best in general. Examples abound, but some obvious ones to me are the Chevy Impala (you know the one) and Mercury Marauder:
Mercedes S-Class? Gotta be black. I’ll have a W140, please.
Range Rovers should also be black, I think. I’ve been watching a lot of Slow Horses and The Diplomat, and MI5 is always turning up in a fleet of the things. And every time, I think, “Yes, those look good.”
Your turn: what cars are best in black?
Top graphic images: Ford; AC/DC via YouTube
Living in Arizona, none of them!
Porsche 356 Speedster, black over red interior.
I currently have 2 black cars. A Lexus LS460 on which the black flatters the lines which can be a bit frumpy in other colors and a Cadillac Blackwing which has a lot of black trim regardless of the paint color, so the black paint ties it all together better. Still trying to warm up to the black wheels though.
For personal transportation, absolutely none. I also would really, really like to see a stop to the endless sea of silver/grey/white/black cars and see some actual colours. Cars are so boring colourwise nowadays…
100%
And while we’re at it – can we get rid of all black interiors, and “color” packages where just the seats and door panels are in some non-black, but everything else is still black?
Second-gen Supra looked absolutely fantastic in black.
A hearse in a color other than black should be a crime.
The Queen of England didn’t think so.
Her Jaguar hearse was Claret.
Ford Model T
Saab 900 Turbos looked great in black. So did my Fiata. But black cars suck to own, and the first time I put my arm on the window sill of the Fiata after it had been sitting in the Florida sun all day I questioned my life choices. But beggars can’t be choosers, for 1/3rd off MSRP I made the best of it.