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
Some cars that are ugly to the core, or have excessive amounts of black trim, or awkward styling. Thoughts: current WRX, Mazda CX-30, 2nd Gen Mazda3, certain econo-boxes. Black is a luxury car color, but I just have never liked black cars generally.
My 2009 Solstice Coupe in black looks like a different car compared to any other car. Becomes a dark wicked wedge. If only it were a GXP, it have the horses to back it up.
Volvo 262C Bertone
…hearses.
Sorry Peter, the only color for the Range Rover is green.
The Volvo 740 turbo looked awesome with the total blackout treatment.
I’d also nominate the old UOP Shadow Can Am cars and anything that raced in JPS colors.
80’s Chevy Monte Carlo,Buick Gnx,VW Golf 2-3,Volvo 940 and 740,every Mercedes ever made,and in general every car with silly black plastic fender trim that been made in the last few years.
Buick Regal Grand National…Pontiac Firebird Trans Am….1978 Chevrolet Corvette (with front and rear spoilers option)
Black, I think, looks best on low and sleek cars. These modern cars are a bit too chunky for it and I think better fit brighter poppier colors.
The Lincoln town car limo/taxi, duh. But that’s about it. Even the big German sedans or official vehicles like the Range Rover or Escalade look more fun in colours, at least for civilians.
I assume we’re giving hearses a bye? 😉 1950s and 60s American luxury sedans. All that chrome really gave an elegance to a Cadillac, Lincoln, Imperial, or Packard. especially on the sedans. The ’54-’56 Cadillacs and ’55-’56 Imperials are really good examples, But you could also say the same for the early sixties Cadillac, Lincoln Continental, and Imperial.
My great aunt and uncle who lived around the corner from me had a black ’65 Imperial LeBaron with a plain top and classic limo-style light grey upholstery. Damn that car looked good, and much more elegant than my grandmother’s turquoise New Yorker 4 door hardtop.
And the limo versions of these, of course. A black Ghia Crown Imperial limousine is a sight to behold.
I generally prefer eveey car in a color, but I do like a good, black AMG.
Damn does the Marauder look good. It’s the one post-2000 car I’d consider.
I nominate Pontiac Firebird/Transam
The last of the V8 Interceptors….
My goodness black gets dirty quickly, but my black Vauxhall Insignia Estate (wagon) looks like a shark.
Which is a good thing.
Any car I don’t have to keep clean! 🙂
My first car was two tone black and gold, and when I’d get it shined up it looked amazing, but keeping it like that in New England without a garage was nigh impossible.
Also had a 2010 Charger in the pearl black and again when shined up it looked amazing, but again keeping it that way was tough. I also had a 2010 Compass in the same pearl black but no amount of polish could make it look better lol.
I will say Firebirds of all generations tend to look really good in black, also the Eagle Talon.
I thought my 2002 clown shoe looked pretty good in black:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1048008240596&set=a.1048007040566
German full size sedans: 7 series, A/S 8 and the S-class. I like when I see them in other colors but they should always be in black
Cadillacs tend to look good in black, I however have a silver escalade because black escalades also look like uber drivers.
Color is good, every example in the story looks better in a color imo, even the marauder and SS looked cooler in their dark red or dark blue variants.
the ONLY car that I can think of that ONLY looks good in black with all the black outs is the GN/GNX. A regular regal looks silly once you see a GNX.
Old chargers look bad ass in black, but that would imply that they don’t look good in other colors.
Both the Impala and the Marauder were available some years in different colors. The dark red on the Marauder and the greenish color on the Impala I think look pretty darn good.
Black is boring.
Renault Clio limited edition “Night & Day” is a curious limited series available only in white or black.
Black Clios are quite rare, but I think this color suits it well, especially with the Baccara trim of the MK1 and its wonderfully Brougham-esque interior.
Long wheel base BMW e38s look incredible in black.
’68-70 Dodge Charger. I’m sure everyone’s already said it, but it’s true. Dodge Chargers universally look best in black, because Dodge Chargers are the most sinister-looking cars ever made and black is the most sinister color for a sinister car. Sorry Dukes of Hazard fans, but orange is not the best look for that car. Dominic Toretto from F&F got it right.
I don’t even like black cars 90% of the time, but if I were to own a Charger, it’d have to be black, no other color would be tolerable.
Honorable mention: 1973-1977 Hurst Olds. I have a soft spot for these cars, and the gold on black paint scheme suits them so, so well. They’re some of the best 70s muscle out there in terms of looks IMO. I picked 1977 as the cutoff date for years that look best in black though because the 1978+ doesn’t look good in any color, sorry not sorry.
I can think of many other cars that look great in black, but those cars would look great in a real color too. Black just gives them a more sinister vibe than other colors, and sinister isn’t always the vibe I’d want to go for, so I can’t say black is the best color for them, just a good choice. And of course, there are too many black cars in the world already, so pick real colors whenever suitable 😉
Decades before Dominic got it right, the Bullitt car chase showed us the way 🙂 But I agree with you. It’s perfect in black
No ’67-72 era car looks as good in black as it would in the era’s dark metallic green, preferably with a lighter/brighter green interior.
Yeah… those dark metallic green muscle cars did look good.
I will concede that dark green classic muscle cars look amazing, and almost always better than black ones, but I still firmly believe Dodge Chargers need to be black. Those particular cars were made to wear that particular paint. Nothing else makes them look as intimidating, and no other black car looks as intimidating as a black Dodge Charger.
It’s easy to reject all black cars because black cars are so overdone. But there are rare cases where black actually is the best color, and this is one of them.
The OG 8 series – the e31 – is one of the only cars I’d buy in black.