To be clear, the question here is not “What is the blandest car?” or “What is the most boring car?” While blandness and boringness may contribute to a car’s inconspicuousness, these traits are not essential to it. What makes a car inconspicuous is, uh, its being inconspicuous. Look, you know it when you see it – which is to say, you don’t remember seeing it.
Better still if the cops don’t see it, the true measure of an inconspicuous car. As a teenager in command of the family’s Toyota SR5 wagon, I was a regular speeder in the angular little thing. On more than a few occasions, I flew beneath an I-95 overpass only to see a statie staked out behind a pillar as I passed, and I would brace myself for the flashers to come on and then … nothing. I’d breathe a sigh of relief, ease off the gas (but never touch the brakes, which would be a confession), and continue on my way to Fall River or wherever.
Spacer
I’m sure more than a few of you will say some model years of the Toyota Camry are inconspicuous, and you’ll be right, but I think the XV40 might the most invisible of the line. I used to drive one for a couple of weeks every summer in Newport, RI while on vacation – it was my mother-in-law’s, she didn’t drive anymore – and I swear, I could never find it after I parked it. It was a slate grey color, and it was like my eyes couldn’t focus on it. I’d do two laps of the Shaw’s parking lot with a gallon of milk sweating in my hand, then realize I was standing right beside it.
I put the Autopian Asks question to the gang as I usually do, and when Matt offered his pick, I wasn’t even able to form a mental image of it. I give you the 2018 Nissan Pathfinder:
That may actually be a 2017 above, but it doesn’t matter. Says Matt, “I’m a professional automotive journalist and, even if I wasn’t, I’d still think about cars all day. I have never thought about this crossover. It has a roof. It has wheels. That’s all I’ve got.”
The Bishop also came through with an inconspicuous car, one I had forgotten existed: The Mazda 929.
“It was almost exotically bland,” said The Bish, a turn of phrase that I am now in love with. I do think it looks quite smart though, and even crisper than the similarly squared-off Maxima and Camry that were on the roads in far greater numbers at the time – which no doubt made it even harder for an untrained eye to spot a 929.
Your turn: What Is The Most Inconspicuous Car?
Top graphic image: Toyota
In the movie Drive, the heist team chose a silver 2010 Impala as their getaway car specifically because it was invisible. I vaguely remember them describing it as “the most common car in California.”
(Then I fell asleep – the movie was almost as boring as the car.)
Yeah, I was thinking early 20-teens Camry or Impala. In light champagne gold, of course. Both invisible and incredibly boring.
Not so much these days, but I think the most generic car ever produced is probably the Fairmonts brother, the Mercury Zephyr. It’s the most “car” car I think ever designed.
If we are going back to the 1980’s the answer would be a G-Body Olds Cutlass
G-Body may have sold 80 bajillion, but it at least is a shape beyond “car you see on signpost”
That is fair, I was just thinking that you wouldn’t stand out at all with any G body, let alone the most G-body, and even car, in America for however many years.
I’d happily drive either today to be honest. Zephyr would have to have a 5.0
There is a reason they are still so popular among drag racers. FoMoCo had some racing mojo left for the mundane Fairmont and I like it that way.
A 5th gen Rav4. Built on the XV70 Camry platform, your powertrain choicesare two 4-bangers or a hybrid, and it’s been sold over 10 million times worldwide.
I always said the Passat “NMS” was my favorite boring car. If that thing had a Toyota or Honda drivetrain I’d probably have bought it. The nice thing about boring cars is they age well (I’m talking about styling not engineering.)
A 2006 Honda Civic in silver of course. Oh, and every white/silver/black crossover made today. I own one!
Pretty much any current unibody SUV. They are anonymous blobs that just blend in with each other. I can’t tell a KIA from a Bentley anymore.
I feel invisible in my white 2019 Subaru Crosstrek. I don’t even look at police on the highway, even if going 20mph over the limit. They are not going to see me.
Beige Kia Sephia
20 years ago, I’d have said the Dodge/Plymouth/Chrysler Minivans, but I think the Toyota Sienna and the Honda Odyssey have taken up that mantle.
20 years ago you could have said the Volvo what even they were so prevalent too.
Lexus ES300/ES330 in gold. Completely invisible.
I got hit by one of those pathfinders once upon a time, and even I couldn’t remember what the crap they look like. While Camry is definitely what I would have come up with on my own, the bland crossover is probably the better answer these days.
Hyundai and Kia sedans from the late aughts through the early ’10s, while not quite reaching the outright bland of that Camry, do blend in a bit. The Accord and Impala that were contemporary to the V40 Toyota as well just dissappear. Unless that Impala’s on cop steelies.
I have to agree with everyone that the most anonymous car is a crossover. Light-duty trucks are very common, but they’re also the most likely to commit a SAD (Shocking Act of Driving), and their headlights are the most egregiously searing, so they tend to stand out more. I also think midsizes are the most bland, like a Traverse or a Highlander. Explorers are cops, so they stick out like a sore thumb, but when was the last time you saw a Subaru Ascent doing anything?
This varies regionally, but a 5-8 year old Japanese or Korean small-to-midsize crossover. A RAV4 to be specific. Sedans stand out at this point.
My brother came by yesterday driving his wife’s car, a black RAV-4. I didn’t know they owned one. They’ve had it for 4 years now.
Yeah a lot of people are using the most inconspicuous cars from the 00’s. Beige sedans are more or less exciting to see at this point.
I vote for the 2012 Galant. Couldn’t describe what it looks like if I tried, and I literally just Googled it to see how long it stuck around.
For very similar reasons, I also nominate the 2020 Journey.
My silver 2009 Toyota Corolla LE with tinted windows.
I’m thinking an Altima or Accord, F-150 or Silverado, Outback or RAV4 in all neutral colors and a generation behind ought to cover most American localities.
Altima is both the easiest and hardest car to spot.
You: What type of car was it?
Me: Definitely an Altima.
You: What color?
Me: Black, White, and/or Silver.
You: Umm, okay. Can you give me any defining features?
Me: Different colored rear bumper, donut spare installed, blackout tint, dented front fender, temp tag.
You: No I asked you for defining features.
Me: …
You: …
Only two likes? This is criminally underappreciated…
Virginia tags. In Baltimore.
Inconspicuous: My 2016 Odyssey. No one, no cop ever looks at you. It’s brown too. Or as Honda calls it, Smokey Topaz Metallic.
Inconspicuous and fun: The last generation Camry TRD. Only the dorks on this website will have any idea what it is and with 305hp it moves. Once again no one and no cops will ever look at you.
Depends on the era, but now it would be a RAV4 of recent, but not most current generation, but most other 2-row CUVs could probably fit the same bill.
Except for the CRV. It’s too conspicuous because they’re frequently driven by such horrifically bad drivers that I readily notice them so I can avoid or keep an eye on them to pull some inexplicably stupid move whenever possible. They’re behind such an unbelievably high percentage of the dumb and frustrating shit I see that I can’t be the only one who has been conditioned to notice them. Combined with the less common but equally poorly driven HRVs, they’ve seriously got to represent over 70% of all stupidity I encounter around here and that’s out of every other car make and model, including all its equally boring competitors. It’s truly shocking.
CR-V drivers are the worst. Either they are driving criminally slow pretty much everywhere, but then switch to hyperaggressive when you honk your horn for them to go faster or just go in the first place (from a stop at a light).
Toyota as a make is champion for bad drivers, so I would have expected the RAV4 to be the worst, but I don’t see their drivers being any appreciably worse than any other. I don’t know what it is about C/HRVs that draws those people so strongly over any of the other seemingly endless number of similar eunuchmobiles.
My big Bently is seen as surprisingly bland. At fancy car events it is a very dim star,
slightly faded and ordinary. Take it to the shops and it is an old car with a bloke with a beard driving it. An inconspicuous car if ever there was one.
It has just come home after a hefty mechanical refurb, the second since 1934/5
It is delightfully inconspicuous, largely because it is so silly.
Around here, I’d say it would be Corollas/Civics that are a couple of generations old, have body panels that are all the same color, and which are driven at 5 over the speed limit. I was going to go with “battleship gray anything” because even the Chargers seem to meld into the background when they’re that color. Ultimately, though, they’re louder and likely to be driven more aggressively.
2006-2018 RAV4. They’re everywhere around me. Although CR-V comes in a close second, especially in lease-special gray. That seems to be the only color the local dealers order.
’06-’12 are the easy for me as they have the dumbo mirrors and the external tire. But ’12+ are all like various forms of each other best described as various angles.
Depends where it is. Vermont or Oregon, a Subaru Outback. Texas, a basic F 150. Washington DC, white Mercedes C class or BMW X3.
DC is definitely Altima country. NE DC is Subaru anything
The SF Bay Area is crawling with Teslas. Usually white.
Mongolia is basically made of Priuses.
The 929 was a baller and I would love to find a nice one today. A bubble-era gem.
The answer to the question is Honda CRV.
Off-white, grey, or silver Toyota Corolla.
One or two generations old.
No window tinting.