Cars parked: you can have any color... as long as it's black

Attributed to the father of factory production of horseless carriages, automobiles, this joke pointed to the original mass production decision to mimic fine hand-built buggies and carriages in sleek black paint or lacquer. Most paints, other than black, performed poorly in the powerful light from the sun. In the generations before Henry Ford a great deal of (adult) clothing was in dark colors, including black, too. But 100 years later the technology to paint personal automobiles has advanced and there are many choices of standard color when placing a new car order; in principle a person could place a customized color order, too. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that whoever purchases a new car is expressing an opinion about color preference. Or at least the reverse may be true: the colors that do not sell well communicate to the maker how to revise the number of cars in each color to produce in the future. The interesting point is that predominance of colors varies in each society; possibly within a single country differing by region, as well. What might contribute to this state of affairs?

So many cars in black or white, so few in other colors - what could it mean?

In the life cycle of cars there are the new car buyers who can exercise their desire for particular added features, choice of tire, color and so on. Later the person trades in the car to a dealer, or sells to family or others. The cycle of buying and selling continues until the car is too old or too unreliable (requiring too much care and repair) to attract a buyer, even at low price. Then it could end up in trade in ("we accept cars in trade, functioning or not") or donation to a charity that derives a few dollars in scrap or cannibalized for used parts.

With regard to colors on view in any particular parking lot, the demographic segment that shops there or works there is represented. If most vehicles there are 1-3 years old (new and new'ish), then the color probably was a deliberate factor in the buying decision because part of that transaction was to accept or reject the car present in the showroom or dealer lot, or shown in the database for delivery. And if the vehicles in a parking lot are a mix of new and used, then the choice of color originated upstream at the point of original buyer. Subsequent buyers of the used car will have found the color acceptable to their tastes or needs or requirements, thus indirectly expressing selectivity in color.

This photo comes from the north side of Grand Rapids, Michigan, where cars predominantly can be seen on the road or in parking lots in white or black. There are other colors, of course, and this picture is an extreme case of *no* other colors. But still the predominance of black or white is noticeable. Having spent 1995-2015 in middle Michigan, a rural and suburban town, where a wider range of dark colors and light colors was normal, this predominance of white (too easily shows the dust on country roads and the road grit on city streets; invisible in snow storms) and black (too somber and old-timey) stood out as a minor culture shock.

In the half-dozen years lived in rural Japan since 1984, it is white cars that predominated until around 2012 or so: as much as half or more of personal and fleet cars there came in white. Occasional visits to the UK presented a different mix. Red, white, or blue predominate; occasionally black or some other color (burgundy, silver, dark gray or green) is what buyers select. Thanks to online satellite views, it should be possible to zoom in and record screenshots of parking lots in big cities and small towns for a range of countries where personal automobiles are commonly owned and operated. Surely the mix will not be uniform. But what meaning or meanings might color preference signify? And supposing that clear patterns or at least trends seem to emerge, why could that be relevant or consequential when trying to understand the society and its members?

Back in the 1980s as a college student at the University of Michigan the fall football season brought a wide range of sports fans to the surrounding parking areas nearest to the stadium. The expensive seats (and parking locations) seemed to be filled with fancy cars in dark colors like navy blue and charcoal gray, among others. The rest of the parking spaces had a wider variety of colors and generally older cars, but perhaps there was a slight pattern in that colors were lighter overall (beige, light blue, brown, red). So a working hypothesis at that time was about SES (socio-economic status): managerial class presented themselves in more formal and expensive cars, relative to the others (probably middle-class and maybe alumni/college educated sports fans).

Why all the Japanese owners in Japan driving white cars? A working hypothesis for the 1980s-2010 could be related to the proverbial wisdom of the folk, "出る杭は打たれる" (deru kui wa utareru; variation, deru kugi wa utareru); the nail that sticks out will be pounded back down. In other words, the advice of the generations is not to draw attention to yourself, but instead opt for the standard, normal, unmarked presentation of self. These hypotheses are interesting speculations, but to return to the question: what could patterns of car color reveal about the people (and community) there?

The above photo illustrates the predominance of black or white cars (one neighbor had 4 or 5 white cars and a white truck recently) in the city of Grand Rapids (population 200,000). This city is the biggest on the west side of the state's lower peninsula and historically has welcomed immigrants and resettled refugees sponsored by the many active church communities in the area. The initial waves of immigrants were conservative Dutch rural people in the 1840s-1900. Even 6 or 7 generations later this part of the state is generally socially conservative, too. Perhaps the "black or white" expression of car color is consonant with that worldview and self-concepts or upbringing identities. Religiously affiliated precollege (and college) education is widely supported in the area and church attendance is relatively vigorous in spite of national trends of fewer participants. So as a working hypothesis as of 2020 perhaps there are ways to test (interview, observation and documenting) the following idea:

Suppose that drivers of black cars shun any other color because of a desire to present a serious (or at least someone to be taken seriously and be respected), mature, grown-up, or responsible-member-of-society value (a public-facing person). And by contrast, suppose that drivers of white cars wish to avoid conflict, avoid standing out, avoid attracting attention but instead cling to a private, undisclosed standpoint - like a blank sheet of paper that potentially can carry the Gettysburg Address, a love note, or a shopping list. White can stand for any number of meanings: pure, morally untainted or possibly superior, inoffensive to others, infinite potential to take.just about any form. All this supposition is wildly abstract and unmoored from individual lives and buying decisions. But nonetheless the predominance of white cars and black cars persists. It is not random chance, but the aggregate display of so many individual decisions that comprise a visible result.