[F14CRAZY]

It seems these days you generally get to pick between a tan, a grey, and black. What happened to different interior colors in mainstream cars? In my 1st generation Ford Explorer brochures there's grey, tan, blue, and red. My '94 Century has blue along with my friend's '93 Lesabre. We had a Reatta convertible with white.

Is it a cost cutting thing? I guess I can see how tan and grey appeal to the largest number of people versus like red or blue and go together with more body colors (not to go off topic, but in the same way the Camry is aimed to nobody in particular, but just as many people as possible)

 

[Squachy]

probaly cuz it takes 0 effort for those colors to "work" together without making the interior ugly as sin from mismatched coloring.
That or the fact that its an entirely different color makes it aesthetically undesirable (i had an old Corsica, all red interior. Didnt look bad but everything was red and...dunno seemed ugly)

Blues and reds and all that have to be in specific spots or the car would look disgusting from the inside. Something like the Malibu's two tone look.

Im all for different colors though, im sick of choosing between black, grey, grey, grey and tan.

 

[EldoFan]

It seems these days you generally get to pick between a tan, a grey, and black. What happened to different interior colors in mainstream cars? In my 1st generation Ford Explorer brochures there's grey, tan, blue, and red. My '94 Century has blue along with my friend's '93 Lesabre. We had a Reatta convertible with white.

Is it a cost cutting thing? I guess I can see how tan and grey appeal to the largest number of people versus like red or blue and go together with more body colors (not to go off topic, but in the same way the Camry is aimed to nobody in particular, but just as many people as possible)

I'd say it's cost cutting combined with a gradual consumer preference shift away from different interiors like ya described......

 

[AndrewGS]

I like color choice, but unless it's black I'd want it to be two-toned. My Silverado is all black (Charcoal) which is fine, bland, but fine. My Roadmaster is all tan, which is not as nice. The all red and all blue interiors of yore were pretty overwhelming, but if they were two-toned like red and black or blue and gray, that would be nice.

I'm just glad GM is using more two-tone interior colors like on the '08 Malibu and on my mother's Torrent, which is tan and black and looks great. A choice of Neutral or Gray just gets me all exited.

 

[F14CRAZY]

probaly cuz it takes 0 effort for those colors to "work" together without making the interior ugly as sin from mismatched coloring.
That or the fact that its an entirely different color makes it aesthetically undesirable (i had an old Corsica, all red interior. Didnt look bad but everything was red and...dunno seemed ugly)

Reminds me that a while back on the Reatta message board, a particular car was being discussed that was bright red with a dark red interior. The brochures listed the suggested color choices but it seems they could be ordered in any combo including that

 

[MonteCarloSS86]

Well there's always that awful Ebony/Brick two-tone in the Malibu. And whatever they call it in all of the other cars.


I'd like to see more colour though, it just seems like it'd be harder to do with these modern dash and material designs/patterns. Like our Chevelle is blue and it looks amazing but the old Crown Victoria (2000 police) was blue with blue interior and it was... awful.

 

[coaster.n3rd]

agreed, if you get the grey interior in the outlook, you get a blue dash and trim. Its pretty nice.

I'd like to see more colors across the board as well.

 

[Smaart Aas Saabr]

I remember a lot of ugly dark blue interiors circa 90's.

White seats get really dirty

I like black dashes, black steering wheels and black consoles/etc with like a charcoal interior or maybe red. Too much red makes it look like a bordello. But I like bordellos.

 

[autofan]

GM is actually getting better with this, though still very inconsistent. Cars like the new Malibu, Aura, Z71 Tahoes & Suburbans, and Cadillac DTS offer nice two-tone combinations or uncommon interior colors. On the other hand, cars like the Astra and G8 offer only charcoal with the option for a colored seat insert (tan cloth on Astra, red leather on G8) that make you long for a beige or grey interior option to break up the monotony of charcoal everywhere. I would think beige, black and grey would be default color choices for any car in 2008.

I'm sure any color restrictions are driven by penny pinchers since cost cutting is the holy grail of the automotive industry. It usually outweighs giving customers a choice. I find it absurd that I can't get a dark blue Enclave with a cashmere interior. Why?

 

[Smaart Aas Saabr]

@autofan - do you think GM should offer an option like they do on the Corvette for "freak" combinations? For a small fee ($100?) they will give you any combination of interior/exterior colours that are possible.

 

[Bravada]

I miss burgundy and dark blue interiors. They were really classy despite car interiors being really crappy back then (1980s, I mean). Mazda offered Premacies with green interiors, and they were great. I want choice too.

 

[GMC-70]

anyone remember the 70's---you could get pretty much anything back then including olive green .

I do miss the expansive interor color choices that were once available--0ne of my favorites is a true black interior. Why is it that you can't seem to find this anymore? It always Charcoal or something but never a real black.

 

[BrickTamland]

It seems these days you generally get to pick between a tan, a grey, and black. What happened to different interior colors in mainstream cars? In my 1st generation Ford Explorer brochures there's grey, tan, blue, and red. My '94 Century has blue along with my friend's '93 Lesabre. We had a Reatta convertible with white.

Is it a cost cutting thing? I guess I can see how tan and grey appeal to the largest number of people versus like red or blue and go together with more body colors (not to go off topic, but in the same way the Camry is aimed to nobody in particular, but just as many people as possible)

And green on second-gen Explorers! My Explorer had a blue interior.

I would also think colors other than than gray, black, and tan look worse when they start to fade. Inevitably a couple parts will fade sooner, and it seems to stand out more on different colored interiors.

 

[mini1]

I'm glad they have done away from time-period colors! They always date any car. Colors like black, tan and grey really never go out of fashion.

 

[autofan]

@autofan - do you think GM should offer an option like they do on the Corvette for "freak" combinations? For a small fee ($100?) they will give you any combination of interior/exterior colours that are possible.

Right now on the Saturn Sky you can pay a color override fee ($590 I believe) and get any combo you want. I've seen pics of a bright yellow Sky with red/black leather interior....yikes!

I remember when the new CTS was launched a "mulberry" interior color was listed in the early media info. Obviously that never made it to production but take a look at the Quattroporte's color combos on Maserati's website and you can see how cool red or blue trim can look if done right. Right now Saturn charges a $150 premium for the morocco brown interior on an Aura with plenty of takers, so I'm sure they could get away with charging extra for more colorful interior options.

http://www.maserati.com/jsp/ccMy07_4p/interni.jsp

 

[ChevroletRevived]

I totally agree! GM has been doing a lot more then any other automaker as of late to help bring color back into the mainstream. Like in the Malibu, Aura, etc. I'd like to see it continued and extended even further in the future though. It's a sign that design really is back at GM!

 

[Firebird00]

I hate the majority of interior colors too. Gray, grey, black, ebony, tan, oak etc...lol. I loved my dads old 1991 GMC interior. I was all a deep red color with fine off white pin stripes running through the seats. I actually thought it was a better put together truck than his 2002 he has now. I also really liked the powder blue velour in his 79 T/A. It looked so good with the metal gauge bezel. What I really miss though is the red interiors on Corvettes. In C4s you could find a red interior almost anywhere, but now its nearly impossible. Damn people with their poor, bland taste . Live a little!!

 

[BrickTamland]

How about metallic interiors, like the 1979 Firebird Trans Am 10th Anniversary Edition?:

Those seats are not gray; they are silver.

 

[chaseabryant]

@autofan - do you think GM should offer an option like they do on the Corvette for "freak" combinations? For a small fee ($100?) they will give you any combination of interior/exterior colours that are possible.

I would love it if more companies would do that. It annoys me to no end when they don't allow a certain interior color with an exterior color...

-Chase

 

[Smaart Aas Saabr]

I would love it if more companies would do that. It annoys me to no end when they don't allow a certain interior color with an exterior color...

-Chase

Doesn't bother me too much. Usually they are some really bad combinations... like red exterior and tan interior

I remember the old Mazda MX-6 came in a nice gunmetal grey, but you could only get that with the red interior which was nasty and only got nastier with time (the red came off the steering wheel and shift knob). If you wanted the grey interior which would fit better, you had to get black paint.