NEWS YOU CAN USE: You Can Thank Rich Folks For All The Clay-Colored Cars.

When a normal non-car person, like Tik Tok Science behemoth (and author and YouTuber and all around pretty cool dude) Hank Green, begins to notice automotive trends that have been in play for nearly two decades, clearly it has reached its zenith. The trend of desaturated non-metallic car paints has trickled its way down from the Lamborghinis and Audis through the Porsches and McLarens to touch your most basic Honda Civics and Toyota crossovers. This was a less noticeable trend when it was confined to the world of the upper-crust sports car, but now that seemingly every dealership in America is selling a car with zero paint flake, usually a grey or desaturated blue or green, it’s kind of hard to avoid.

Cars have increasingly trended toward greyscale color palettes over the last thirty years. Allegedly these were the inoffensive colors that second buyers preferred, and they would improve resale when you were done with your ownership experience. Long gone were the days of “resale red” and the time of greys and whites were here to stay.

Of course, there are larger trends at play here. From the prominence of “Millennial Grey” in home decor and wall paint, to black and heathered grey being the most popular shades of t-shirt. People, particularly Americans and Europeans, are trying to blend in and stay under the radar. The idea of buying a grey Lamborghini is borderline offensive to me, but “stealth wealth” was a big part of culture from the 2000s to today. And the trends that wealthy people popularize begin to trickle down to the middle class, where they become borderline universal.

For decades metallic paint was the hot shit, but after the success of Audi’s Nardo Grey, the trend has increasingly become putty-lookin’ ass whips.

Battleship gray cars is a trend that’s long been played out. Make car paint great – or at least exuberant – again!