What makes a color popular?

I was checking out the thread "How much should I pay for a clean coupe" and it made me wonder. What is the factor that makes a certain color so popular?

I thought it was rarity, but the more rare cars are not that popular:
2003-2004 Mustang Cobra Production Numbers

The zinc yellow coupe is pretty low production, and it's a one year car, and people don't like it. Sonic blue is the highest produced coupe behind black and everyone is tripping over it.

Is there something I'm missing?

Color is subjective. I personally like darker/deeper colors that pop versus light/pale colors. Metallic is always a plus as well. While not always the case, rare colors are often rare simply because very few were ordered like that due to them being unpopular.

Basic colors like red, blue, black and white will always be popular.

Goose17 said:

......I personally like darker/deeper colors that pop versus light/pale colors. Metallic is always a plus as well. ......

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I guess that's why the Sonic Blue is popular. Over on the Lexus forums, the Ultrasonic Blue Mica is very popular too. It must be something with dark metallic blue. For the Shelby, I like Grabber Blue but my wife loves Deep Impact Blue. It must be something with metallic blue

Goose17 said:

Basic colors like red, blue, black and white will always be popular.

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You are correct Goose, but you forgot one.... Silver. Might not be popular per say, but car manufactures seem to always include some form of silver or grey in their color lineup options.

Although some see silver as boring, it's a viable resale option as most will buy silver before they buy yellow, green, purple or orange. I'm speaking in general, not the Terminator world, as I know orange will sell over silver almost every time in the Terminator world.

Color didn’t do anything for us

It’s the look.

Black done up has a look all to its own.

That’s why there’s more black.

In addition to rarity, I think the popularity/success of certain colors depends greatly on the vehicle itself. MC, for example, looks great on a Terminator, but probably wouldn't jive on most other vehicles. At the other end of the spectrum, put MC on a dime a dozen F-150 and it becomes completely unattractive IMO. I'm sure we'd all agree that the right lines and body can really make or break a color. I'm with the masses in that I've never been much for "loud" colors. But, with that said, I can still appreciate CO or ZY on a Terminator in part due to their rarity and that the car can plain pull them off.
SB...To be honest, I didn't want SB when I was shopping 8 or 9 years ago. It somehow seemed too common, but through a series of events, here I am and I'm glad I got it. In some ways I feel SB may have been a little ahead of its time. If you fast forward to present day, every manufacturer has their rendition of it (as mentioned above regarding Lexus as an example) and it's likely a highly selling hue for all of them. There's nothing fancy or special about; people just seem to like it.
It's funny to watch a manufacturer "go out on a limb" with a color and then see the others follow suit. I'm sure Ford wasn't the first, but for the sake of my knowledge or lack thereof, let's talk gray. Pretending Ford rolled the dice on Stealth Gray and saw success, along comes Audi with a non-metallic gray. Then Chrysler starts putting it on Jeeps and Dodges and so on and so on. Pretty soon everyone's got it. So much so that - again just as an example - Ford's had at least 3 variations that come to mind: Stealth, Leadfoot, and Avalanche. But, a big part of gray's success for any manufacturer has been that it's been offered on the right vehicles. Avalanche looks killer on an GT350, but would like like turds on a base model F-150. On the contrary, GM has what I consider to be a very nice, deep metallic green that's popped up in the last 2-3 model years. I think it looks great when it's clean, even on something as common as a Silverado. I have yet to see it on anything from another manufacturer, though. Why? Who knows... Perhaps I'm in the minority with this color, but if nothing else, it just fuels the fire as to the inexplicable trend in colors that the OP has brought into question. Pardon the lengthy post; my wheels got turning.

Silver is the compromise color when husband and wife can't agree.

From what I remember, before these cars first came out, black was THE color to have. Everyone wanted a black Mustang. Or a black Camaro. Or a black Trans Am. Yellow was also VERY popular.

When these cars first came out everyone wanted the Sonic Blue. It was WILDLY popular.

Today the black and yellow are probably the LEAST popular. And I don't hear much hype about the Sonic Blue. Everyone wants that orange color.

Personally I like the orange. But I also like the black and the yellow. The sonic blue is pretty but wouldn't be my first pick. Silver has always been kind of boring to me. In my opinion silver really only looks good on luxery cars.

Everyone likes something different. I just tend to like what everyone else does not more times than not.

seems more like what makes them valuable than popular. Zinc yellow was a shitty color, they made few of them because they knew there would be low demand. Comp orange was a popular color but they still had a low run hence the high price vs a piss...I mean zinc yellow car

AnarchyVA said:

From what I remember, before these cars first came out, black was THE color to have. Everyone wanted a black Mustang. Or a black Camaro. Or a black Trans Am. Yellow was also VERY popular.

When these cars first came out everyone wanted the Sonic Blue. It was WILDLY popular.

Today the black and yellow are probably the LEAST popular. And I don't hear much hype about the Sonic Blue. Everyone wants that orange color.

Personally I like the orange. But I also like the black and the yellow. The sonic blue is pretty but wouldn't be my first pick. Silver has always been kind of boring to me. In my opinion silver really only looks good on luxery cars.

Everyone likes something different. I just tend to like what everyone else does not more times than not.

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I love the Comp Orange. I think it would look great with Amber tails but if it is even the slightest bit faded, it shows... a lot. DSG car's look amazing on true forged wheels. Black, when done right is amazing. SB was wildly popular back in the day but it seems as if has "fallen off." Now CO and MC is all the hype. The yellow's are just hard to pull off in my opinion. Something about the front bumper in yellow just looks odd. But I love a zinc yellow '01 cobra.

T3RMINATOR said:

Now CO and MC is all the hype.

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Put me in the Mystichrome hype camp. I like that it’s not painted on thousands of V6 Mustangs. Even after 15+ years, people are still shocked when they see it... they’ve never seen anything like it before. The same can’t be said for orange.

That said, like I said above... color is quite subjective and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

The only reason I bought my car was because it stood out so much everyday I passed it at the dealership. I probably would have gotten dsg or black if I was actually on the hunt for one back then.

Goose17 said:

Put me in the Mystichrome hype camp. I like that it’s not painted on thousands of V6 Mustangs. Even after 15+ years, people are still shocked when they see it... they’ve never seen anything like it before. The same can’t be said for orange.

That said, like I said above... color is quite subjective and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

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I agree with you 100%. Nothing like it has come out since and people are amazed at how many different colors it can look based off lighting and such. That and the seats and steering wheel... legendary. I loved it since I knew what it was. Nice to see other people appreciating the color as well. It got some love on the new Ford GT recently as a one off paint job. Mystichrome has and will continue to stand the test of time.

I think it’s a combination of rarity and how exotic the color is. Some colors no matter what just become coveted like white for instance. I personally think the lighter colors ie sy,co,ow show off the terminators body lines and features the best but it’s all subjective. this may sound corny but another thing that draws me in for a particular color is the colors name. Like how bad ass does competition orange sound versus just calling it orange. Shameless pic of my babe just cause.


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I've never been a fan of the CO.

Low production numbers brings most of its hype IMO.

Mystichrome is in a league of it's own. I literally couldn't open my garage without someone stopping to talk about it when I had one.

Going to a gas station was a chore as I had to answer questions and talk to at least 3 people every time I had to fill up. Absolutely an attention getter.. that's kinda why I got tired of the car.

Sonic blue is my personal favorite. It has enough peral in it to change colors a bit and looks amazing in bright light as well as dusk/low light situations. The only thing I'm not a fan of is the gray seats...

All these cars are awesome, it doesnt matter what color is unexpectedly driving in the opposite direction...I'm always going to whip my head around and ask my kids
"HEY DID YOU GUYS SEE THAT TERMINATOR???"

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NateDogg said:

All these cars are awesome, it doesnt matter what color is unexpectedly driving in the opposite direction...I'm always going to whip my head around and ask my kids
"HEY DID YOU GUYS SEE THAT TERMINATOR???"

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100%! Minus the part about kids on my end, though. haha

I had an '03 Sonic Blue GT that I sold to get my ZY Terminator. I wasn't seeking ZY but the car was local, priced right, & in good condition. I liked the fact that it was an attention getting color which is a bit odd for my personality.

I never disliked ZY and have grown to like it since it's my car. I prefer it over SY. I like CO but don't prefer it. I used to love MC but have come to dislike the interior accent stuff.

The standard black, white, silver, grey, red colors are look great on a Terminator but I was gravitating towards something a bit different.

I have always missed the Sonic Blue I had on my GT. I'd be curious what a color change would do on the value of a Terminator like mine.

prs97 said:

I had an '03 Sonic Blue GT that I sold to get my ZY Terminator. I wasn't seeking ZY but the car was local, priced right, & in good condition. I liked the fact that it was an attention getting color which is a bit odd for my personality.

I never disliked ZY and have grown to like it since it's my car. I prefer it over SY. I like CO but don't prefer it. I used to love MC but have come to dislike the interior accent stuff.

The standard black, white, silver, grey, red colors are look great on a Terminator but I was gravitating towards something a bit different.

I have always missed the Sonic Blue I had on my GT. I'd be curious what a color change would do on the value of a Terminator like mine.

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Color change would probably hurt it in the long run. They say no factory color will ever look as good as it will from the factory but to each their own. Plus you don't see too many yellow cars these days. It's all black's and red's that pop up for sale with the occasional silver/grey.

T3RMINATOR said:

It got some love on the new Ford GT recently as a one off paint job. Mystichrome has and will continue to stand the test of time.

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I didn't realize that until I read your statement. Did some searching and found this. Pretty cool review, but I'm not sure how true it is. Not sure why MC on a Cobra is a $3,500 option and on a Ford GT it's a $100,000 option. Does not pass the common sense test with me...….

How are you guys saying SB is falling off? There is like 5 people looking for SB in the market place right now. Way more than any other. I love blue. That is why I went SB in 2005. I liked Orange but being a Gamecock fan I could not do Orange.

Saw an old Crown Vic with Mystic paint this weekend and it looked horrible. The 1996 with Mystic looks bad ass. As said above it's about the lines.