No, this was not staged…
(Yes, it’s a rerun, but it seems to fit today’s late-afternoon theme).
Wordless Outtake: Seeing Red
– Posted on September 3, 2013
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Curbside Classics Archives
No, this was not staged…
(Yes, it’s a rerun, but it seems to fit today’s late-afternoon theme).
Reminds me that when I purchase a new car I usually have to wait for a color that i can live with… or when looking for a used car it takes a while. I hate red and white.
Secret club – only red vehicles allowed?
Freemasons
Convention for fire chiefs?
Meeting of the Bloods street gang.
I wonder what that’s about! It’s nothing new with everyone offering the same old colors. I remember back in the mid 90’s when I was in school overlooking over the school parking lot sitting on the bus. There was this color, beige, black and silver all through the lot, much like I see in that photo. None of the cars were worth identifying. All I could think was what a bunch of boring people own those cars, nobody has the courage to step out. Of course there was the one bright teal Geo Prism my Business teacher had, it fit his personality pretty well.
I was going to mention that teal made a rather meteoric comeback in the early-mid 90s. You could even get a Ford Windstar in that color!
You see this all the time near the University of Arkansas (school colors of red and white), particularly with trucks.
Red is an insanely popular vehicle color with the local natives and the students; they complete the look by plastering their vehicles with those ugly pig decals. 🙂
Similar sight here in Louisville, red for the U of L cardinals.
Not all cars look good in red.
That gold G6 is a bit out of place.
G6 or Impala?
Whats kind of interesting is that with the possible exception of the BMW, they all are non-sporty cars, which are usually bland colors.
Pretty sure it’s a G6, but of course I’ve been wrong before. The Impala’s decklid and bumper are longer.
That’s actually a pretty sharp Sebring sedan in the foreground.
It’s an Impala. The antenna is on the rear of the roof while G6’s had their’s up front.
Yup, looks like you and Carmine are right.
This is an unusual sight in today’s world with the favorite car colors being white or silver. There is even a yellow pickup and a bright blue small car (Mini?) in the mix. Now, if we could get some color back in the interiors…
First off, when did metallic red take over and push “real red” off of the color palette? It is getting rare to see a classic red car. The metallic red was a novelty in the 60s and would come and go, but seems to have been a perennial since the 90s.
In fact, this seems to be the one “color” that is almost always available. The others seem to cycle through fads (dark green in the ’90s, navy blue in the late 90s, bright yellow in the early ’00s, metallic orange in the late ’00s) but that metallic red is always there.
As for the cars, as someone pointed out they seem to all be the most boring imaginable, led of by a Chrysler Sebring.
I hate metallic red; give me a nicely-waxed standard shade any day. On German cars, this has the added bonus of saving you $500-800
Red cars rare? Not in my life. Not very long ago, I had, at one time:
–A red Toyota Yaris;
–A red Jeep “YJ-7” (a YJ Wrangler set up to look like a CJ7);
–A red Dodge full-size van;
–A red Suzuki Burgman 650 cycle.
No, it was not planned that way. The Jeep and Dodge were there and that color when I bought each. The Toyota was a discounted end-year closeout; and red was the only color for that model Suzuki that year (I bought it used).
I’m finally out of all of those except the Burgman; my only car these days is a silver, newer Toyota.
But as for the photo…one look, and you’d think we were a red carnation.
(rimshot)
At least they’re not all silver.
Or several shades of black and dark grey. TTAC had a decent article about Chevy having basically 3 shades of black being offered in the current color palette. Although I was recently perusing the Chevrolet site and they are currently offering a dark green, but give the fact that it is actually a nice unique color it will likely last only one year and exactly 100 cars out of 100s of thousands will be built that way.
Looks like the parking lot of a plant that makes commercial equipment, fire trucks, back hoes, or something. People that like those tend to like the color red.
Nope, the stuff we make is yellow…
I always figure that Chrysler must have got a great deal on that shade of red. My Caravan is that color, as is my neighbor’s Sebring.
My Focus is Sangria Red, almost the same.
Since we buy our vehicles used from the Ford dealer, we call that “Cataract Red” since we figure they’re all trade ins from older folks. We hate the color, but they are always low miles and well maintained.
I had a 406 wagon in diablo red beautiful colour and recently put my hand up for a red Corolla not for the colour its just unwanted at its present locale and is cheap for here.
Can you believe that Malibu debuted just a year earlier than the BMW? The 00’s really were bad years for American car design…
That Sebring reminds me of an old saying. Rent-a-car red, it Hertz the eyes.
Line up these same five nameplates from the 90s — the Cirrus, 3-series, Impala SS and LeSabre — and they wouldn’t look anything alike. Cars of the last 10 years really do look too much alike.
I’ve got a fairly low opinion of most DaimlerChrysler-era Mopars, but I actually did like the way this Sebring looked – and that’s the 2001-2006 sedan model, just to be clear (since there were 3 different Sebrings at the time!)
When they first came out, I never really paid much attention to them and always assumed they were related to the LH cars somehow, but apparently they’re a later development of the Cloud Car platform. I also drove one once, not sure what trim level or year but it was a later, well-optioned model and I was pretty impressed with it. Good steering feel, nice balance of handling and ride quality, and the 2.7l V6 seemed to have a lot more life in it than in the LH cars. I also liked the dash/interior layout, but the materials were very low-budget – especially the leather seats which were really crummy across the board for Chrysler back then.
Of course, given that they do have the 2.7l engine, they’re supposed to be ticking time bombs unless religiously maintained. I wouldn’t be surprised if they become a very rare sight in the near future. Too bad, looking at pictures of them now I think I actually like this bodystyle better than the 2nd-gen LH cars.
My dad had one of those Z24s. His was a white 2001, which is what I’m sure this is. Really nice car. He still remembers it fondly as do I. Was too young to drive it but I don’t recall it lacking in power.
He sold it and the girl that bought it later wrecked it and I guess she liked it so much that she called my dad to see if he had another one.
The few Z24s that I see around are usually 98-00 I think cause they never have those rims.