Which trim colour do you prefer? (2025)

Eshan Joshi

Join Date: Jan 2020

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We all know what an exterior trim is. It's the thing that highlights your car. Makes it look more beautiful or aggressive. In our market , we have two main colours . Silver or Black. Here's more about them.

Silver:

The most common one. Most cars come in silver or chrome exterior trim as standard .This can make your car look elegant or cling bling. Here are some examples:

Elegant: Mercedes E Class

Cling Bling: Toyota Fortuner (Kinda)

Black:

Not that common but still a regular sight in the past few years . Mostly seen on performance variants of certain cars. This makes your car look sporty , mean and aggressive. It's also common on economy cars ( Mostly plastic and rubber).Here are some examples:

Performance car: Skoda Octavia vRS

Economy car: Fiat Palio

Grey:
A few cars come with grey trim to. But I have never seen one in India

The colour of your exterior trim can impact the looks of your car. Here is an example:

A sensible looking Audi A4

A mad and aggressive looking RS4

What do you think? Which colour do you prefer?

Last edited by Eshan Joshi : 14th December 2020 at 18:23.

chinmaypillay

Join Date: Mar 2013

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Voted on Depends. There are certain colors which suit some cars perfectly while some are really odd. I feel the white offered for Altroz and Nexon are not suited for their styles, grey shades look much better on them.

White is a universal non-offense color, but bored of them. If dust/heavy maintenance was not a problem Black would be the one to go. Especially for the premium segment, really looks sexy and exudes class. Love the Mercs in this shade, gives them a look of a price above.

Another example would be the first Elite i20, loved the Dark blue kinda shade on them which makes them electrifying.

Altocumulus

Join Date: Jan 2012

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Voted for Black. I always dechrome my cars with Black wrap. I like the blacked out look.

I loved the Grey part on the RS4 though. That would be my second option.

2000rpm

Join Date: May 2013

Location: Mumbai

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Dont think the poll makes any sense without the most popular color in India - White!

Also without so many other colors missing you are bound to get a response in favour of others / depends!

#PollPolice

rajshenoy

Join Date: Apr 2006

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Various factors come to play. I always prefer the trim that contrasts or enhances the car and I don't think there is single answer.

Also i feel the "silver" should change to "Chrome" in our market context

Actually the poll talks about "Chrome" vs "Black" trims in our indian context and not the body colors

For eg: Low end models might come with black bumpers and grill and top end variant comes with Body coluor bumper and Chrome grill.

Last edited by rajshenoy : 15th December 2020 at 12:47.

GTO

Join Date: Feb 2004

Location: Bombay

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Voted for black.

It looks very sporty & classy to my eyes. I also appreciate how some new launches are going against conventional thinking & dumping chrome altogether (e.g. Mahindra Thar). That said, I don't mind chrome / silver if it is applied in a tasteful & minimal manner. Most brands go overboard with it, yet a few get it right.

Eddy

Join Date: Apr 2007

Location: Singapore

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All the cars that I have bought have been silver. Nothing beats it in ease of maintenance.

Related thread = https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...ar-colour.html (What influences your choice of car colour?)

TrackDay

Join Date: Oct 2020

Location: Magic land

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Voted for depends !

I feel each trim color goes with certain colors. For instance black trim looks best on White, bright red, blue color cars. White cars can also carry silver/chrome.

Where as on darker shades like black, midnight blue etc. silver/chrome might look nice.

Haven't really noticed grey here in India though.

superguy282

Join Date: Nov 2020

Location: Pune

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Voted for depends like many others. There are many instances where all sorts of trims have looked really good on some colours, but cringeworthy and awful on the rest. It all boils down to contrasting and reason behind the trims.

Chrome/Silver/Grey would be better suited on Premium/Luxury vehicles intended to woo chauffeur driven people. Whilst Black/Red would unmistakably indicate a sports car. Swap the two trims and both of them look messed up.

Last edited by superguy282 : 15th December 2020 at 22:50.

Venkatesh

Join Date: Feb 2020

Location: Hyderabad

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Came across this related article on colour choice

White remains most popular car colour globally for 10th year running.

India’s preference for lighter shades is evident with the most Silver vehicles of any country at 32% and the lowest number of Black vehicles at 2%.

Source

J4J

Join Date: Jul 2019

Location: New Delhi

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Black is the color I love on cars, however it is very difficult to maintain them.
Silver is my second choice and it is relatively easy to maintain. Small scratches fade away easily. Considering the Indian road scene & the number of vandals roaming around, I voted silver.

If I live in a country where road rules are followed and where I'll have a lesser chance of scratches/vandals, I'll definitely go with Black.

88_TANK_88

Join Date: Sep 2020

Location: Dehradun/NCR

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The colours mentioned in the poll refer to trim pieces and not actual body colour.
eg. Endeavour with chrome grill vs Endeavour Sport edition with black grill.

I voted for depends.
Chrome for dark colours like black, dark blue.
Gloss black for lighter colours.
Hate flat/matt black or black plastic on lower trim level cars.

Jeroen

Join Date: Oct 2012

Location: Delhi

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It all depends. I can say one thing though: I have never ever owned a car in white, grey, black or silver. I think they are the most boring car colours in the universe. I will take a bus or my bicycle before getting myself a car with a boring colour.

Many years ago I wrote an article for one of the Dutch car magazine on car colours. I did a bit of research why so many people went for all these mind boggling boring colours. So I approached a bunch a car clubs I knew and asked them to do a little survey under the members. Not very scientific and one would think that car club members are somewhat more petrolhead minded than Joe average.

I was very surprised at the response. Most people choose for these totally non discript colours because it would make the car easier to sell onwards?! It left me flabbergasted. I don’t buy a car worrying about it’s resale value. When I buy a car, any car, I want to enjoy it to the max in every way possible. So the way it looks is important and I certainly want my car to stand out from the crowd and Joe’s average car. As Joe and his mates are only interested in black or white or some undetermined intermediate greyish mix of the two, that leaves me literally hundreds if not thousands of other colours to chose from.

It is as with so many thing in live. We are offered a huge choice or selection. Still 75% of the population will make the exact same choice.

To some extend the only practical problem I have: apart from the company tin, I have been buying all of my cars second hand. And of course the second hand market, colour wise, is a reflection of average. Still, currently we own one light metallic green car, a red car (Italian ragtop classic obviously). A light blue metallic car, a Dark metallic blue car, and two dark red (Bourgandy) cars.

I don’t know about India. But this quest for the most boring car colour is a recent one. Look at photographs of European cities of 30 years ago and you will see any and all colours under the sun out on the streets. Go to any classic car show and you will see the same.

When and why did the modern car owner, colour wise become such a dull, non discript, go for safe, kind of person? Car manufacturer are falling over each other pointing out the various ways their models can be individuallised, reflect your personality and style. But apparently, colour wise we do not want anything even remotely individually?

Especially remarkable in a country such as India. Colour and many different colours are abundantly present in so many aspect of Indian society. But not in cars, sadly?
Jeroen

Last edited by Jeroen : 16th December 2020 at 12:19.

sharktale

Join Date: Mar 2015

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Most of the cars in my garage have been the plain old silver. I guess, the trend shall continue in the future too.

I somehow really like the shade, especially in cars with Diamond cut alloy wheels (Eg: Toyota Corolla Altis Facelift). The shade is not too common like white, nor difficult to maintain like black. Its the toughest to identify minor dents and scratches and shines well with just good ol' general upkeep. Accumulated dust on the car body does not sore one's eyes that much, as compared to something like a black.

My personal opinion is of the following two possible reasons :

1. Indians tend to stick to white/silver due to the perceived benefit of lower avg. temperatures inside the car because of lower heat absorption. Any other colour does not have the same ability. Also, I think that the owners (like me) generally do want a car, but not a snazzy colour which attracts attention of everyone around, and may be victimised by scratching the body with keys or by stealing the chrome tags and logos.

2. Indians (including me) think about the concurrent denting and touch-up costs as part of the maintenance cost. Getting a car in a unique shade makes it more difficult to get it properly restored at your neighbourhood garage shop and also leaves a bigger hole in the pocket.

Last edited by sharktale : 16th December 2020 at 21:32.

Jeroen

Join Date: Oct 2012

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Ask any car spray guy and he will tell you that silver is the most difficult colour to work with. Note that even within those few colours, black, white, silver grey there are literally hundred variations out there on each. If a paint shop can match a particular colour of say grey or white, it has the capabilities to produce any colour.

Not sure what you mean with unique shades, but I am talking green, red, yellow, orange, blue, nothing fancy, just colourful. I can’t think why matching a say grey colour, is any different from matching a brown one. Spraying is similar too, metallic colours can get a bit more tricky.

For a typical re-spray it is not the colour that determines the cost, but more the kind of paint (e.g. metallic or something fancy)

Not sure to what extend your neighbourhood garage spray shop matches your grey, silver, white or black. But if they can do it without showing any variation they can do it for any other paint too. At no extra cost.
How do they match the exact colour? Do they mix their own paint. If not how do they ensure they get the correct colour?

Is that all so different in India?

Jeroen