April 30, 2019

Paint Colors: Now and Then


Remember the excitement of buying your first car? Maybe you longed for a Matador Red 1968 Camaro, but instead you got a dark brown 1979 Ford Pinto with an orange racing stripe (for some unknown reason) from your grandpa.  Perhaps you've grown up a bit and are out of the muscle car phase, but maybe not. Now it’s your money and not grandpa’s hand-me-down, and
Mount Airy Toyota has a wide selection of both new and used vehicles—and in lots of colors to choose from! From Winston-Salem to Galax, Boone to Statesville, drivers from across the region come to Mount Airy Toyota to find the service and selection they need.

Toyota offers a wide range of vehicles, both practical and fun to drive.  With the sporty RAV4, the workhorse Tundra, the clean lines of the Camry, or the racy fun coming with the 2020 GR Supra, Toyota has the ride for you!

The all-new 2019 RAV4, for example, comes in a variety of colors, including: Blue Flame, Ruby Red Pearl, and Lunar Rock. These aren't your grandpa's blue, red and gray, but fun twists on popular colors to give you choices you will enjoy. We know buying a vehicle is a major investment and we want you to leave our lot happy and looking good! Gone are the days when you had to settle for what was on the lot, today you can order your own choices, from the inside- out, to suit your needs. 

Paint color options have changed over the years, as tastes have changed. Currently, the three most popular colors are:  Silver - 23%, White - 15%, and Black - 12%. Popular colors for SUV/Minivans/Light Trucks, SUVs, Minivans, and Light Trucks, which make up 50.9% of the new vehicle market, are unique from all other categories in that white is the preferred color for these vehicles. This has been the case for more than 10 years. Silver and black round out the top three color-choices with medium/dark gray advancing in popularity.



Available paint colors in Toyota’s lineup include: Blue Crush Metallic, Barcelona Red Metallic, Celestite Gray Metallic, and Quicksand. And yes, we have Silver (Silver Sky Metallic), White (Super White), and Black (Midnight Black Metallic)! Toyota’s team aims to have a variety of options to please most shoppers, and we carefully select colors that best enhance the model’s features.

Color choices today are a far cry from when Henry Ford first began making the Ford Model T. While he did start out with the colors of grey, green, blue, and red, he quickly discovered that it would reduce costs and increase durability by using only black paint, and in 1914, assembly lines revolutionized transportation—one black Model T at a time!

A visit to The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan is an educational and fun way to get a great look at a variety of vehicles through time. Stories of innovation are around each corner and there is even an opportunity to assemble a Model T in the museum, or take a ride in one in neighboring Greenfield Village. 

If you want to see a Toyota Camry getting made, you are in luck! Our plant in Georgetown, Kentucky manufactures the Camry and the Avalon. This is America's first and the world's biggest Toyota manufacturing facility and is near Lexington. You can request a free tour in advance and see for yourself what makes these cars so great! The tours are on weekdays only and last about an hour. More than 2,000 cars are produced here every day and you can learn more about the history of Toyota and the facility, and even see the first car to come off their production line—a 1998 Camry! Fun for all ages. www.toyotaky.com

Just as cars have evolved from the Model T, so has the way they are painted. Early paint was derived from natural products and today's paints are synthetic. Paint used to be hand applied (with a brush) and is now fully automated using robotic methods. Early models (circa 1900) had paint that faded quickly and how was this fixed? You guessed it!  You bought some black paint and some paint brushes and dedicated your Sunday afternoon to the task.

It got better when DuPont developed a lacquer paint system in the 1920s that could be applied with spray guns, greatly speeding up the assembly process. However, this paint was prone to wear, and spills from gasoline damaged the finish easily. Many vehicles sported missing paint around the gas cap area. Moving into the 1930s, enamel paints became the durable option and were sprayed on and baked. These finishes, however, oxidized quickly in sunlight.

The 1970s gave us disco and a new way of finishing cars: using a colored enamel basecoat followed by a super hard clear finish. Only expensive models had this at first, but like disco, it was hard to resist and by the late 1980s, this method of painting cars was common.

Today, you can expect a long life from your Toyota factory paint job. If you have an accident, turn to Toyota Certified Collision Centers to get your ride back to looking like new, right down to the factory paint color applied by qualified technicians.

Whether you are in the market for an SUV or a sedan, stop by Mount Airy Toyota and we’ll help you find just the right vehicle, in the right color, to light up your days!

*Kelley Blue Book

Written by Mary Casey-Sturk - CCP Web Design

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