Old Ads and Car Colours

Do you remember when cars were painted bright, unusual colours? I sure do. As a little kid in England in the early 1980s, the bleak climate and greyish urbanized infrastructure was contrasted nicely by the warm tones and hues of the cars that trundled along the roads. Not that I made this observation at the time, of course. What, you expected me to draw mental parallels between the climate, car colours and the national mood when I'd barely started school? Are you crazy or something? But I digress. It was almost as if car manufacturers decided to brighten dull landscapes by making their cars stand out against them, rather than just metal boxes you sat in to get from 'A' to the dole office.

Take a look at this British motoring magazine, rather unambiguously titled Motor, from June 1976. Now I hadn't been born at that time, but the cars you see above were typical of what was being driven around England when I was a kid.

Phwooarr, get a load o' that son. That's what I'd probably call an autumn palette (June isn't exactly autumn, but whatever): moss green, olive green, a sort of sunburnt orange...those were great colours! Nice and vibrant. Now, you're probably thinking if all car colours stood out then none of them did, right? Well, colours like these were contrasted by the older cars in subtle pastel shades. In the '80s it was still common to see 1950s cars (and older) still pressed into service and still in use.

The cover stars of this February 1972 issue of Auto Car feature in burgundy and metallic blue, two very popular colours at one time. You could expect to see cars in just about every colour in England, but it was said that the least popular colour was brown. (Hey, what's wrong with brown, eh?) You would supposedly have more trouble trying to sell a brown car than any other colour, because it was seen as an old man's car colour. Brown is also the least popular car colour in Australia. And yet my dad's first car in England was a chocolate-brown Ford Cortina, and his first car in Australia was a tan brown Ford Cortina. So there you go.

Fast forward four decades, now to Melbourne. Here is the view from the food court — sorry, the food gallery — of The Glen shopping centre in Glen Waverley.

Rather uninspiring, isn't it? No, not Springvale Road, though that certainly has its critics. I'm talking about the uninspiring array of car colours you see there. It seems that these days, cars and vans come in nothing other than black, white, grey, red and blue. The bog-standard basics. Boring. Dull. Listless. Apathetic. There's nothing wrong with these colours, but the palette surely couldn't be limited and constrained more than this. 2020s Melbourne has several similarities with 1980s England, but I wish they'd copied their car colours as well. If you lament the demise of variety in car colours too, let me know in the comments.

Oh, and I promised you old ads, so here's one out of the above issue of Auto Car. It follows the usual 1980s trend of paragraphs of text to read through, but it also features this product shot of ye olde smug Triumph owner pulling into a service station to collect his petrol stamps. Though I think he's collecting more than just stamps here if you know what I mean, and I think you do. If you can figure out what transaction is taking place in this picture, put your answer on a postcard and send it to me at the address given in the ad, no later than March 1972.