A Sliver of Silver

Like most Americans I spend far too much time in my car. Not only do I live 40 minutes away from where I work (which is about average nationwide), but my various hobbies, interests, social outings, and errands, put me on the asphalt frequently. So I think about cars a lot--far more than they deserve.

In fact I could probably write a thousand little essays on various little car-related observations on top of the book of short fiction I've already scribbled on the subject.

One of the societal certainties over the past few years has to do with the uptick in silver and pewtery paint jobs for automobiles. According to the New York Times (Oct. 8th, 2010) nearly 31% of new automobiles are silver or silverish (gray, etc.) in hue. That's a whole lot of silver paint jobs. The question is: why?

Thoughts/theories/conjectures:

1. Silver=money. This is the Jaguar effect. If you buy a $12,000 silver Hyundai (like I did) it will look like a more expensive car, or so the thinking goes. This is keeping up with the Joneses. This is car manufacturers offering the illusion of style rather than actual style. This is the 21st Century disco effect--everything should be smooth and chic (silver finishes are apparently more expensive). However, when every car is silver does silver still glitter?

2. Silver is colorless. Despite the appearance of glitz and glimmer, silver is understated. How many gold cars do you see on the road? Gold on automobiles is gauche. Silver says upper-middle class classy-but-not-in-your-face. Silver says you too can buy me.

3. Silver is depressed. And still on a cold winter afternoon silver cars seem lifeless. Something about the silver fad makes me think subconsciously we are buying cars as suits--something to wear (drive) to the office. We no longer drive because we want to, we drive because we have to. Silver is an affirmation of this. Cars fit to make a professional appearance.

4. It's a recession color. With the decline of the stock market and dollar, what does best? Gold and silver. Silver is a precious metal you can drive.

5. We were supposed to have flying cars by this point, right? That's what we learned on The Jetson's, at least. Silver automobiles won't fly, but they might resemble the color of jetliners, which might have the same subliminal effect, or something.

6. Silver blends right in. It's similar in color, most noticeably, to the road on which we drive--which, at least in my area, is only a shade darker in most places than the paint jobs. Silver also blends right in to other (mostly silver) cars. They disappear. We don't notice them. If you want a car which doesn't say too much, silver is for you.

7. Silver accommodates. It makes one feel at home. When one has a fancy dinner party one busts out the fancy silver. Now we can have the same effect with our cars.

8. Silver reveals a lack of self-esteem, a malaise, as it were. What happened to the (overly?) optimistic bright red cars of the 80's? What brown wood-paneled station wagons were to the 1970's nearly identical swooshy bubble cars are to the teens.

9. An old article in New Scientist (Dec., 2003) reports that silver cars are safer. Perhaps the car industry is simply protecting us in a shield of glitz?

I'm sure there are other reasons.