When it comes to car colours, it's a black-and-white world, with a silver lining.
For years, consumers have made the monochromatic trio the most popular choices, with white favoured by 28 per cent of car buyers worldwide in 2014, followed by black (18 per cent) and silver/grey (13 per cent), according to PPG Industries, a global supplier of paints.
That's a whole lot of dull driving the world's roads.
So last year at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Nissan launched its Colour Studio personalization program for the Juke in an effort to make its funky crossover, well, more funky. It was an added splash of style for a vehicle that already stands apart from the rest, but not always in a good way. The Juke routinely makes top 10 ugly vehicle lists, including one by Globe Drive.
This week, the Japanese auto maker has again chosen Los Angeles to announce an expansion of its Colour Studio program to its 2016 Versa Note compact hatch.
"A little colour – or a lot – dramatically changes the look of a vehicle and there's no easier way to make a ride stand out than the convenient, affordable Colour Studio process," said Pierre Loing, vice-president, product planning for Nissan North America. "We believe Versa Note owners are going to embrace the concept."
The Versa Note Colour Studio allows owners to, according to Nissan, "make it yours" through upgrades of individual vehicle accessories with different colour choices. Thirteen different car parts can be coloured up to six different ways: black, white, red, orange, black-purple and faux carbon fibre.
On the exterior, that includes the aluminum-alloy wheels, wheel centre caps, front lip finisher, door handle covers, side mirror caps and rear roof spoiler. Inside, the floor mats, kick plates, speaker rings, air vent rings, rearview mirror, interior cover and interior trim appliqués can get the colour coding.
The result: a tame little econobox gets an injection of excitement.
"Colour does change everything," said Loing.
The writer was a guest of the auto maker. Content was not subject to approval.
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