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Comment by taxcoder | Hacker News Reader

I attribute this to the increasing attitude of treating a car as an appliance. It seems cars have less to did with an individual's identity than in past years, and tinkering is less common. Perhaps the reduction in tinkering is because some people with the tinkering inclination have moved t computers and software instead.

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I guess, but I am the epitome of someone who doesn't give a crap about their car, and I would have chosen a fun color if one were available. The options I had were white, gray, and another gray.

I'm wondering if cars are boring colors for the same reason task #1 after buying a house is always to paint the walls a color that's slightly less awful than Sell-My-House Taupe. Data-driven decisionmaking favors the boring.

Thanks for the input.

> I attribute this to the increasing attitude of treating a car as an appliance.

Perhaps we should do the same test with smartphones. People use colored cases for their smartphone, but a lot of people also use a transparent case.

I could be wrong, but smartphones seem to be a status symbol or personal accessory, so I would expect colors there to spring form a different motivation than colors for cars.

But you can buy brightly coloured appliances. My toaster is bright blue. There was also bright red available.

Thats been the case since the 1950s. But who buys that? Look on your craigslist for apartments and I bet $1000 you wont find any stove or fridge that isn’t stainless steel or white.

I saw some orange fridges in stores for a while. But they seem to be gone now :(

Edit: No, the Gorenjes with the pretty colours are still there. But I live in eastern europe :)

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