Hacker News Reader

Comment by freedomben | Hacker News Reader

The color options are a much bigger deal than I think many people realize. It's been too many years since I saw the studies so I have no hope of being able to cite it, but in a marketing class in college I remember reading about how much people value picking a color they really like, that they feel matches their personality. It increases satisfaction, significantly reduces the cognitive dissonance (aka "buyers remorse") that usually accompanies a major purchase, and increases identity sharing (where the vehicle feels like part of your identity, which is good for brand loyalty and total ownership satisfaction). I've been surprised how limited the color palette usually is for vehicles given all that. It will be interesting to see how Slate does!

View on HN

AFAIK there's actually only one color and you can wrap it. The wrap kits are supposed to be DIY friendly so you can change it yourself when you want a new color.

This is great if you have a garage to do it in. This is terrible if you’re an apartment dweller and have no workshop space!

Parking garage, a friend's house etc.. You make it work.

Sounds like the vinyls will feel like "Hooray my own kinda car!" but will end up in the storage room with "I'll stick these on later" note in the buyers' heads.

You can order a wrapped professionally from the factory. Depending upon which segment of the body panels it's as cheap as a few hundred bucks all the way up to something like 800 bucks for a full wrap.

I don't think I've ever gone shopping for a car and had the dealer present me with the exact same trim options but color selection was only going to change the MSRP by $800 at most...

Too late to edit parent but I might be wrong about wrap from the factory. (up to) $800 just for the materials is still reasonable but even with experience doing wraps, I would probably still bring it to a shop. DIY wrap is a bit like baking cookies; you don't need much in terms of skill or tools to do it but you absolutely can tell the difference between cookies made in your average kitchen using the recipe on the back of the box versus cookies made by people that earn a living making cookies.

> I don't think I've ever gone shopping for a car and had the dealer present me with the exact same trim options but color selection was only going to change the MSRP by $800 at most...

Am I misunderstanding here? I bought a new vehicle last year, and for a given trim there were a half-dozen colour options available at no extra cost, with the upscale options either a $600 or $800 upcharge.

Toyota runs dealers on allocation. Subaru allow you to order a car to spec. They make the "twins", gr86 and brz. You cannot order the Toyota. You have to try to find what you want being built or on a lot already and contact the targeted dealer to buy it. You can order the Subaru and wait 6 months for it to be built to spec.

Sure, but Toyota's one manufacturer, it's not like factory orders where you spec the colour are an industry-wide uncommon thing.

It's about 50/50 based on some quick research of Toyota, Honda, Kia/Hyundai, gm/chevy, Ford, Nissan. The first 3 are almost entirely allocation and don't allow custom orders. The last 3 support custom orders on their "regular traffic" models but not as much for their halo cars .

Or take it to a vinyl shop and pay to have it done properly in an afternoon.

Thousands of dollars tho right?

I don't know but probably. A good wrap job isn't actually much cheaper than a decent paint job, the undersurface still has to be prepped as any dents or chips will show through (less of a concern with a new car though). Applying vinyl without any wrinkles and cutting it perfectly is a skill. Guys need to pay the rent on the shop, pay for tools, and make a living.

Ya not discounting the labor. But as a consumer I really dislike bland and universal car colors, but I can’t justify spending thousands for a custom color.

The body panels are some sort of composite polycarbonate plastic. They offered a number of colors in the UI for the pre-order system. It basically allows you to configure options that are available and see what it looks like. The wraps are (offered) DIY and they claim it will take two people 14-16 hours. They offer a number of colors that cost $500 right now.

Pretty interesting as far as cars go. I think all of the customization options are really smart, but we will see if that is enough for the average consumer. The number of relatively inexpensive options and ability to customize various details rivals some high end car configuration systems, Porsche is famous for letting you customize every detail.

The way Slate has designed their vehicles, they are making it very easy to change just about anything with the vehicle. I can see this being very popular with young people who cannot afford a lot of car, but still want a highly customized and personalized vehicle that they identify with. We will see if all of the other factors work out in Slate's favor.

> The wraps are DIY and they claim it will take two people 14-16 hours.

Oh man, that is ... a lot labor. I can't imagine many people are going to want to do it

and it will look terrible if you don’t do it properly

Presumably that's assuming no prior experience. That seems pretty reasonable to me. I would be rather annoyed if I brought it to a professional wrapping shop and they quoted me 15 hours of labor though

In the FAQ it says you can also order it pre-wrapped.

They designed the vehicle to be "easy" to wrap. Meaning you don't have to remove trim or anything like that. It is still non-trivial and you would want to do it inside of a garage IMO.

With DIY and no experience I can't help but imagine a vehicle where the entire exterior looks like the really bad DIY window tinting I frequently see in the wild.

Why not? This is an easy version of bribe your friends with a case of beer while you work on your POS project car.

I feel like this truck really appeals to the more moderate project car folks who want something both reliable and personal to them

> I feel like this truck really appeals to the more moderate project car folks

It also appeals to anyone that wants a new vehicle but has been priced out their entire lives - especially for an EV.

This vehicle is likely to be highly customizable for almost any interior or cosmetic element. People love customizing vehicles. The number of people who get super into the most inane customization details in the Porsche world cracks me up. "Oh yeah, I got mine PTS (Paint to Sample) color Pacific Northwest Green Pine in Late Fall, but with a hint of sunshine.... and check this out I got custom deviated stitching in this place you literally cannot see once the door closes, no one else really has that!" Same thing here. This level of customization gives people a connection to the vehicle at a very affordable price. It is an EV. It is practical. It can be upgraded after purchase. I dunno, it has a lot going for it.

It does not take 36 man-hours to wrap a vehicle. I think that 16 hours is the "SLA"/drop-off-to-pick-up time.

A big part of the wrap is cleaning the paint first. At least it was when I got mine clear wrapped (ppf). You want it clean so the contaminates don't mess up the paint under the wrap. I left it with them for 3 days because there's also process time to dry or sit. Maybe it's different with a textured polycarbonate panel though

I don't think there is any paint.

First time or experienced

That sounds a bit like one of Saturn's (1985-2010) original ideas from the 80s. The plastic paneling was easy to take off so that people could DIY change the colors or add their own panels (and Saturn engineers could quickly revise styles). I am not sure very many people ever did, however. Or even if the cars were all that customizable in the end.

Notably truck people love customizing their trucks. Less so for economy sedan people.

yeah but this is an economy truck, not the demonstrative Ford 150 Fat Scrotum Offroad Edition

I think you’ll find even people with 20 year old Toyotas are more attached to their trucks and more likely to put money in them for accessories and rims etc than your average Chevy Sonic owner.

Smart also used to advertised one of their early cars (maybe fortwo in the early 2000s?) emphasising how easy it was to swap the plastic panels. I just realised, I've not seen any adverts like that for many years, googled and found an article [1] describing how it was never as easy as they claimed.

[1] https://www.hagerty.co.uk/articles/maintenance-and-gear/it-l...

I think this is starting to change, fortunately, with things like the yellow Renault 5s.

Mind you, when ordering a lease car for the first time recently, I did notice that I was paying a premium for non-bland colours. I suspect the weird financial structure of new cars has - they're often not bought to hold, but leased - has a lot to do with the blandness.

There's a large segment of population that will only buy white/black/gray. The paint lines are geared toward those that sell well and special colors are relegated to shorter runs with more expense for changeovers.

> The color options are a much bigger deal than I think many people realize.

Any mass-market car has practically the same color options. Wraps have existed for a looong time.

Wraps exist for folks who pursue it, which is always going to be a subset of those who only look at dealer / manufacturer options. Being able to get a wrapped vehicle off the line is a new option for most buyers.

Slate does not wrap the vehicle at manufacturing time. You do it or a service center does it for you.

Is that confirmed?

I was under the impression that you could order wrap from factory and it would come wrapped and not in a kit ready for you to apply.

The featured website here directly states you need to either install the wrap yourself or hire someone else to do it.

Untrue.

Slate can wrap before delivery.

> It will operate as the central shop where the modular two-door, two-passenger pickups will be wrapped in custom colors and finishes chosen by customers, with more than 100 color options available.

https://news.dealershipguy.com/p/slate-auto-bets-on-customiz...

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/money/companies/2026/0...

Their current ordering website says otherwise. It directly states that customers will need to wrap their own cars or hire someone to do it.

I'm also not entirely sure about this facility. Some places are saying this is a facility to produce wraps, as in they manufacture the wraps for others to install. Others suggest this will be a place to get the car wrapped. Is it both? Who knows. I haven't seen any official correspondence from the company directly clearing up what all this facility will actually do.

According to the filing they did with The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA), the facility is to be a "vinyl wrap kit manufacturing and fulfillment facility." Usually a "fulfillment facility" is a logistics hub. It sounds more like a place where they'll manufacture the wraps and ship them out than a place where it'll be installed, but it isn't completely clear either way. See page 94-95 of the first PDF and page 14 of the second:

https://cedky.com/cdn/140_KEDFA_Board_Book-_Mar_26_26.pdf?4-...

https://cedky.com/cdn/140__Mar_26_2026_KEDFA_Min.pdf

Maybe there was more said in the meeting, I don't know. But if they said it was for installation as well, it wasn't reflected in the meeting minutes. It would probably really change the scale of the operation though. About forty people for manufacturing, logistics, and installation of wraps for tons of cars? And you're going to need a facility to get a lot of cars through, quite a bit larger than some commercial printers and packaging machines. It would also seem strange to me to build the cars, ship them 200 miles, then wrap them, then ship them out to customers. Why not just wrap them in the Warsaw Indiana facility? Maybe they will eventually wrap them in the Indiana facility, who knows.

But as it stands right now, if you order one of these Slates with a wrap, you better be ready to install it yourself or hire someone to do it. That's Slate's official stance on it currently.

From their website:

"Want the SUV kit, or a wrap? We’ll install them for you before we deliver your vehicle, for a little extra."

https://www.slate.auto/en/personalization

Ah, and I do see now on their website faq's it does list:

> Order pre-installed: Pick your wrap when you purchase your Slate and have it arrive, wrapped and ready.

Ok then! Strange they don't directly mention it on their build page.

Would have probably been a better source to start with instead of an article about an article about a meeting with the KEDF.

> Would have probably been a better source to start with instead of an article about an article about a meeting with the KEDF.

Or you could have Google searched the website like I did for the same info and saved us all a lot of time ;)

> Being able to get a wrapped vehicle off the line is a new option for most buyers

It isn't an option here. When you go to pick a wrap it directly states:

> 2 people required. 12-16 hours. A big commitment for a DIYer. We'd recommend professional installation if you're not sure you can tackle it.

The only difference is you're shopping around at wraps at purchase time, you still need to either put it on yourself or find your own shop to install it post-delivery. No different than you driving any other car off the lot and going to the body shop down the street and having them wrap it for you.

the difference is manufacturers don't advertise them, so most customers go with what they see at the dealer or on the website

Most people cannot afford a new car, therefore they do not get to choose the color options. Fearures and colors are reserved for first buyers or those lease people.

Features and colors are often not even reserved for the actual first buyers. Trying to get a dealership to actually order you what you want is like pulling teeth. You get what the dealerships around you ordered, if you don't like it tough luck!

> Trying to get a dealership to actually order you what you want is like pulling teeth.

Order from the manufacturer, they will deliver it to the in-network dealer of your choice.

The four most common vehicle colours in the US are white, black, grey and silver. I believe this covers like 80%+ of vehicles. Canada is worse still (so much so that many makers basically just offer the shades of grey, sometimes with a special-order red or something for the rebels), and a few days ago I was on a walk and saw a light turn red and a dozen cars that pulled up to stop and every single one was white.

People have other colour choices, but they're constantly choosing the most spectacularly boring, neutral colours possible.

The colour thing is neat, but I'm not sure it's going to be a big deal. It might actually lead to the paradox of choice where people basically feel even worse about their options.

Going by what I hear talking to friends and family, they often don't want to choose outside of those range of bland colors as they're worried about resale value. Its probably easier to find a buyer who is OK with a black car than someone who would want metallic purple and gold car or a bright pink car.

Wraps are typically pretty easy to remove. Far easier than removing a paint job.

I could have sworn there was actually some kind of study that proved this. Cars are sufficiently expensive and longer lived these days that resale value is actually something buyers at least think they need to take into account.

It's actually a little depressing if you're sitting in traffic, just watch the cars go by and see how few of them actually have a unique color. And most of the exceptions are something like an almost gray blue.

For my part I've found new car styling hideous with little difference between brands my entire adult life. Probably for nostalgic reasons I like the sharp geometric shapes of cars from the 1980s which largely disappeared with a focus aerodynamics for gas mileage. So I'm usually satisfied with whatever color is on the lot since I hate the look by default anyway.

If you’re that worried about resale value, I’d think that buying a 2-4 year old used car is a way better proposition.

It also just so happens grey scale is almost always cheaper. Car color historically correlates with prosperity in the US

https://magazine.northeast.aaa.com/daily/life/cars-trucks/au...

https://www.ppg.com/en-US/autocoatings/color/history-of-colo...

I really don't think that's a big factor in this, at least in modern times. Maybe it was once the case where colour was difficult or something.

I mean I see the inverse as true, and entry level vehicles seem to have the most colour diversity in their sales. It is cars like the Nissan Versa where you see real colour variations.

That strikes me as a forced correlation. Something along the lines of "some people are willing to pay more for British racing green, so let's charge $X for it".

> It might actually lead to the paradox of choice where people basically feel even worse about their options.

Very good point, that will be interesting to see

I noticed recently it’s cool to match the color of your vehicle to your house

Anything beats https://blog.iseecars.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Graysca...

I've got a feeling this approaches 100% at airports

And Swiss architecture - birthplace of Le Corbusier, and the very definition of dull gray chunks.

Why is this? I find it hard to imagine the appeal of so much grey. Half of them look like cheap plastic.

Supposedly it holds/people think it holds more resale value to not have loud colors.

I think it's less about the value. Special cars do well in loud colors. World rally Blue on Subaru, Tahitian Green and Barbados yellow on Honda, sunburst yellow on Miatas, all demand a higher price for the color. Loud colors reduce the pool of buyers. A yellow Rav 4 isn't desirable outside of a few people but they're not going to pay more for it. A yellow crx is a rare car and someone is looking for it willing to spend more for that cursed paint code than the same spec in white.

Or clothes, if you really want to do it right, like Madeline Khan's character in High Anxiety.

I agree, this is a very smart move.

I just wish they had also released a smaller body, so you could build something close to a regular hatchback (like a Golf or Mazda 3)

then buy a chevy volt, mate

Definitely!

Gen Z & A value uniqueness and authenticity. I think the customization options will resonate a lot with them.

I heard cars with zany colors get stuck on the sales lot for much longer than boring colors. If that is true, customizations lower the value on the secondary market relative to factory restrained factory options, and the owners may get lowballed when trading in their cars, or will invest more time of selling as a 1st party.

If car colors were not mired in paperwork, I imagine dealers would respray them some shade of Millennial-gray, similar to realtors' M.O. when prepping homes for sale.

> If car colors were not mired in paperwork, I imagine dealers would respray them some shade of Millennial-gray, similar to realtors' M.O. when prepping homes for sale.

It is far more difficult to properly paint a vehicle than it is to paint a house.

That was my first thought as well. I can't articulate why, but if the company and product survive a few years, it feels to me like it might become a modern "cult" car.

And then they pick black or white.

Wraps are nice because they're not permanent and don't affect resale value. Having a car without a wrap might soon be as unusual as a phone without a case.

ime for many models colors are sufficiently rarely ordered from the factory that they ironically have higher resale values than the standard grey/white/black ones.

I thought only poor people used phone cases. Otherwise, what’s the point of having an iPhone Air or any other premium built phone at all?

How many people have an iPhone Air?

That’s exactly why I added “or any other premium.” Why buy a sleek phone made of premium materials just to bury it in the cheapest, ugliest, chunkiest plastic case you can find?

I don't think the super cheap and chunky phone cases are analogous to a wrap here.

I know more than a few people with very expensive phones covered in thin carbon fiber style cases which are there purely to protect the glass and metal from egregious scratches, though.

Plenty of people buy expensive phones for the specs and features, yet either have no interest in jewelry or see it as a negative status symbol.

And by plenty you mean minority.

Obviously, but the question I was responding to was, "Why buy a sleek phone made of premium materials just to bury it in the cheapest, ugliest, chunkiest plastic case you can find?"

Its not adamantium, its still just plastics, glass, metals, and electronics.

I would never sit hours somewhere waiting to get my phone fixed, I value my time.

Because the hardware and os updates matter more than how it looks and you only get the good stuff in a fragile "glass sandwich". So if you want it to survive a fall, you spend $25 and leave it in a case until it's cooked 3 years later but still the original screen and hasn't needed anything fixed.

I don't know anyone who rocks a naked phone anymore except people like my brother, who only does it because he likes to boldly claim how rarely he drops his phone. Which is funny because he has cracked way more screens/glass backs than I have with my thin minimal cases.

I have shorts that I love. They've been repaired many times by my partner. Its pockets developed a hole in a way that sometimes my phone just goes straight to the ground and my rawdog iPhone has a cracked screen and back as a result. Terrible way to save.

> what’s the point of having an iPhone Air or any other premium built phone at all?

The ecosystem?

Its a phone, not a tank.

People not using cases on their phone are insane to me. I can't even sit these spaceships down on a non-flat surface without them sliding off. They're the thickness of playing cards.

Similar to: "I bought my phone for identity, for style, for a feeling if being on the technology edge."

Yeah, I bought a phone with a web browser in an ecosystem I like.

From what I hear, wraps need to be replaced periodically or they become permanent. Too many days in the sun makes them hard to remove without damaging the paint. It's also time consuming and expensive to install and remove.

don't believe those marketing research

they’re selling a diy wrap. in other words, you get a large flat colored sticker (maybe pre-cut if you’re lucky, but these actually fit worse). wrapping your car and making it look good is NOT diy friendly, it’s a pain in the ass. you need special equipment, space to do it, etc.

it’s actually incredibly disappointing, because 99% of people are just gonna get the gray, and will be unhappy because it’s super boring.

real manufactures like porsche or bmw offer a ton of shades too, it just costs a lot, but they are very popular.

The way I see it, you buy the kit and take it to a professional who is going to charge somewhere between $1000 and $3000 to install it. That's a lot more onerous than the buying a pre-colored car right off the lot, but many people already opt to have their car wrapped anyway. It's a wait and see game to see what installers like that would want - the pre-cut package or just buy the material directly from them.

The real downside to wraps from my perspective is that they don't last as long as a regular paint job. After 4 or 5 years you'll see damage and need to get it re-done if you care about the look. And if the underlying plastic is scuffed up, the plastic panel will need to be repaired before the new wrap will go on smoothly.

I'm not sure they are. I don't think most people give two shits about the color of a vehicle, that's why most of them today are white or silver.

I think people care more than you think and it's mostly an effect of the limited options setting the tone/culture for most of society so when "exciting" colors randomly come out, nobody wants to stand out amongst the sea of silver/black/white. I bet if cars became more funky on average, people would exercise a lot more freedom in selecting wilder colors. An example of a culture of fun selection is snow sports. Colors rule the landscape, and yes sometimes for safety, but it's also because it highlights personality.

Agreed. I care about the color, but not enough to wait for "special order" so I end up taking whatever is in stock at the dealership, which is always the bland colors. I love a green car, but there's almost never an option (or the green is hideous)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com