Very good news on the car front! Just when we thought we were drowning in a sea of body-shop grey, a welcome announcement from FIAT: “No more grey vehicles!”
“It’s out of keeping with our beautiful land,” says Fiat… “Italy the land of colour: Fiat the vehicle of colour! …. Our land revels in brilliance and variegated shades of yellow, red and blue. This is the land of multicoloured Cinque Terre which attracts artists from all over the world. Here resides the immortal artwork of Caravaggio and Berlinni! Why would we ever produce cars in miserable grey?”
CEO Olivier Francois explains that grey has no association with “the passion and joy that is a staple of the country. The decision is all related to Fiat’s desire to reflect where it is from. The natural colours from the sea and the landscape of Italy — henceforth these shall be the colours of our cars.”
I say ‘Bravissimo!’ and ‘Che fortuna!’ Just when it seemed that body-shop grey was taking over the car world and “we might as well get used to it.” Just when we hear that grey is the number one colour for new cars in the U.K. and competing strongly in America against black and white. Just when we learn that “grey cars hold their value better.” Just when used car dealers tells us they “can get $1,000 more on average for a grey car.” Along comes Fiat and says, with some Italian flair, ‘Non ci interessa! Vogliamo colori infiniti!’ This is so welcome.
For one thing, I’m thinking that it may improve driving, this splash of Italian colour. Like what if all our dreary grey vehicles, lining the car lots like so many gulag freight cars, have a depressing effect on drivers? What if grey cars imbue a kind of grey outlook and even white-knuckle desperation? What colour is the average ICU? Predominantly grey, certainly at the Grey Nuns. What colour is death row? Largely grey, I am told — on the authority of Stephen King. What colour is the old stone church, wheezing away on life support as we speak, with its bell tower and little parish cemetery? Grey, grey and more grey. Is it any wonder that our roads are rife with a kind of fatalistic disregard for life and limb? Start the day with a slightly askew non-morning person, put him behind the wheel of a grey Dodge Durango, and what are we to expect? This gulag grey is almost a prescription for road rage.
How much better to brighten the colours and brighten the spirits! How likely are suicidal instincts to come over a driver enveloped in champagne pink, say, with a cream coloured leather interior? Or let’s say Robin’s Egg blue or, best of all, Bamboo Green? These soft and lovely shades, preferably with a light and lush interior, tend to instill a languid and gentle approach to driving, a golden rule attitude behind the wheel. No need to demand that everyone bow to your reckless speed and clear your lane! No need to tailgate, cut in, treat your fellow-pilgrims like collateral damage! Life is good and the universe is benign. Slow down. Just be nice. ‘Lascia che i bei tempi passino!’
In short, Fiat is definitely in the right lane with this shift toward colour. As Celerie Kemble says, “There’s a reason we don’t see the world in black and white.” Lilly Pulitzer: “I am a believer that color affects people’s moods.” Wassily Kandinsky: “Color is a power which directly influences the soul.” I like the words of Jeffree Star: “Blush pink is a soft, classy colour that any of us can rock any time of year.” “Colour! What a deep and mysterious language, the language of dreams!” (Paul Gauguin). For those who love a bamboo green, Gwendolyn Brooks says, “Remember, green’s your color. You are spring.” Lilly Pulitzer says, “The best color in the whole world is the one that looks good on you.” Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Life is a train of moods like a string of beads and as we pass through them they prove to be many-colored lenses which paint the world their own hue, and each shows only what lies in its focus.”
And, for a grey day, a final admonition to drivers from Maya Angelou: “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”
JCK-at-large SITE 
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