Color selection poll

[teslasguy]

It might be useful to see what the NEW poll turns up, now that most of us have seen live versions, or photos of live versions.

Given the dynamic nature of the test drives and hands on viewing poll results like this have a short shelf life now (IMHO).
I didn't have the Sunset Red in the poll when I created it, since it isn't even being offered yet. The moderator added it.
I would recommend that all polls like this be closed after one month now and then people could start a new one with more current info.
Tastes and opinions will quickly morph over the next few months as more info and experience becomes available.

 

[MikeK]

I wasn't very impressed with the silver car at the Fremont event, but I think there were two distinct reasons:

• It had the dark graphite grey performance wheels on it, and I don't think that's an attractive color combination
• The panel fit on that car wasn't so good, so that just made me like that particular car a bit less overall

On the other hand, I spent quite awhile the other day driving both in front of and behind a silver Model S beta with the 19" rims (same one that was parked off to the side at the Santana Row event, I believe), and although it's a debadged test mule and not a good cosmetic example, I still found the silver to be very pretty.

I think Tesla owes it to the bucket of silver paint to put the silver performance rims on that Get Amped test drive car. It will look a lot better.

That said, I think I still prefer Dolphin Grey or Catalina White to the silver. I would get Signature Red without hesitation if I had a Signature reservation. I might get black if it weren't such a PITA.

 

[NigelM]

We already had a color poll here: http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/7291-What-s-your-color-production which excluded Sig colors, but was before anyone had seen the actual cars:

And compare to this poll:

Not a great deal of difference in the trending - although green seems to have fallen in relative popularity.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

I wasn't very impressed with the silver car at the Fremont event, but I think there were two distinct reasons:

• It had the dark graphite grey performance wheels on it, and I don't think that's an attractive color combination
• The panel fit on that car wasn't so good, so that just made me like that particular car a bit less overall

Yup, the perf wheels on the silver car made it look rather out of sync or dull even.

Not a great deal of difference in the trending - although green seems to have fallen in relative popularity.

I've got 5 other Greens with me (< 5%) - just a tad more than Silver that's sure to pickup once folks see it paired with Silver wheels. Green might be rather rare a Model S color, it appears. Saw one of these Jaguar XFs (in British Racing Green) the other day - it was striking and beautiful! As noted before, the Model S and XF do look like long-lost cousins.

 

[teslasguy]

Did my test drive today at the DC event. I was really hoping to see the Black and Blue models, but neither was there.
However, I did see the green, which I had figured I would have no interest in. But I must say that for me it was a knockout!!
Jaguar is the standard for elegant, rich and creamy paint colors and the green was pretty much the only color there today that was in that category.
Now if the Blue is the same as the green (except blue :/ ) I'm pretty sure I would go for the blue.
The Tesla reps assured me that the Blue looks just like the green, even though it sure didn't in their sample kit.
In the sample kit the blue looked very bright and shiny.

 

[MikeK]

In my experience, the blue is damned near black. In the shade, it's hard to tell that the car isn't simply black. In the sun, you can see the blue. In the sun, the green is, I think, still a sort of dilute or somewhat greyish green (does that match your experience?). But the blue is very saturated -- it just happens to be really really dark.

One of our fellow drivers got some nice photos in LA of both the blue and the green in very similar light. (Forgive me, I saved the link to the gallery, but I can't find any kind of attribution as to who took these...)




Also, Francis Lau got a couple of nice shots of the blue at the Seattle event:
Photo_2012_07_06_002 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Photo_2012_07_06_003 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[teslasguy]

In my experience, the blue is damned near black. In the shade, it's hard to tell that the car isn't simply black. In the sun, you can see the blue. In the sun, the green is, I think, still a sort of dilute or somewhat greyish green (does that match your experience?). But the blue is very saturated -- it just happens to be really really dark.

One of our fellow drivers got some nice photos in LA of both the blue and the green in very similar light. (Forgive me, I saved the link to the gallery, but I can't find any kind of attribution as to who took these...)




Also, Francis Lau got a couple of nice shots of the blue at the Seattle event:
Photo_2012_07_06_002 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Photo_2012_07_06_003 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Yesterday I was at the DC test drive event where they had the Green, but not the Blue.
The Green was (IMHO) drop dead knockout gorgeous!
It had the same deep, rich, creamy color that I see on Jaguars.
It did NOT have the shiny, metallic look.
I do not want the shiny, metallic look. I want the elegant deep creamy and rich look.
All the Tesla reps at the event that have seen the Blue say it looks just like the green, except obviously blue.
However, the sample box of the blue (to me) had more of a shiny metallic look than the green sample.
Also, it seems like pictures I've seen so far of the Blue (like those just posted from Francis) make it look more shiny and metallic in the sun than those I've seen of the green.
By the way it is obvious that the first picture posted is of the blue, but can't tell for certain on my screen if the second picture is of the blue in shade, or is the green?
I'm in a real dilemma as I'll probably have to place my order (P1117) before getting to see the blue for real.
I'd love to get some feedback on this issue from anyone that has seen both the blue and green in person.
Also, Francis Lau got a couple of nice shots of the blue at the Seattle event:

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

I had Blue at the top of my list (ahead of Green) till my wife and I saw it in person in Fremont. Our complaint with the Blue was that it's too dark; practically black in the shade and didn't get much better in bright sunlight. Green had far more character.

The Blue's probably so not 'blue enough' that even the SF Chronicle put quotes around the "blue" in the caption for the first photo here:

Tesla test drive: Smooth, silent, fast - SFGate

Take my advice with a grain of salt though

-GG (aka champion of the Model S in Green!)

 

[MikeK]

The blue car was at the Palo Alto event today. Here's a shot of it in the sun. In the shade it was virtually indistinguishable from black.

In case it's at all helpful, here's a shot of the two colors on display.

 

[brianman]

In Mike's second picture, on my monitor, the green is more chalk pastel while the blue is dark like a red wine. I'm speaking only in terms of darkness / richness of pigment. The (metallic) luster seems consistent (high) between the two.

For those that have compared the vehicles in person in direct sunlight, does the picture (and perhaps my description) of the relative look of the two colors line up?

 

[MikeK]

Brian, I think that's a good description. As I hinted at above, the blue is very saturated (but very dark), while the green is a bit more subdued (but a bit lighter -- while the blue looks black in the shade, the green definitely does not, although it's hard to identify that it's green).

 

[MikeK]

For those who wanted to see the silver with the silver wheels:

 

[teslasguy]

As I said earlier, my experience with viewing the Green car at the DC test drive was that it was just beautiful.
Hard to describe other than it had what I would call a deep, rich creamy look.
I took a number of pictures of it so that I could show my wife, but when I brought them up on my screen it just looks like the same kind of washed out look that I've seen from the other pics posted.
On the other hand all the Blue pics I keep seeing look very Blue in the sun.
I used to have a C5 gen Corvette that was Electron Blue, and the S Blue pics I see posted here remind me of that color.
Looked almost black in the shade, but a dark, yet shiny "pop" blue in the sun.
On the other hand the Green just seems to be a much more muted color than the blue.
I'm attaching a couple of pics of the Green I took in DC. The first was in full sun and the second was partial shade.
You can see how it's darker (and closer to how it looks in person) in the second pic.
Trust me, it looked nothing like the first pic in person. My two passengers as well as most other people standing around said emphatically that it was the most "elegant" color there.
It just doesn't seem to photograph well at all.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Wonderful shot of the Green by Norbert:

Green
View attachment 7766
(Click to enlarge)

 

[NigelM]

Which Car Color Offers Better Resale Value?

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Ouch! Not a concern for me though; I'm driving this till it croaks

 

[jerry33]

It's pretty obvious that white, black, grey, and silver don't change colour much over time--even if you aren't anal about caring for them. Many of the colours that are low on the graph look really horrid after three to five years. Brown and beige in particular don't hold up with time.

 

[MikeK]

teslasguy, on another thread, digitaltim posted a link to some nice photos including some shots of the green.

Model S First Drive Reviews

 

[brianman]

Which Car Color Offers Better Resale Value?

They're making a leap in logic that I don't understand.

From skimming the article, both the chart and the later list of (different) numbers talks about cars on the road.

It doesn't say anything about buyer preference, for new or used.

I'd be willing to bet that if every dealer was using a made-to-order (instead of dealer stock) model, we'd see a lot fewer of flavors of gray (black, silver, grey, white) colors. My point being that dealer stock is bent toward "safe" bets in terms of "will sell."

Example: There's no way I would have chosen silver on my latest vehicle. But the red in the model I wanted had only 3 vehicles in all of North America, and none of them were optioned anything close to what I wanted. And there was purchase time window that couldn't be ignored in that decision.

 

[NigelM]

^ Good point. Chicken and egg.

I posted the chart just because I was surprised how low the green was on the list.