This afternoon on my way home from work I paid a visit to a local Audi dealership. I've noticed that the A7 is similar in size and price to the Model S, and it is available in white, ultra-dark metallic blue, and several different silver/grey variations, so I thought this would be a nice opportunity to think a bit about colors even though the Tesla "rainbow" cars from the Fremont event are now touring the country. It turned out to be a very interesting visit.
First of all, I allowed the very eager salesman to give me a quick demo of the A7's features. It's quite a nice car, no question. It has a few features that I wish the Model S had, like the folding mirrors, the blind spot warning system and excellent interior storage (and what a nice cover over the cargo area! Wow!), but goodness me the very trick folding screen is teensy compared to the 17"!
Anyway, colors. I visited at a really good moment. It was late afternoon, and they have trees at this dealership, so there were opportunities to see the various colors in full shade, partial shade, full sun, and so forth, from multiple angles in some cases. Also, several of the cars were parked under tall conifers, and most of the cars had had at least a little bit of water get on them in the last week or so since they were washed. The dealership also has certified used cars, and several cars that they keep for extended test drives. So, there was also an opportunity to look at how the various colors handled a little wear.
My conclusions:
- Oh my GOD I will not be getting black. Of course I know the reputation of black cars as being hard to care for and so on and so on, but there wasn't a black car on the lot that didn't look terrible. They all had very visible water spotting, and some also had fine scratches from cleaning (generally in the certified used group).
- For much the same reason, I'm regretfully crossing Tesla's (Pacific) Blue off the list. The Audi that was most similar in color looked very elegant and classy, but it was one of the cars parked under the trees, and you could see every bit of dust and debris, as well as extensive water spotting.
- I certainly wish Tesla had an analog to Audi's "Daytona Grey" -- it's a very pretty dark graphite grey pearl metallic. Gorgeous, gorgeous gorgeous color, looks superb in the sun, and the pearl finish does a good job of hiding little dust grains and water spots. Extremely sexy color.
- I figured that Audi's "Quartz Gray" was probably the closest to Tesla's (Dolphin) Grey, although it's not a perfect match. The A7 looks really nice in this color, and the dealership had four of them available. In the sun, it's a stunner. I really like how the light makes the car gleam and the metallic finish accentuates the curves. In the shade, though, it was a bit... blah. Out of the direct sun, the color just loses its pop. Somewhat surprisingly, this color showed water spots more readily than the darker Daytona Grey. Huh. On the plus side, one of the pre-owned cars had a scrape on the lower air dam in the front. It was all the way through the paint and down to the black substrate. It was hardly noticeable, but on a white car, it would really have stood out.
- There were a couple of red cars, but I honestly didn't spend a lot of time on them because they weren't similar to either of Tesla's reds. I did notice two things, though. First, the red didn't show water spots very readily, which is nice. And second, an older red car that was parked in the service area was somewhat faded, which is consistent with the reputation of reds as being fade-prone.
- Audi's "Ibis White" is pretty similar to Tesla's (Catalina) White. The A7 looks beautiful in white, as I already knew from seeing more than a few of them on the road. The white looks very nice in the shade, where it reveals the car's curves well, and in dappled shade or sun, it gleams. The only downside is that in bright sun, it gleams so brightly that I found the car to actually lose a bit of its sexy curves because it was so bright. Perhaps this is where Tesla's pearl white will have an advantage over the regular white, since the pearl finish tends to highlight the curves. There were no Audis in a pearl white. Even the R8 Spyder was in a conventional white.
- Key, of course, is that the white absolutely hid all the little dust specks and so forth, and also completely hid water spots, finger prints and so on. You had to get into a position where the light was grazing the car to see these. If you want a car that looks beautiful without having to hire a butler or stow a detailer in the frunk, I can't imagine doing better than white, or possibly silver.
- More than a few of the Audis at the dealership had either glass sunroof or panoramic roofs, and I noticed something I hadn't expected. The glass roofs readily showed extensive water spots. And why wouldn't they? They're effectively black, and we already know how black behaves. So, this is a bit of a downside to the panoramic roof, but certainly not one that would dissuade me from getting one. At least with the pano roof, you can clean it with glass cleaner and not worry about swirl marks as you would have to with paint. It does make me really question the painted black roof option on the Model S.
So, that's a pretty long-winded missive on the subject of paint colors. Maybe some other folks will find it useful; I hope so. If you're on the fence about paint colors, I'd recommend visiting your local luxury car dealerships. They won't have perfect matches for some of Tesla's colors, but you can get some idea of how at least certain colors look.
