Silver will hide the inevitable rock chips better

but if your not confused enough...I just got back from sweden and was noticing that the Maya gold color looks the best on drab dreary days,being from seattle thought you might consider that

 

Also, the 'silver' is really nothing but clear paint imbedded with a lot of aluminum flakes, even more than the other colors. Ultaviolet light will degrade the clear paint binders and cause the paint to flake sooner than its colored brethren.

Of course, in Seattle, the sun's never out, so this might not be a problem for you. Check out other silver cars in your area that are 5 years old and see how well the paint is holding up.

Best of luck, hope you like your new car!

P.S., I actually got the Cypress Green, back when it was still available on the T5. I like it--it's not the standard silver/black that the dealers down here order all the time. Of course, I got mine without the sunroof, but that's another story. . . .)

[This message has been edited by T5 Dave (edited 03-26-2002).]

 

Hi. I'm picking up my first-ever Volvo on the 4th. It's a 2.4 (base engine) with the automatic transmission, 16" Mimas, Premium Package, and Cold Weather Package. I chose "426 Silver Metallic" a loooong time ago, and waffled back and forth between silver and black, then silver and platinum green, and then silver and cosmos blue. I was all over the map, but I landed back on silver for many reasons, several of which are the same as yours. The reasons were...

- It'll hide the dirt just a bit better than the darker colors. (I cringed at the thought of my lovely new S60 looking anything BUT clean and perfect. Ha ha.) That's kind of a "functional" reason, and the rest are purely subjective.
- It's an "industrial" color, and the color of metal. It evokes images of machinery in my head. Call me crazy.
- It's the only color that I don't mind those darn black trim pieces on. Every other color combined with theose dark-gray-or-black trim pieces just didn't "set off" the "whole car color" for me as well as silver did.
- Silver really shows off that curvaceous belt-line from that goes from the nose all the way back to the tail. The silver just says "pow!".
- It's sleek. On dark gray days (a lot of the time there in Seattle, right? ha ha) the silver looks BRIGHTER on the highlighted curvy edges (the convex ones), and the side of the car (the indented, concave part at thigh-level between the front & rear wheel wells) looks DARKER. The contrast between light and dark (convex & concave) is STRIKING on gray days, much more so than on dark colors, which just look, well...dark!!!
- The whole silver & black & silver & black is homogenous and the theme is maintained throughout. The silver on the wheels & black on the tires. Silver on the paint, and black on the trim strips. Silver on the front hood & fender areas, contrasted with black in the headlight. And for me, with my choice of graphite interior, well, there's just one more... silver exterior & black (ok, graphite) interior.

Now, don't everybody with dark cars lambaste me for offering up my pro-silver comments. The dark colors are absolutely beautiful and dramatic, as are most of the other colors. I was wavering like this gentleman for many, many days/weeks/months, and thought I'd offer my two cents...the couple of things that tipped the scales toward silver in my humble opinion. Keep in mind that color discussions will always come down to THAT, opinions. Nobody's right or wrong.

Anyway, those are the (admittedly nutso) reasons why I chose silver. You'll end up with something great no matter what you end up choosing. They ALL look good.

 

~Silver~

 

Lisa,

Wow, you've obsessed over this even more than I have. I didn't think that was possible.

Thank you (thank everyone, in fact) for all your observations. Very interesting. Especially the point about the consistent theme of black and silver: black on the tires, side bands, headlight mask, etc. and silver on the wheels, body, grill trim, etc. I hadn't even thought of that. I've been sort of trying to talk myself into the blue (since most of my friends are pushing that color) but there's just something compelling about the silver I haven't been able to put my finger on--maybe that's it.

Has anyone had any experience with swirl marks on the Nautic Blue? Does the metallic finish tend to hide them pretty well or do they become noticeable after a few dozen washes? My current car is black (nonmetallic) and has very noticeable swirl marks.

Matt

P.S. Congratulations on your new car. This is my first-ever Volvo too. I never even considered Volvos before (way too boxy) but since they came out with their sleek new body styles, they're the best-looking sport sedans around, IMHO.

 

Welcome to Swedespeed!

Nautic Blue and Silver would be a very hard choice for me, but I think I would pick Silver just on the 'ease of maintain' issues that was stated above. Silver is common, but it is always a classic color, that will never change with trends IMHO. Good luck!

-Drew

 

I would take the blue one any day. Too bad, Volvo doesn't offer the option of custom your own color...like complete custom order car that BMW and Porsche are offering.

Hehehe...I'll get the Ocean Race Blue if I get to choose.

Heck, I wouldn't mind getting my car painted Ocean Race blue if it only cost $2K.

 

quote:

Originally posted by QuarterSwede:
Lisa,

Wow, you've obsessed over this even more than I have. I didn't think that was possible.

Thank you (thank everyone, in fact) for all your observations. Very interesting. Especially the point about the consistent theme of black and silver: black on the tires, side bands, headlight mask, etc. and silver on the wheels, body, grill trim, etc. I hadn't even thought of that. I've been sort of trying to talk myself into the blue (since most of my friends are pushing that color) but there's just something compelling about the silver I haven't been able to put my finger on--maybe that's it.

Has anyone had any experience with swirl marks on the Nautic Blue? Does the metallic finish tend to hide them pretty well or do they become noticeable after a few dozen washes? My current car is black (nonmetallic) and has very noticeable swirl marks.

Matt

P.S. Congratulations on your new car. This is my first-ever Volvo too. I never even considered Volvos before (way too boxy) but since they came out with their sleek new body styles, they're the best-looking sport sedans around, IMHO.

You made all the valid points, etc. I would not be afraid of the Nautic Blue only that if you get Nautic Blue (my favorite color on a Volvo along with Red) you should get the Beige/Lt. sand Leather interior. Nautic Blue and Graphite makes a very undesirable color combination and, believe me, your resale value will suffer.

Nautic Blue in an S60 is more unique and more distinguished. Silver is a "safe" color in that it will not go out of style and you cannot go wrong with that.

Yannis

 

quote:

Originally posted by T5 Dave:
Also, the 'silver' is really nothing but clear paint imbedded with a lot of aluminum flakes, even more than the other colors. Ultaviolet light will degrade the clear paint binders and cause the paint to flake sooner than its colored brethren.

[This message has been edited by T5 Dave (edited 03-26-2002).]

Dave,

I couldn't disagree more with you on your observations regarding Silver Metallic. That may be the case with other manufacturers and also that might have been the case (regarding fading) decades ago. Not anymore.

Silver Metallic from Volvo is much more than clear paint embedded with aluminium flakes. It is a color that has Black, light grey titanium, white, a little bit of blue and dark grey mica in it. It is a very "involved" color in order to make it the way it appears. The clear coat protects the paint from environmental hazards. Volvo uses paints of tremendous quality. How many OLD (10 years or older) silver Volvos have you seen with their paint fading? I, personally, have not seen ANY in the 8 years I have been working with them. I see many GM cars though that are no more than 5 years old with huge chunks of paint peeled off.

Yannis

 

You can't really go wrong with either. Both look very good but I'm biased towards silver since my S60 AWD is that colour.

It does hide dirt a lot better than blue. I can attest to that and I live in Vancouver not far from you so I know what happens when it goes from sunny to rainy to sunny again.

Here's a picture of my S60.

Pat

 

I would go for silver, looks good in our crappy weather

quote:

Originally posted by The_one_n_only:
I would take the blue one any day.

I would have thought you would have said silver.

 

We chose silver/graphite for our S60 AWD, and we've been very happy with the color combination. My wife is the artistic one, but even with my art stupidity I would have to agree that the silver/graphite combination works well inside and out (trims etc). Since we purchased the car I have noticed many silver cars (especially VW and Audi) but where I live I rarely see a Volvo, so I still feel somewhat unique.

 

quote:

Originally posted by GrecianVolvo:

Dave,

I couldn't disagree more with you on your observations regarding Silver Metallic. That may be the case with other manufacturers and also that might have been the case (regarding fading) decades ago. Not anymore.

Silver Metallic from Volvo is much more than clear paint embedded with aluminium flakes. It is a color that has Black, light grey titanium, white, a little bit of blue and dark grey mica in it. It is a very "involved" color in order to make it the way it appears. The clear coat protects the paint from environmental hazards. Volvo uses paints of tremendous quality. How many OLD (10 years or older) silver Volvos have you seen with their paint fading? I, personally, have not seen ANY in the 8 years I have been working with them. I see many GM cars though that are no more than 5 years old with huge chunks of paint peeled off.

Yannis

Yannis, there's a 740 GL in the parking lot that had classic ultraviolet damage. It was repainted about a year ago. It was not quite a silver, more of a darker grey metallic. But the clearcoat AND the color layer were damaged by the UV and was flaking off.

Note that the UV penetrates the clearcoat and attacks the paint in between the metal flakes in the 'color' layer. In a metallic paint, the metal flakes are bound together by the polymer of the paint itself. Silver has the most aluminum flakes in it, hence, the polymer thickness between each fleck of paint is the thinnest of all the colors, so it's the most susceptable to UV damage and will degrade faster than other colors.

Now my observation is in the constant sunshine at about 35 deg. N lattitude; Seattle is closer to 50 deg. N lat, so hopefully the sun's intensity isn't as severe.

 

quote:

Originally posted by T5 Dave:
Now my observation is in the constant sunshine at about 35 deg. N lattitude; Seattle is closer to 50 deg. N lat, so hopefully the sun's intensity isn't as severe.

Seattle is around 47 deg. N and it is 47 deg. F and raining nine months out of the year. The sun's intensity? What is the sun?

Seriously though, I wouldn't worry about the paint falling apart. Forgin cars have good paint. The only cars I see peeling are American cars that have been to maco every couple years to cover the rust.

 

I'm patiently waiting for delivery of my first Volvo, a silver 2.4T. I didn't have a color choice because of a last minute deal, but silver is a great looking color.

Actually, it's hard to go wrong with such a drop-dead gorgeous design.

If I lived in Sweden and could get any option I wanted, I would go for the North Sea Blue (aka Midnight Blue). Nautic blue is sharp; living in an urban area, though, dirt is an issue.

One last thing, totally unrelated. Fog lights should be incorportated into the 2.4t/AWD premium package. The S60 looks less flattering from the front without them- goofy little plastic pieces where the fogs belong. I'm springing for the extra $ to get them installed for both appearance and functionality.

In the realm of fantasy, my other car, not a Volvo, is baby blue metallic- not sure how this would look on an S60 but might be gorgeous; VW has a very nice color in this vein.

 

Thanks for all the feedback on the color choice dilemma. It's given me a lot to think about and helped me move closer to a decision. Of the 8 people who expressed a preference, 7 favored silver and 1 favored blue. I guess this explains why there are so many more silver cars on the road these days than blue.

Thanks to InDy and Iceman for posting photos of silver S60s. Just to be fair to blue, here's a photo of a Nautic Blue S60 AWD I took at a dealership the other day:

As gorgeous as the above photo is, I'm currently leaning toward silver. Here are the main reasons:

- Silver hides dirt better. Not that I want to drive around a dirty car, but in Seattle, our weather often cycles from rain, to not rain, to rain, to...you get the idea. So you often end up with a layer of dirt on your car during the week. Silver seems to do a slightly better job of concealing this since most dirt seems be closer in lightness/darkness to silver than to dark blue.

- To look good, a car must be kept clean, regardless of color. Because of our frequent rain and wet roads, this means frequent washing. This means microscopic scratches when the dirt particles are swept away, otherwise known as swirl marks. Silver will do a better job of concealing the inevitable swirl marks.

- Silver will hide scratches and nicks better. Sadly, out in the real world the car will get scratched and nicked, especially around the nose, where gravel and dirt are coming straight at it. Yes, you could put a bra on it, but I find these throw off the lines of the car and again, aren't well suited to our wet Seattle weather.

- This is totally subjective but to me, silver evokes feelings of strength and sportiness while the blue evokes feelings of formality and luxury. As Lisa62 mentioned, silver is more 'industrial', suggesting steel, which connotes strength and power. It also somehow seems sportier and less formal. Dark blue, on the other hand, strikes me as richer, more luxurious, and more formal. For example, limousines are usually wearing dark colors. Not that there's anything wrong with luxury.

- The consistent two-color theme. This is also something Lisa62 pointed out. Because the wheels and chrome pieces are already 'silver' (or close to it), silver paint complements them. So everywhere you look, you see black against silver: tires and wheels, body and side bands, grill and frame, interior and exterior.

- Since the black band trim pieces have to be there anyway, they should contrast against the body color instead of being close to but not quite matching it. Btw, I notice some cars (such as the Passat) have side bands that actually match the body color.

[This message has been edited by QuarterSwede (edited 03-29-2002).]

 

Hey Matt

Go with the Silver! Was about to order the blue AWD, but the Silver with dark tinted windows and the new wheels look great. Also had the fogs installed which made a big difference to the car looks. Good Luck!

Sean

 

Hi Matt,

I would go with the Silver, it looks stunning. Also, its a classy colour that always looks good and will help resale. Darker colours (besides black) usually come in and out of style.

 

quote:

Originally posted by e_rpm:
Hi Matt,

I would go with the Silver, it looks stunning. Also, its a classy colour that always looks good and will help resale. Darker colours (besides black) usually come in and out of style.

Boy, no wonder Silver Volvos are a dime a dozen!

Yannis

 

Matt, you know what? I had the same thought, about limos being dark, and wearing their tuxes. (Yes, it *is* possible that somebody obsessed more than you, or at least as much as you! Ha ha ha...)

And yes, I'm not yet convinced that the benefit of having a bra on there outweighs the "looks" issue -- that it throws off the lines -- not to mention moisture (and SALT) getting trapped under there and doing more damage than if you didn't have one on. I dunno... I agree with Yannis, if you go with blue, the lighter interior is a must.

As for color, it hit me this morning. You know what? You need to go with the color you like MOST, not what's most practical. WHY? You're gonna walk up to this car every day, a couple times a day, and look at it and think to yourself "Ahhhh, yes. Love my car, and love this color. Glad I went with blue (or silver)." If you don't go with your first choice, you're going to look at it and think "Ahhh, yes. Love my car, and this silver sure does hide the swirls." But... it was a compromise! You better get the one you like BEST, and go with it. Otherwise you're going to simply look at it and think "It's NICE, but it's not as nice as the blue/silver one was!"

As for the popularity of silver, well, I don't see that many here. Heck, I don't see Volvos, for that matter (b/c everybody here is somehow tied to one of the big 3). They sure aren't a dime a dozen here, not that I'd even care if they were.

One last reason I chose silver was that it somehow has "drama" and "interest" in it without "committing to a color", in a way. I used to be in the camp that says silver, black, and white are not "colors". Um, well, but... cars in these colors *can* be quite striking. I was a bit leery of chosing a color, and then being tired of it in a few years. Silver seems to morph with the times, in my opinion...always classic and nice looking. Call me boring and/or conservative, but silver's somehow classic and timeless, and makes a statement without being overtly associated with a color (say green, blue, or red). Crazy talk, I know... could only come from someone who thought about colors WAY too much...

One last comment/observation...not all silvers are created equal. I've noticed that on several F-150s and Explorers (and Dodge Ram trucks, and even on a Mercury Villager) running around town, the silver doesn't look silver on gray days. On the vehicles mentioned above it actually looks kind of like "dove gray, but with a few metallic flecks that are only visible if you look really, really closely". On the flip side, the Volvo's silver is really a color with "depth" to it...really looks SILVER rather than light-gray with a little metallic in it. Now, I've never seen a silver S60 right NEXT to one of these other vehicles in traffic, so it may just be "enthusiasm" clouding my judgement, but if I had to bet you twenty bucks on it, I'd say that the Volvo has a higher quality (deeper silver) than the rest of the silver cars you see driving around town. I also agree with the comment above about how it has some different hues to it (blue at times, etc.). But long story short, you've gotta pick what you LIKE.

Follow your heart, not your head, because your heart will eventually speak up...
Lisa (who will pick up her S60 tomorrow!)

 

I agree with everyone. My wife's S60 2.4T is nautic blue with the beige interior, and my S60 AWD (w/ NAV), that I purchased yesterday, is silver with graphite interior...

Nothing like the best of both worlds, huh?

 

PCB,

Welcome to Swedespeed! Wow, you have two S60's, nice!

-Drew

 

Thanks for the Welcome!

Yup, liked the first one so much that I traded in my Lexus for one. Now, if I could only get the DMV to issue me "HIS" and "HERS" tags...

This board is a great resource.

 

Whew! I had no idea when I posted my original question that it would evoke so many replies. It seems that color choices are inevitably emotional. And since everyone has emotions, everyone can contribute.

I thought I should let everyone know that I finally made my decision. The color I chose (for reasons described in exhaustive detail in earlier posts) turned out to be:

Silver!

Now if I could only decide whether or not to get that crazy navigation system...

Thanks again for all the replies,
Matt (aka QuarterSwede)