Ferrari red doesn't suit everyone
12/10/2015
A Ferrari is red, more precisely sprayed in the color "rosso corsa". At least that's what people thought for a long time. And indeed, for decades, the most popular color for sports cars from Maranello was a bright red. It was so popular that even cars that had left the factory in silver, brown or white were later repainted red because it made them easier to sell.
However, the dominance of red did not apply equally to all models. The Lusso (250 GT/L), for example, was often ordered in metallized grey tones from the very beginning. And the Ferrari 365 GT4 2+2 (and later the Ferrari 400 GT) were (and still are) considered harder to sell if the car is red.
In the 1970s, red was popular throughout the automotive industry because the color was considered particularly visible and safe. Many customers chose a red car simply because it looked good. A few decades later, however, this choice can have a negative impact when it comes to selling the car. A Jaguar XJ (pictured above), for example, is likely to be much more popular in dark colors than in red. Even a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow was probably only exceptionally ordered in a signal color.
The same certainly applies to the elegant S-Class of the W126 model series designed by Bruno Sacco.
But even sports cars, which should look good in the dynamic color red, sometimes suffer from garish paintwork in today's market, as can be seen in the Aston Martin DBS.
An interesting example is the 300 SL from Mercedes (the Gullwing). Many were painted in the racing color silver, but it was also available in red.
And when you see it in blue, red almost seems inconspicuous again.
With the later and indirect successor of the same name, the color red is certainly not what classic car buyers prefer today.
Of course, everything is a matter of taste. And of course tastes change over time. The red GTI was the preferred choice for the Golf Mk1, but only a minority of today's Golf GTI buyers are likely to choose this color. And we don't yet know what buyers will like in 30 years' time.
