Fiat’s 'no grey' philosophy raises a big problem | Axon's Automotive Anorak

Although all car producers offer an array of colour choices, one colour has remained consistently popular amongst new car buyers — grey. It’s even available with exotic Italian carmakers such as Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and Pagani. However, it seems that Fiat has something else in mind — no more grey cars. In the video, Fiat’s CEO, Olivier Francois, highlights the importance of colours in life, embodying the Italian way of living, and announcing that Fiat will no longer make grey cars. The CEO demonstrates this by sitting inside an all-new Fiat 600 while the car takes a dip into orange paint. The Italians, especially Fiat, have a history of creating interesting ads, and this one lives up to that fine reputation as a short piece of pure entertainment.

For me, this news comes as something of a blow, because I am not only very fond of Fiats, but grey (preferably metallic) tends to be my colour of choice for a new car. Few other colour shades say ‘metal car’ than grey. I have owned many Fiats over the years and, thinking back, most of them have been painted in a shade of metallic grey. It was the colour that best-suited my achingly beautiful 1972 Fiat 130 Coupe, as well as the rusting Bertone Fiat Dino Coupe that I briefly owned in my youth, my Fiat X1/19 1500 and, more recently, my beloved and entertaining Panda 100HP. The metallic grey shows off the 100HP’s more subtle Bertone-penned details perfectly.

The bulk of my Saabs were also painted grey, as were some of my Citroens (metallic grey being the only colour available for the early 1950s 2CV and HY van that I used to own). None of my old Alfa Romeos, Matras, Alpines or Bristols have been grey though. Red better suited the former, with various shades of blue and gold (of all things) working well for the latter makes.

As Anorak readers with long memories might recall though, one car colour I have never had, and would in all likelihood refuse to own, is white. White works fine as a colour on a microwave, fridge/freezer, cooker or any other domestic appliance in your kitchen, and has a place on an ambulance or police car, but it just doesn’t suit the bulk of motor cars, as it’s simply too bland, boring and dull. It washes out the finer details and subtle forms of a car by swamping them in a tedious and unimaginative cloak of apathy. A large SUV in white… Your neighbours will think you’ve just bought a new delivery van.

I know I’m not a lone voice here, but based on recent British new car sales, I might be in the minority. For a few years, mostly during the Covid pandemic, white was the most common paint choice for a new car in the UK. Perhaps we all had more important things to think about. Thankfully white is now falling back down the popularity list.

Ironically, where white does work as a car colour is in the warmer Mediterranean climates, although with global warming, this increasingly applies to Britain, too. White reflects heat well and helps to keep a vehicle’s interior cool on a hot day. That’s why you see so many boring white cars in the South of France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Malta, and so on. Personally though, I would sooner remain a little hot under the collar than have to drive a white car. After all, a decent underarm deodorant costs very little these days.

It is therefore even more ironic that Fiat has chosen to use a white example to promote its new 600 in its short teaser video, especially considering white does the 600’s rotund form few favours.

Despite the above though, I can see Fiat’s ‘no grey’ thinking. If you lived in a country as vibrant and colourful as Italy, you might want to drive a vehicle that better reflects the lively mood, the vivacious, characterful local population and their vivid surroundings.

The new Fiat 600 revives a fondly-remembered nomenclature for the Torinese marque that helped to put Italy back on wheels after the Second World War when the original rear-engined 600 was launched in 1955. The 600 name was revived for the final editions of the Seicento (Italian for 600) city car in the 1990s, due to that model designation having a strong meaning and nostalgia in Italy. Now, in its third incarnation as a crossover replacing the previous 500X, the dominant Italian brand forecasts great things for its new, colourful, 600, with no grey clouds on the horizon.

As for Fiat’s new tongue-firmly-in-cheek ‘no grey’ strategy, however, I might have to carefully reconsider the colour of my next Fiat (or Abarth, or Alfa Romeo, or something else suitable from the Stellantis family). As Fiat doesn’t currently offer a modern Panda 100HP equivalent, I may have to look elsewhere anyway.