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Hey gang,

So I'm about to order a new car (Benz CLS 550) and I am absolutely torn between choosing black or white color! What do you guys think? Seems both colors are popular in this segment.

Many thanks!

Smoked swiss.

Black.. it may pick up the road dust, but white cars look like rentals..

kinda depends on the car style and how glossy the paint is, if it's quite glossy id go with white. But black does look cooler if it suits the car, hard to say without seeing it.

Black is also harder to see, and will rust less (gets hotter and stays dryer). White is probably safer visibility wise.

Either White or Palladium Silver. Black cars look sharp when they're clean and waxed, but if they're even the least bit dirty it looks awful (not to mention road salt depending on where you live). Lighter colors don't get as hot and they hide common dirty (pollen/dust) better.

Black looks god awful if you get micro scratches in the clear coat. It takes a lot to keep them looking nice. But if you do get Black make sure you use deatailing clay regularly.

I prefer gray or smokey titanium color myself.

White looks awesome if you get your windows tinted dark

Depends where you'll be driving. If it snows a lot where you are, a white car will be more dangerous since it will blend in with the surroundings more easily.

He's buying an expensive car, he's going to wash it and white looks cheap. Silver looks common as well, so go with black. Lunar Blue Metallic is really the way to go though. My BMW M5 is Azurite Black Metallic though and my old 335i and M3 were both equally a black metallic color.

I went with black...does show the scratches...and hot in the summer.

But our summers are short.

If you live in Phoenix, Las Vegas etc. definitely go white.

I think you should go with the white but I am kind of biased as i drive a white car ('13 M3 in "Mineral White"). It entirely depends on the kind of white. If it was a flat white, i'd say that is a very boring color and I personally wouldn't choose it. If it was a pearl white, (similar to my "Mineral White") or a BMW "Frozen White" (think matte paint), i would be all over it.

My GF has a black car and it is a complete PITA to keep clean. We wash our cars every two weeks; after those two weeks my car looks like it came out of the wash the day before and hers looks like it has not seen the wash for months.

druidcent wrote:

Black.. it may pick up the road dust, but white cars look like rentals..

I highly doubt someone is going to confuse the CLS550 with a rental car.

My GF has a black car and it is a complete PITA to keep clean. We wash our cars every two weeks; after those two weeks my car looks like it came out of the wash the day before and hers looks like it has not seen the wash for months.

Gotta agree with this. I had a black car for years, and that thing was a total dirt magnet.

Both black and white suck. This is the only right choice:

JohnC wrote:

Both black and white suck. This is the only right choice:

Needs more rainbows

white sucks. Black is where it's at for those two choices.

Best is metallic silver for a coupe, black for a classy sedan or suv.

Black or a grey based Silver. Black is classic, and silver is one of the international racing colors for Germany.

DPete27 wrote:

Palladium Silver

keltor wrote:

Lunar Blue Metallic

One of those.

I've always been partial to the emerald green you could get in early '90s Mustangs.

druidcent wrote:

Black.. it may pick up the road dust, but white cars look like rentals..

Out of all the rental cars I've had in my life (and I've had a lot in my travels) I think I only had a couple that were white. I've had lots of neutral colors; gray and tan and dark green and dark blue and maroon (but never all of those together), and some black. Once in a while red, but very rarely, probably equal to white.

Follow-up to my last thread on choosing between black or white for a new sedan (Benz CLS 550), I figured a poll might do more justice.

Depends. If you live where it is hot, and sunny, white is a smart choice, but if you live in a dusty rural area, or sooty city it will look dirty quick. Metal flake Silver reflects a lot of solar energy and still hides minor dust and dirt. Also do you have a significant other? If so I'd consult them in the color choice. I've had two beautiful black cars, when they where clean they looked like I was slipping into a tux, but these days I don't have time to detail cars like I used to, and so go with silver.

Duplicate threads merged...

I vote purple. Either way, who cares? It's just another German tank.

Car colors affects how fast the car heats up and how fast it cools down, White is the slowest, black is the fastest - actual max temperature is unaffected by color. Hence why Arizona, Nevada, Texas, New Mexico all have PLENTY of Black cars.

If you're willing to stretch your definition of white a little, google Mercedes CLS beige. Doesn't look half bad, and can't be confused for a rental car.

Wirko wrote:

If you're willing to stretch your definition of white a little, google Mercedes CLS beige. Doesn't look half bad, and can't be confused for a rental car.

That's the colour of taxis in Germany.

NeelyCam wrote:

JohnC wrote:

Both black and white suck. This is the only right choice:

Needs more rainbows

That would be "overdoing". There are more subtle ways to tastefully enhance this color selection. For example:

keltor wrote:

Car colors affects how fast the car heats up and how fast it cools down, White is the slowest, black is the fastest - actual max temperature is unaffected by color.

I find that rather difficult to believe. Since black absorbs solar radiation at a much higher rate, it will reach equilibrium at a higher temperature.

duke_nukem_3D wrote:

Follow-up to my last thread on choosing between black or white for a new sedan (Benz CLS 550), I figured a poll might do more justice.

If you really cannot decide on your own - it may be more satisfactory to just buy a few of them, in different color, then just use any particular colored model during any particular day. For example, if you feel like today is "the day for a blue car" (perhaps it may match the color of your clothes better) - you should take a blue car for a ride, the next day you may feel like it's more of a "red car day" and so on



This also has an additional benefit of always having a spare car available for driving in case if one of them breaks down in some way or your friend crashes it or you drive it into a tree after a heated argument with your girlfriend/wife or whatever
Of course, space for storing all of them might be an issue depending on your location.

keltor wrote:

Car colors affects how fast the car heats up and how fast it cools down, White is the slowest, black is the fastest - actual max temperature is unaffected by color. Hence why Arizona, Nevada, Texas, New Mexico all have PLENTY of Black cars.

Where on earth did you get this information? Mythbusters tested this one using two otherwise identical rentals (year, make, model, no window tint, etc.) and the black car peaked, and held about 10F hotter than the white car. The reason you see dark colors in hot climates is that (a) some people want a dark color, and possibly never have to park in open sunlight and (b) modern vehicle AC systems are pretty effective at cooling the vehicle back down.

Speaking as the owner of a black car, black paint (and all dark vehicle colors) are subject to exactly the problems described in this thread. Also, they tend to fade and lose their clear coat faster, although with modern paints that should be a minimum of 8 years out unless it's parked in the sun all day, every day.