Imagine if the color of your car could elicit feelings of being refreshed, calmed, or grounded. Most cars on the road in America are a mundane black, white, silver or gray, but Ford has yet again refreshed their palette to include some of the most popular colors in fashion, technology and other trend-setting industries.

Researchers on the Color & Material design team at Ford use a three-year timetable to learn about colors and predicting what will be popular in the future. This might seem like a long time to spend just for car color, but recent research shows that up to 40-percent of car shoppers will leave the dealership if they can't get the car they want in the color they want it in. Even more than that, many dealers say that people will buy a car off the lot just because of the color!

Ford hopes to tap into these desires by expanding the 2013 color palate with colors like Ginger Ale, Kodiak Brown and Frosted Glass. It's hard to decipher what those colors look like by their names alone. But they do evoke very different emotions. And as Susan Swek, Group Chief Designer, Color & Material Design, Ford, explains - that's the point. As a case in point, she references a light metallic beige as an example. "The name 'Champagne' is a lot different than the name 'Sand,'" says Swek.  "... All of that has to be carefully considered."¹

Ford designers call their dynamic, new palette "fresh, rich and grounding."² One of the newest additions, Ginger Ale (a golden color with green undertones) will debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show on the Ford Escape. When the Ford Focus Electric is released, buyers will be able to purchase it in Frosted Glass, a light green color intended to mirror the calming essence of warm, tropical seas.

This isn't the first time Ford has gone outside of the box with interesting color choices. You can find colors like Lime Squeeze and Blue Flame on the Ford Fiesta, available now, at Norris Ford. We invite you to stop in during our regular business hours, or contact us online, anytime,  to schedule a test drive.

Source: ^1,2http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=35393