Bold colors at the auto show reflect what the customer wants

Tell them one color was not enough, that carmakers were shifting fast to two-tone coatings, with flashy black cladding and trim popping like glossy glass.

Tell them that in 2023, designers had figured out how to make “boxy” a delightfully satisfying attribute. Boxy fronts and boxy silhouettes and back ends that beckoned buyers who wanted to feel free in a world where people still felt nervously cooped up in apartments and houses, where “boxy” evoked a spirit of off-road escape — to mountains, to the countryside or wilderness. Soft curves were disappearing, you can tell them, because designers understood that boxy communicated power and strength and health.

Tell them that 2023 was a snapshot of an auto industry in a fit of transformation, where the looks of the past were all about to disappear.