Silver cars are common, but it doesn't mean silver can't be cool.
Silver cars used to be reserved for the more stylish vehicle designs as it was more expensive than plain colors like black. But technology has evened that out, and the expense is now in the type and quality of the paint finish more than the color itself. Sometimes, as we'll see here, it was because they were unpainted, which can be a style of its own. Any which way, there have been, and occasionally still are, some cars finished in silver that look better for it. The question being answered here isn't if silver is a good color for a car; we know grays and silvers are highly popular, accounting for a combined 28% of all cars on the roads globally in 2021, while only 9% were strictly silver. The question we want to answer is what kind of cars look good in silver? It's all about how the color is worn. After all, if it's a considered choice used well, colors can be stylish even if a quarter of the cars around you are wearing them. Hence, a well-cut little black dress or pair of blue jeans will never go out of style.
If you ask anyone over the age of 30 to name a silver car, there is a large chance they will come up with the DeLorean. The DMC-12 - its internal development codename but not the official title - is a pop culture icon as the star car in the Back To The Future movie series, although the car itself was short-lived.
The one in the movie was silver because all of them were silver. The idea was that the DeLorean car would never rust, so the body is made of brushed stainless steel. Brushed stainless still looks cool, and it's a unique feature that shouldn't be covered by paint. Also, by not painting it, DeLorean removed complexity and cost from the manufacturing and purchasing process. Tesla wants to do the same with the Cybertruck.
The Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR was the ultimate iteration of the SLR race car that dominated until Mercedes pulled out of racing following one of the most horrific crashes in motorsport at Le Mans in 1955. However, they weren't road-legal, so chief of design, Rudolf Uhlenhaut, ordered two to be made ready for the road. Uhlenhaut drove one as a personal car for a while, but both vehicles stayed in the company. One was stashed away in a vault, while the other was displayed at the Mercedes museum in Bad Cannstatt, Germany. One was brought out at the 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed to make a run up the hill climb course. However, the big news broke that Mercedes sold one for an incredible $142,000,000 to a private collector. According to Mercedes, it was sold to fund and "... establish the global scholarship program 'Mercedes-Benz Fund' supporting young people in their studies, commitment and actions towards a more sustainable future."
Try and picture an Aston Martin DB5 in a color other than silver in your mind. Unless you're into classic cars in a big way, you're likely struggling because of James Bond. There were other colors available, but Silver Birch is Bond's color and the correct color. It's not a bright metallic silver paint, but its subtlety helps show off the silver brightwork and wheels. For the nerds, Silver Birch was mainly used by Aston Martin between 1962 and 1972.
In 2002, Mercedes built a limited edition Silver Arrow SL500 in commemoration of the nickname given to its race cars in the 1930s and used for its Formula 1 and sports cars in the mid-1950s. The name comes from the bare-metal bodywork of the race cars. The apocryphal story is the bare-metal bodies came about because the 1930s race team needed to shave off some weight for a race and did so by removing the lead-based paint. Depending on the source, the nickname either came from a commentator describing one of the small silver cars as a "silver arrow," or it was one of the drivers. Whichever story you believe, the Silver Arrow SL500 suited the color not only in name, but in design, with the simple shade highlighting its timeless beauty.
If you were rich enough to pick up a Porsche 918 Spyder, there were two options for color designs specially developed for the hypercar. Liquid Metal Blue or Liquid Metal Silver was a $63,000 option, and if you ever get a chance to look into the paint, you'll see it's flawless. You can look into the nine coats that have been applied, and it looks exactly like Liquid Metal has been poured over the bodywork. For $63,000, it's incredibly extravagant, but if you could afford the 918's initial $845,000 price, well, $63k paint isn't going to break the bank, and it looks amazing. It also helps when it comes to resale value.
Coming back down to earth, the latest Nissan Z car looks fantastic in silver paint. When the next generation of the sports car arrived, it was initially showcased and painted in vivid Ikazuchi Yellow. When we first saw the Nissan Z in person, it was a bold blue. Those colors stand out, but we think they can overpower the car's styling, which is more refined than people are giving Nissan credit for. We realized that was the case when Nissan delivered a silver Sport trim to us. In silver, the Z looks like a different car, and the color plays up to the retro styling, particularly from side and rear angles that show off the fastback nod to the past.
You can get your Rolls-Royce in any color you want, but the correct color is always silver. It always has been, and on Rolls-Royce's sexiest car yet, the four-seater super-luxury drophead Dawn shows why. The Silver Bullet is part of the British brand's Collection Cars series, and only 50 are being made. The Silver Bullet features a vapor-blasted titanium finisher to the Aero Cowling windbreak, which is just a piece of jewelry compared to the ultra-metallic Brewster Silver paint. It's a work of automotive art and one of the most beautiful metallic silver cars we've seen. The color name is a nod back to the carriage makers Brewster & Company. They were known for luxury car bodywork and became sales agents for Rolls-Royce in the US before Rolls-Royce America Inc bought the company.
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