Choosing a new car paint code usually involves staring at a dealer swatch, calculating resale value, and settling on a sensible shade of dirt-concealing grey. Fiat UK, however, thinks you should treat buying the new Fiat 500 Hybrid the exact same way you shop for a designer leather jacket: by figuring out which hue flatters your complexion.
The Italian brand has launched a promotional contest on its UK Instagram profile. Twenty lucky winners will score a free, one-hour virtual consultation with color consultancy agency Colour Me Beautiful, complete with a personalized pocket guide. The goal is to analyze your skin, hair, and eye undertones across six tonal palettes, light, deep, warm, cool, clear, and soft, and determine whether your driver’s side window frames a “cool winter” or a “soft autumn.”
Color consultant Vicky Booker points out that while practical considerations usually dominate car purchases, matching your bodywork to your personal wardrobe makes perfect sense.
Supporting the campaign, a OnePoll survey of 2,000 adults revealed that 72% feel more confident wearing flattering shades, though 22% confess they have no idea what actually looks good on them. When it comes to driveways, 60% view vehicle color as essential, 51% believe their car reflects their personality, and 40% see it as an extension of their physical appearance.
Yet, despite these glamorous aspirations, driver psychology remains delightfully boring. Survey respondents overwhelmingly favor black (22%), blue (18%), and grey (15%) for their rides, while an overwhelming 82% admit to retreating to safe, neutral colors. Meanwhile, 43% still view an automobile as purely practical, and 27% treat it merely as an appliance to get from point A to B.
This fashion-forward push follows Fiat’s 2023 pledge to banish grey paint entirely from its lineup. Kris Cholmondeley, head of Fiat UK, linked the initiative to brightening up dreary British roads, joking that given the country’s notoriously overcast weather, there is already more than enough grey in the sky without adding it to your driveway.