A little more colour from Hyundai: i10 colour names

As regular readers know, I have been keeping a close eye on colour. On the way out of the car dealer last Sunday I grabbed a colour and trim brochure for the Hyundai i10. What did I find? I find British buyers are being deprived of choice.

To their credit, Hyundai are making their i10 available in ten different colours. Not a single one of them is green and nor will you find yellow. This is not a surprise. On the plus side, there are two deep reds and an orange called “New Orange” in Denmark or “Sweet Orange” in Sweden. They also offer the car in a very regal blue called Morning Glory. In the UK, unsurprisingly it´s called Morning Blue instead though that sounds sad. It´s not a metallic but a flat colour, please note, and reminiscent of the nice Holland Blue Alfa Romeo had on the Giulias in the early 70s.

Oh, you learn a lot doing your own research. The UK market has a choice of a mere six colours for the i10 and none of them are warm. All the reds, the new orange and “silky beige” are off the menu. Yes, even beige it too outre for the British. Thanks, Clarkson, you oaf. I remember him making a big deal of some car being available in [humorous pause, tuck in chin to neck] …brown.

Here is the full European market palette (below), taken from the German website of Hyundai. That beige colour is called “Cashmere Brown Metallic” there and the orange is “Mandarin Orange Metallic” in the German brochure.

The next question is this: how much is it generally true that the UK market has fewer colours than the EU market? Is Hyundai a one off or is it usual that the UK rejects warm colours. And what a curious cultural phenomenon this is, from the country that gave us dandyism and the vibrant colours of tweed and which is still home to Paul Smith.

Author: richard herriott

I like anchovies. I dislike post-war town planning. View all posts by richard herriott