Re: What was Packard's first red car?

Posted by 58L8134 On 2016/10/31 8:56:44

Hi Garrett

Indeed, bright reds were reserved for emergency vehicles, consider gauche for private cars except perhaps rakish roadsters. Those who would order a red car then were extroverted personalities who wished to draw attention to themselves. As Fred notes, the durability of red range paints was the poorest of all colors. When the occasional red car was encountered is a junkyard years ago, it's paint was all chalky and oxidized by the ultraviolet in sunlight.

White back then was the color of milk delivery trucks and some ambulances too in addition to red for the latter. Another less known use of white was on children's hearses, which were rare but kept by larger city funeral homes.

Yellow was for buses and other commercial vehicle, or as accent in combination with black. Mercer raceabouts and Kissel Gold Bug speedsters were famously yellow, again the car of extroverts.

On the other hand, no one a century ago saw as many metallic silver cars as we have now.

Steve