I adore my new blue Subaru Outback. Maybe it's a regional thing - Subarus certainly are - but in Maine I see so many black, grey, and white cars that I had absolutely no interest in those colors. I chose a Subaru for winter performance, the Outback for hauling stuff, and the blue for the pretty. I keep my cars for a long, long time, so I choose carefully.

Growing up, my father drove MBs, my favorite of his was colored like eggnog. I swore to myself that one day I would own a Benz, just like papa. Once well situated in a career path, I was thrilled to find a 4-Door MB sedan, sky blue like in this pic. I paid $4k. The axle cracked within a month of purchasing, the back seat floorboard was so rusted you could see road pavement. I was completely alone in making the purchase so the ripoff artist saw me coming, ha.

Still, I was sooooo proud! I had kept my promise and from appearances, the car had a beautiful paint job so it looked spectacular. I looked cool.

Around that time I met DH, who tells me it was the hardest thing for him to tell me I had the worst POS he’d ever seen. We sold it for $1800 and got a Jeep Cherokee.

Good times...but yes, color is everything, ha.

Rockybird, to answer your question, we do a bit of off-roading, you could say, we have a cabin on a rough dirt road, and live in an area with quite a bit of unpaved roads, but truthfully it is mostly used as a town car and dog hauler! Much better cargo space for my two large dogs than what it replaced, an X5. I did like the X5 until the warranty expired and too many mechanical issues started piling up. 4Runner has been superb at handling winter weather and our terribly pot-holed roads, which wrecked the suspension on the X5. I’d venture a guess that many of these off-road capable vehicles like 4Runners never leave pavement so I wouldn’t worry about feeling silly.

You will get a lot of attention driving it, wherever you go, it’s a “looker”! I’m constantly asked about the color. I’ve also seen this color in the FJ Cruiser and Tacoma as well. Cavalry Blue would look stunning parked in front of your amazing house :)

My own criteria for a car includes the requirement that it must be a happy bright color. Car searching for me becomes even more problematic when you add in the additional requirements that it must be a convertible, must have a manual transmission, must have a backup camera (becoming too hard to see around suvs in parking lots), must be agile, and must have at least as much trunk space as my Z4. It’s a unicorn hunt (narrowed down to miatas, custom ordered minis, or boxsters)

Yay rockybird! I hope you don’t have to wait too long. It’s a great choice and sounds like a good deal to get new plus the color you want. Perfect match for your pool, and of course your birds! Meant to be.

Dragonsfly - I had a Subaru for many years and it was an amazing car! I checked out Subaru but the cars didnt look big enough and I wasnt in love with the ascent.

bossy- what a great color. I bet you were proud of that car.

outside playing -THank you! Fingers crossed I get it!

Thank you OneRIdgeOff! I am really hard on my cars and I think this is part of the reason my highlander needs so much work. It’s possible with the 4runner I will start exploring more. I’m in AZ and there are a lot of dirt desert roads. I do go visit a friend in North Scottsdale to mtn bike who lives on a long very bumpy road in the desert that I hate driving with my highlander. I also have four small parrots and the vet is 15-20 miles away. I prefer to take them all at once, but getting four small cages into my highlander is a challenge. I guess I’m just making excuses because I’m really just attracted to the looks of the TRD pro! Next year they will not have this blue. It will be “voo doo” blue, which was on the old FJ cruiser. I would wait for the new color if I could see what it looks like, but I”m nervous it’ll be too bright. I almost bought an X5 but everyone at work is telling me to keep it until the warranty expires. I think the 4Runner is more sensible as I’d keep this car forever. In 1-2 years, I’d get an electric car - maybe jaguar i pace, or hybrid Range Rover sport.

daki-That’s great criteria for a smaller car!

Speaking of color, someone at work offered this car for $2500. I am seriously thinking of buying it just to park in my carport! I love the color and it fits the house!

OMG that Scout! And at that price?! I would be all over that!

https://jalopnik.com/two-little-pieces-of-the-toyota-fj-cruiser-are-coming-b-1822976848/amp

Voodoo does look a brighter blue - I kinda dig it too but haven’t seen one in the real world.

Thanks OneRIdge off. I like it too..just trying to decide if an entire blue one without the roof would be too bright.

I agree on the Scout. I am going to speak to him more about it. It would be fun to drive on short errands, and to keep parked in my carport.

Slightly OT but it's about Subaru's - my son just sold his 2008 Subaru WRX sti. It needed a $7000 engine job and he didn't want to do the work or have it done. He sold it to a young fellow probably about 21 and when he came to pick it up he brought his grandpa and his brother-in-law. His grandpa was a car mechanic and it is a group project for the three of them to rebuild the engine. He and his grandpa were so cute checking out the engine and talking about it.

@msmeow - Nigel is beautiful!! His coloring is perfect! :)

@blfenton- what a great story!

Well I wanted to update the thread...I decided to get the range rover sport. Toyota was going to get the 4runner in blue, but they wanted 10k over msrp. I was on my way to drive out there to negotiate and decided to check a couple other car dealerships on the way. I never made it to toyota.

I stopped at volvo and test drove the volvo xc90 which was really nice, but then I went to land rover to see the jaguar f pace. It is too small, but of course I was drawn to the RRS and the next thing I knew I was test driving one. It drove amazing. We haggled on a price for one on the lot (I'm still considering it), but I'm leaning towards building my own and ordering it.

Here are the two I’m considering:

On the lot, 2018, smaller wheels.

2019, more $, but upgraded design, 21" wheels.

mtn redux, are there any features you got on yours that you recommend? Sliding panoramic roof? park assist? cooled seats? Thanks!

I guess I don't understand paying thousands more for a particular color.

Rocky, on looks alone I like the RRS way better.

Are you still getting a blue one?

Thanks bunnyfoof. I do too, but if i had more money, I would buy both!

blfenton, I think not. They want 10k over msrp for the blue Toyota. I’m sure I could get them down a couple thousand, but that seems to be what they are selling for. I think I’ll get the Range Rover in white, although I would consider red.

No green or orange? (I only care about car color to the exclusion of every other feature, although ours now is boring navy blue)

No, I would not pay $10K more for a specific color. Someone who parks in my lot has a RRS in white.

Cooled seats would be awesome, especially where you are in the desert. I drove a Lincoln MKC that had those and it was fun for the mile that I drove it from the car show back to the dealer.

I would green or orange in a vw bus!!! Wouldnt that be cool?

gsciencechick, I agree with you about the color. I decided on the range rover. I think the model I want comes with cooled seats, but I will double check.

This thread reminds me of my dad’s 1972 scout, which he drove until 1986. It looked a lot like this, except I remember the blue as paler.

Did you know that VW is supposedly coming out with an electric bus?

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1100014_new-vw-bus-concept-coming-to-ces-electric-power-for-production-version

I love the concept but I don’t think they nailed the aesthetic.

Great idea on the VW bus but more retro styling would be cool. Gosh, I had an elementary school classmate whose family had a VW bus and their mom drove a lot for school related functions.

BTW, I took DH's car for service on Monday and I test drove the plug-in Honda Clarity. I liked it. Now to get him to test drive. Of course lots to think about, the most obvious how we would charge it at home. It charges for about 12 hours on standard plug or else you can install a 240 V plug.

We had a c-maxx and installed the faster charging station at our house. (Then we moved to a state with very little infrastructure for electric cars and sold it.). It was worth it, imo.

Oh, looks like they’ve got more recent styling that looks better.

https://www.treehugger.com/cars/vws-re-imagined-electric-microbus-early-test-drive.html

Oh yeah, that's much better on the VW bus!

Thanks, crl! Still some research to do on it. DH is concerned that if he test drives, it'll be in the driveway. But having somewhere to charge it is important. We have an outdoor outlet on the deck, but not one in the front. If we were to go with the effort to have another outlet near the front of the house, we'd go with the charging station if our house can handle that. We have some obligations this weekend so we can't test drive, so maybe next week.

I am a red car person -- and I always name my cars -- I've had "Little Red", "Red", Another Little Red" and when we were looking at new cars two years ago -- a Kia Soul -- I stated to the salesman that I wanted a Red one. We go out to the lot and there is that green one (same color as Kitchenwitch) and I said I want that one! We bought it, I named it Kermit and I LOVE it and it's color. For a while I was the only one in town but now there are several.

Honda's redesigned hybrid, 2019 Insight, has gotten great reviews. I think it will be in showrooms in August.

Unfortunately the VW bus is not out yet.

Yes, they already had the new Insight in the showroom. It is smaller than the Accord & Clarity, and DH would really prefer a midsize sedan. Reminds me a little bit of Subaru Impreza in looks and size. It's a good redesign.

Well, I immediately ruled out white, but was otherwise open on color.

I drive the most boring car ever. I don't know what I was thinking when I bought it except it was very low mileage and a reasonable price. It's a 2010 Honda Accord, silver. I can barely find it in the parking lot and I pass myself ten times a day. If car shopping weren't such a horror and if the car wasn't so darn reliable, I would replace it with something with more personality. Some cars seem to get personality as they age, but this one never will. I used to have an orange Corvette. It was easy to find in a parking lot, got stuck in two flakes of snow, was not very practical when I had two kids, a dog and ten bags of groceries, but it was very cool.

You should probably buy something before the tariffs go into effect and raise the price of cars by 25%.

We had a Toyota Corolla as a company car when I first started working at JRS, and one day I got into the wrong car in the parking lot, but fortunately the key would not start the car, but I did get the door open. It might have been unlocked - I can't remember - but it took me a while to figure out that I was in the wrong car. So I understand about having trouble finding a common car in a parking lot.

crl - that scout is great! Not a fan of either of the new vw buses.

Martha - I love the name Kermit! Great idea for a green car!

dedtired - LOL that's really well written and funny!

Lars - I know! WSJ keeps mentioning it! I am putting my order in today, but delivery wont be until Oct...hopefully not too late.

Now I think I have settled on V6 supercharged, white body, black top, blacked out wheels...although I do love the red and not many people have that RRS. And get this! The hybrid version is online to order now! I will find out more info when the dealer calls me back.

Lars, sigh. We have been holding on to a 2009 Ford Flex because it’s been a good car and we like it. But Dh thinks the transmission is starting to slip and that repair might push us over to buying something new. I’d rather hold out as long as we can but that tariff point is a good one.

I still keep looking for my old Subaru Forester in the parking lots, and keep passing the Hyundai by … three years later!

I have a 2004 silver Honda CR-V. At one point they were everywhere, and I probably tried to get into every one. I'm still under 100k miles.

Lars, I used to travel a lot for work and I sometimes went shopping or out to dinner alone just to kill time in the evening. I can’t tell you how many times I found 2-3 cars exactly like my rental, or worse couldn’t recall what kind of car I had without looking at the key. And yes, I tried a couple of times to open the wrong car door.

Hi Rocky,

My experience with buying Range Rovers is that your "choices" are illusory. In other words, they are making them a certain way in a few color combos and if you want anything else it will be a long wait (for my color, over 6 months). I think there were some "options" I did not want, that I had to get because that was how they were making them. IOW, most people wanted that config so that was what they were building.

So before you spend a lot of time mulling over these "options", you may want to ask what is being built. Hope that makes sense.

I am guessing you could get a Range Rover tomorrow morning in white, but I think you'd have a wait for red. RR are very popular around here (especially in the pick up line, it is almost silly) and I do not recall seeing a red one ever.

Mine is Aleutian Silver. Most of the time it looks silver, but in some light it is very blue.

That is a beautiful car, mtn. I love the color. By options, I mean things like sliding vs fixed panoramic roof, camera options, heads up display, refrigerator, etc.

I built up and ordered the 2019 HSE dynamic V6 yesterday at the dealership with 21” wheels, blacked out rims, red brembo brakes, black top, white body, ebony interior, refrigerator in console, entire camera package, outlet in back, tow hitch (for bike rack), sliding panaramic sun roof, heated and cooled seats. It should be here in Oct. It is gas powered. There is a similar build up in diesel at the dealer, but is a 2018 with smaller wheels and doesnt have all the camera options. They will black out rims for me. It is cheaper and I may opt for that instead, but want to speak with a friend at work about diesel cars before I do so. But I do like the idea of having a 2019.

I’ve seen a red one in town and it is beautiful. I am scared that if I order it, I’ll get tired of the color.

What is really tempting is that the hybrid sport should be out soon. They have not released mpg but they are saying 101 mpg in the review articles! It will go 32 miles on a charge alone.

RR’s are very popular here also. I think most people custom order. Also, in the summer sales slow down because people leave due to the heat.

We have a sliding roof and a fridge, that much I know. And we are "supercharged", whatever the heck that is, and I am sure I did't particularly want it. In our area it is a "special order" to forego options. That was what I was trying to say, I would build it on line but then come in and find they don"t make them that way. YMMV LOL. I think I recall the same thing with other cars we have bought like BMWs. Like they are all produced with a high end sound system, which we never want.

So IME I would not pore over a site choosing options. I would just go to the dealer.

ETA And yes we do have heated and cooled seats, but that has become pretty common even in cars that are not "luxury" cars.

One "option" I hate is that the car turns off when you are stopped at a light. To save fuel.

Agree with you about the hybrid; we are hoping that when we want to trade this one in, the hyrbids are tested and kinks worked out.

Thank mtn.

I think having supercharged is a good thing. If you didnt get the supercharged, then your only other choices I think were a diesel or the lowest model, SE, which would not have great power.

Yes, the dealer and I met and I selected the options together. They are different than those on the website as the 2019 options just changed (actually all they did was consolidate the same options into packages).

Anyway, I just need to figure out if I want to get take a chance on their first model hybrid, keep the order I put in yesterday, or buy the car on the lot. Land Rover is good with any of the options, as they said they will sell my build to someone else without issue.

You can head over to rangerovers.net forum to get lots of details on past, current and future models. I asked so many questions before buying mine, that they even asked me to be a moderator! I politely declined because I then moved onto bath/kitchen remodeling research! I waited 7 months to get my RR Autobiography in the color I wanted.

I have no doubt that you'll love your RR and the cooled seats are a must in your area. I used to think they were over-kill but they're in the new F-Pace S that DH just bought and I will definitely get them in my next car. His seats are black and I swear that they get hotter than my beige ones so the cooled vents help.

While DH loves his Jaguar I think it's just a tad too small for my purposes and probably for yours too. He traded in his MB sedan because he wanted something that was sporty and more fun to drive. He opted for the gasoline engine because I have a diesel MB SUV and that's the one we take on trips - better mileage and much larger than his car.

His car also has the gas saving feature where the engine shuts off when the car is stopped - but you can also turn that off which is what we did. I wonder if you will have that choice with your RR?

My car only has 30,000 miles on it and my DDIL needs a vehicle now that they moved out of the city to the suburbs. DS offered to buy mine since it's big enough for his 2 dogs and future children. I just have to find a replacement vehicle and I'm looking at RR. We want another diesel and MB, Porsche and Audi stopped making diesels in the US. I also detest run-flats and I think I can still get real tires at LR/RR.

You'll have to report back and let us know what you finally picked - and photos too.

Maire

This is my current MINI, Witchiepoo!

A bit more eye catching than my first MINI, El Kabong.

Sorry I just saw these replies!

Chispa - thanks for the link! I bought a 4runner yesterday unexpectedly, but I”m keeping my order fo rthe Range Rover. Is that crazy? I bought the TRD pro in cavalry blue, but I’ll use it to throw my bikes and bird cages in and take to the trails and baby the Range Rover a little more. Did you see the hybrid sport is rumored to get 101 mpg? Congrats on the autobiography! That’s a beautiful car!!!

marie - thanks! The cooled seats will be nice. I unexpectedly bought a 4runner yesterday, but I”m keeping my RR order. I would consider the jaguar ipace instead, but it’s the first year it is out and I dont really drive enough to validate the electric car.

Annette - those mini’s are beautiful! They are one of my favorite cars. I love the yellow color!

How awesome!!! you got that great blue rough and rugged yet elegant 4runner and the Range Rover. Good for you! I love them both!

If you can afford to have both then NO it is NOT crazy!

What a great color, rockybird! I love it. It is such a playful look. Congrats.

Thanks aktillery! I'm getting the RRS too. Totally crazy, but I've wanted one for so long!

Rita - thank you!!!! I'm really happy with it!

OMG....I'm LOVING this thread!!!!

It's fascinating reading peoples opinions of cars! While I don't like most of the cars mentioned here, it's just fun talking about our rides', ain't it?!?!??

Alas, my beloved 2008 Impala LTZ is now a decade old, but only has 82,000 miles. The tranny has slooowly been developing the quite-common slipping. She still looks beautiful, because I know about proper ROM-polishing, clay-bar use, etc. For many years now I've used ONLY Top-Tier certified, NO-Ethanol Premium gas. Sure, it's a Flex-fuel car, but I know the drawbacks of Ethanol....and I grew up FARMING! I use Seafoam in the gas once a month, & add it to the oil a week b4 oil-changes. DW & DD don't like it because it rides FIRM....same FE3 suspension that the V-8 SS has.

I'm kinda looking for a different vehicle this summer.... used Escalade, OR Yukon Denali, newer Impala, Regal GS AWD, newer LaCrosse......can't entirely rule out a newer Camaro either!!!

Mileage & practicality??? What??!?!?! ;-) NOT a factor for THIS Norwegian!!! I'll admit......it's all about LUST.

Faron