A primary consideration for consumers in the market for a new car, truck, or minivan is color. Buyers often consider color as important as design, make or model when shopping for a new vehicle.
This fall, classic colors will be prominent in Chrysler Corporation's 1999 model year lineup.
"Consumers walking into our showrooms this fall will definitely notice the influence of classic colors including red, green, blue, and yellow," said Margaret Hackstedde, Chrysler Corporation's Chief Designer - Color Fabric and Mastering. "Much like our designs, we want the colors of our vehicles to provoke a strong, passionate, emotional response from consumers."
Unlike fashion and home furnishing designers who work season to season predicting popular colors, automotive designers are challenged with discovering which colors will be popular two to three years into the future -- the time frame for bringing a new vehicle from a design concept to market.
To formulate colors for its vehicles, Chrysler employs a creative staff of six designers who are charged with developing color ideas. They closely monitor color in a variety of industries and work closely with industry color forecasters including the Color Marketing Group and the International Color Authority. Ultimately, Chrysler will offer customers approximately 10 colors for each of its models.
"At Chrysler, we also use our concept cars as a method for testing new colors or color trends," said Hackstedde. "Based on consumer response to these colors, we will decide whether or not to feature them on our next-generation of vehicles. This year, a couple of our new colors first appeared on our concept cars. Inferno Red was inspired by our Dodge ESX and Desert Sand first appeared on Jeep® Dakar."
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Three new colors will appear for the first time in the Jeep Grand Cherokee paint palette: Everglade, a lush outdoor green; Sienna, a deep, rich warm red metallic with a red tinted clear coat; and Patriot Blue, a classic deep blue metallic.
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Desert Sand, a beige metallic with red highlight, will appear on Jeep Cherokee and Wrangler.
An anonymous reader sent us some info regarding some Jeep availability information for the 1999 model year. According to the reader, the 4.7L V8 Grand Cherokee is now expected to begin shipping in November, instead of October...
