Black Cars

Miles Driven: 2,107

At some point in my formative years, I learned that white cars are the easiest to keep looking clean.

Not actually clean, of course. White doesn’t repel dirt any better than black, red, blue or silver. I mean looking clean, as in not showing dirt as much as those other colors.

Whether that influenced my decision when I bought my first new car, I can’t remember. But when I looked out on that Toyota dealer’s lot more than four decades ago and saw four Corollas sitting in a row (40 mpg! the billboards at the time proclaimed), I chose the white one. This was 1977, and I’d go on to drive that car for 130,000 miles before passing it along to my brother-in-law, who put at least 40,000 more on it. Corollas from that era didn’t die, they just got old.

Dirt-hider or not, I remember washing that car the day I brought it home from the dealership. I’m sure Mr. Glatfelter, watching me from across the street, thought I was nuts. He might have been right.

Fast forward a few decades, and when I bought my 2001 Volvo XC70 I chose one off the showroom floor in ash gold metallic, which I really liked. It didn’t show the dirt too quickly, either. And it was trimmed with dark brown cladding that set off the color nicely, to my eyes.

And yet, by the time I sold that Volvo two years later to buy something bigger—a 2003 GMC Yukon XL Denali—I had come to the conclusion that almost every vehicle, no matter the make or model, looks better in black than any other color. Hardest to keep clean, perhaps. But better looking.

And so I got that Denali in black. And labored for the next 16 years to keep it looking clean. (As one of my wife’s cousins said shortly after I got it, “The only reason to buy a black truck is if you’re going to keep it clean.” Over that time, I’m pretty sure I paid for the end bay in our local car wash.

Which brings us to the 2019 Volvo XC90, which I ordered from the factory in Gothenburg and could have had in any color I wanted. The silver looked sharp. So did the white. Ever so briefly, I considered the maple brown, but Volvo dropped that color for the XC90 in 2019.

In the end, I chose black. Again.

So far, I think the finish on this Volvo has some sort of dust magnet engineered into the paint. I mean, it’s been really hard to maintain the spotless look I like. I’m sure the winter weather, which here in Pennsylvania means periodic snow, salt and cinders on the streets and highways, is partially to blame.

Still, I’ve been surprised.

Would I do it differently if I was ordering the vehicle today?

Of course not. It really, really looks good in black.