Drivers, choose boldly! It’s time to break the monopoly of black and white vehicles. The monotonous years of colorless commuting, a sad and safe reflection of the moribund recession, are ending. If you’re planning on buying a car to celebrate the uptrending economy, do not settle for silver. Turn your back on taupe.

This isn’t just a personal plea, although I’ve truly had it with the boring stream of vehicles surging alongside my geriatric Honda, a leprous green holdover from the ’90s. The coating oracle PPG Industries, paint supplier to automakers and the world, has announced its trending “Colorography” series for vehicles, and mercifully, white, black, silver, gray, and natural are taking long-overdue back seats. The future is painted in bright, promising phrases like “brilliant gemstone blue,” “vivid metallic orange,” “vibrant purple” (or as BASF, the German auto-color giant, calls it, “aubergine”), and “regal colors for a post-recession world.”

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