Two-tone cars are back, helping the bottom line but also adding challenges
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Two-tone paint jobs are back with a distinct European flair. In the last few years about 20 models with the feature, largely with bodies and roofs in different colors, have hit showrooms across Europe with more to come. So far, the look is largely confined to compact hatchbacks and the surging SUV/crossover segment.
Automakers say they are simply trying to give customers more choices, though the options typically appear as part of higher-content, higher-priced trim levels. Designers say it lets them play with color as a styling element and break up visual mass as safety regulations mandate thicker pillars and higher beltlines.
Buyers of Citroen's new C3 Aircross SUV, for example, can mix and match three roof colors and eight body colors.
"It's incredible how people react to the bi-tone colors," said Alexandre Malval, head of design at Citroen, which offers two-tone options on four models. "If you give them two colors to assemble, immediately the car has different personalities. Red with a white roof is a little bit sporty; cream with a black roof is a little more solid and tough."
Today's two-tone palette can be traced to the 1920s and '30s, when custom coachmakers employed bold colors on Rolls-Royces or Bugattis to announce the wealth and taste of their owners.
The current trend was kicked off by the arrival in 2001 of the neo-retro Mini, which picked up its white roof from the original Alec Issigonis design.
"I think it influenced a lot of other manufacturers," said J Mays, the retired former head of design at Audi and Ford who oversaw the Ford Flex, a U.S. model with contrasting roof colors. "Some of them are quite successful and some are really terrible, but everyone seems to have jumped on that bandwagon."
Two-tone designs can serve several goals. A white roof can reduce interior temperatures, as on the original Land Rover. Visually, a contrasting roof color can reduce the bulk of a crossover or SUV.
"What Gerry McGovern has done on the Land Rover Velar, with a dark roof and dark tinted glass, is to effectively chop the car in half and eliminate the extra mass on the top," Mays said, referring to the latest model from Land Rover's chief design officer.
In today's automated and hyper-efficient factories, painting a car in two colors can add cost and complexity, automotive coatings suppliers said.
"Bi-tone paint finishes are always more labor intensive because of the masking they require," a spokeswoman from Axalta Coating Systems in Switzerland said. "That means the need for more people, which in turn can mean the potential for mistakes."
Mark Gutjahr, BASF's head of automotive color design for Europe, said the process generally involves painting the entire shell in body color and clear coat, then masking off with foil any parts that will remain in that color. A second color is applied, flashed off and clear coated, then the foil is removed.
The second color is applied either in a second line, which means additional investment, or on a second run in the main line, which reduces capacity, Gutjahr said. Those are trade-offs that automakers are willing to accept.
Two-tone designs are often part of a trim package that can boost the price of a car by thousands of euros. "The demand is much higher than we thought" for bi-tone options, said Matthew Harrison, vice president of sales and marketing at Toyota Europe, which offers two-tone options on the Aygo, Yaris, Auris and C-HR.
"We're having to constantly argue with manufacturing to raise the production capacity levels."
Robin Page, senior vice president of design at Volvo Cars, said the new XC40 compact crossover was designed from the start to have different roof colors. "If you look back at vintage cars, they used to play with two tones, but this is done in a really modern way and it does change the character," Page said. "The XC40 was definitely a car where we said, 'OK, we'd love to have the R-Design versions with a black roof and the Momentum trim line with a white roof.'"
The European champions for customization might be the Opel Adam minicar, which offers eight roof colors and 20 body colors, and the Renault Captur subcompact crossover, with four roof colors and 11 body colors.
The two-tone trend probably has a few years left. A number of models, including the Volkswagen T-Roc, Seat Arona, Opel Grandland X, Kia Stonic and Hyundai Kona have not yet officially debuted or are just reaching the markets.
Automakers and suppliers continue to experiment with different processes, including printing and the use of different finishes such as matte and gloss in the same color. "There are future possibilities that will enable this trend to become bigger," said BASF's Gutjahr said.
As to when it will end? "Ubiquity usually relegates everything to the trash bin," Mays said. "For the companies that have this as part of their brand DNA such as Mini or Land Rover, it won't go out of style."
Douglas A. Bolduc contributed to this report
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