Brave Brown

I saw a brown late-model 5-series BMW sedan near Jackson Square in SF last month. That's a very brave color. The car was dirty, so it was difficult to place the color as really good or bad. Certainly unusual, it it made me realize you don;t see many new brown cars (in the US at least). It also made me me re-think my "BMW owners are followers, not leaders" position. Buying a 5-series in brown requires some thought and appreciation.

A visit to the BMW USA website proved frustrating, as I couldn't really match that color with what they had offered. I think it's the amethyst grey. But it didn't seem grey to me at-all. It's possible the owner had it custom painted, or perhaps it was a model brought from Europe.

It doesn't really matter, as what interests me is how color affects carma. It's easy and appropriate to drive a red Ferrari, but there are those that buck the trend and try silver, or even blue. This speaks to me. It says "yes, I can afford and appreciate a Ferrari, but don't need to follow the expected color choice." A blue Ferrari says "fuck you" in a most delicious way. This is how I felt with the brown BMW. Any idiot can purchase a silver or black BMW–no-one will question it. But it's taking the risk of the unexpected color that excites and interests me.

It's also possible the brown BMW owner really didn't think too much about the color, or found brown as inoffensive as silver. I hope they thought all the nuance and performance of the 5-series would be wasted if it looked like the average BMW owner's car. They needed to go beyond the average. And that's carma.