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Man Sees Parking Lot Fulls Of Cars That Fell Victim To The ‘Millennial Grey’ Movement. Then He Looks At His Own: ‘I’m Guilty’

"I’m hoping rock chips are less noticeable."

Man Sees Parking Lot Fulls Of Cars That Fell Victim To The ‘Millennial Gray’ Movement. Then He Looks At His Own

Photo by: alexcamrs

Steve Ecker

By: Steve Ecker

Oct 27, at 7:00am ET

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A man noticed something oddly familiar while looking across a parking garage: nearly every car seemed to be dressed in the same muted color palette.

Alex (@alexcamrs), a Seattle-based content creator, spotted the pattern while looking at a row of cars in a nondescript parking garage. He then realized the “Millennial grey” aesthetic may have made its way into the automotive world.

“I just realized that the Millennial grey movement went from homes to cars. And I’m guilty,” Alex says, suggesting one of the cars in the parking lot is one of his own.

He told Motor1 the color had already started to lose some of its appeal for him.

“At first I thought it was cool, but once I saw a Toyota minivan in the chalk grey color, I knew it was done for sure. I just got rid of my grey car,” Alex said.

The clip pans across a lineup dominated by shades of gray, silver, and white, with little to no color breaking up the scene.

As of this writing, Alex’s video had more than 86,700 views.

Are Cars Actually Getting Greyer?

Alex isn’t imagining the shift to more muted vehicle colors. But there’s no evidence this phenomenon is led by Millennials. USA Today reports that neutral colors have long dominated the automotive market.

According to a study by ISeeCars.com that USA Today cited white, black, silver, and gray accounted for more than three-quarters (80%) of the car market, up from 47% in 1996. White remains the most popular color at 26%, followed by black and gray. The study notes that the most adventurous buyers are, unsurprisingly, sports car owners, who account for 36% of the market share for non-grayscale shades.

International chemical company BASF’s 2025 color report similarly shows grey gaining two percentage points globally, even as white declined slightly. Black accounted for about 18% of the car market, while the top three car colors were blue, red, and green, it notes.

In America, specifically, grey is getting more popular. BASF reports that while the number of grey cars on the market dipped slightly in 2025, there’s still significantly more on the road today than in 2023. Meanwhile, colored car paints in America rose by about two percentage points, with red and blue historically leading.

But the grey takeover isn’t new. Some outlets, such as Auto Remarketing, documented the uptick in grey cars dating back to 2023.

Still, signs suggest drivers may be getting a little more adventurous. Car and Driver reported in May that the share of chromatic colors rose by nearly two percentage points in “recent years,” with green, brown, and violet gaining ground.

So the parking garage Alex filmed may look particularly monochromatic, but the broader trend is real: Most new cars are still being painted some variation of white, black, gray, or silver.

Grey-Car Owners Defend Their Choices

The comments quickly filled with drivers realizing Alex may have a point, including several people suddenly confronting their own place in the trend.

“My God, he’s right! My last two cars have been slate grey,” one person admitted.

Another echoed: “Oops, same.”

But plenty of viewers defended the color choice. One commenter argued gray hits a sweet spot between lighter and darker cars.

“It’s acceptable on cars because if you have a cool grey one that keeps your car cooler, but two, I feel like grey cars look cleaner than white or black cars,” they said.

Another grey-car-owning Millennial offered a more practical explanation.

“I also have a grey car and am a Millennial, but I have a grey car because the color under the paint is also grey and I’m hoping rock chips are less noticeable,” the person added.

Others insisted that not all grey is created equal.

“I have a grey Mazda, but at least it isn’t the flat grey; it’s like a metallic gray that looks kinda blue in certain light,” one viewer said.

Another person offered a succinct defense of the aesthetic: “But make it fancy.”

The monochrome trend apparently isn’t limited to Alex’s parking garage, either. “My block is full of grey, black, and white car[s],” one person said.

Some viewers preferred the grey invasion to another common car color altogether. “Better than those plain boring black cars,” one argued.

What do you think?

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And at least one commenter pushed back on pinning the whole thing on Millennials: “Why are people obsessed with Millennials as if Boomers and Gen-X aren’t still alive and working?”

Another viewer focused on white cars rather than gray, arguing there was a practical reason for choosing a lighter color: “White cars deflect heat. And global warming is here to stay.”

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