I'm attending the 12 hours of Sebring sports car race this weekend. As such I have prepared my CLS to do us CLS owners proud. Last year I was the only CLS there amoungst what had to have been 20,000 plus spectator cars. And YES you can believe I fielded a lot of questions as to what the car is.
Anyway . . ... for the person trying to decide between black and silver take at look at the picture. My CLS is almost 2 years old (bought June 2000) and has had average care from an enthusiaist owner. By that I mean the car is polished 3 to 4 times a year and washed nearly every weekend. No fancy polish (like Zaino) just Meguire's Gold class available at any store. It has 33k miles and as my handle states it is bone stock.
Now I'm sorry silver fans, but I just don't think your silver cars can look this good no matter how good of care you take of them. There is just someting elegant about a clean black car.
Race fans Acura will open up its show room stock racing program this weekend at Sebring. I for one will be rooting for REAL TIME racing this weekend. Last year at Sebring REAL TIME opened up the season by sweeping both show room stock races!

 

Rear view

 

That the truth, need to see some more assurance? check out the pics

http://www.picturetrail.com/bsmith_tsg

""Now I'm sorry silver fans, but I just don't think your silver cars can look this good no matter how good of care you take of them. There is just someting elegant about a clean black car""".

 

Damn good lookin bone. That looks like a 4 hour car wash to me.

 

Nice. Yeah I gotta admit...black is hands down the best looking color for the CL...but after owning 3 black cars I just decided it wasn't worth all the trouble. If I did have a black one though...I'd throw some tint on it and "kick it up a notch".

 

Looking good my man......but you live in Florida. I'll guarantee you it's alot easier to keep black looking good there than it is here in Washington State. We don't get to wash our cars every weekend. Hence my choice of silver....

 

dude, i feel the same way as yutedog, i live in new york.i've got to deal with the snow and the salt. Not to mention the idiots that like to touch the car when it's dirty, hece, i got the silver. but black def looks good when keep clean.With the black, i'd have scraches and spider marks in about a week.

 

I agree black looks awesome right after you wash/wax it but it's so freakin hard to keep clean! I have a 2002 Silver CLS and between the keeping clean issue and the 110 degree Dallas summers, Silver was the only way to go. BUT your ride does look good man.

 

Thanks so much Bone for posting your pictures - I was the person asking about black vs silver and your car looks awesome!

I will definitely be showing my husband the pics tonight (he loves the black as well).

Karen

 

I almost agree !

Your Car Looks Great, and Black is Awesome Color, and when it came time for me to choose between black and silver for my CL-S it wasn't easy. My logic wasn't totally ruled by "it's just too darn hard to keep black clean" ! When I saw the Silver I just thought it was a Classy looking, clean-lined Car !

Both are Awesome Colors: you Won't be Wrong Choosing either

 

When freshly washed and waxed, black is a 10+. The next day its a 7. The next week its a 1.

When freshly washed and waxed, silver is an 8. The next day its still an 8. The next week its a 7. Next month its a 5.

I'm too lazy to wash my car every day or even every week.

 

almost forgot a small downside to silver...you can't get body colored mud guards unless you paint them yourself (they're black). I decided not to get them because they just didn't look right on silver.

 

Thanks for all the compliments folks, but for those of you saying black is too hard to take care of you missed my point in starting this thread. As stated above my car pictured above is nearly 2 years old and has 33,000 miles on it. I really didn't do that much to make it look like it does above. As long as rain doesn't flood the streets it'll stay looking like it does above for a week. The only reason I wash it once a week is I can't stand the black dust that builds up on the front wheels. Not only that, but the dust build up is corrosive. Just my .02!

 

Whatever you say...

 

I like the black splashguards on the 01 silvers. It matches well with treated tires, 2-tone mirrors, and black interior. I like the way it breaks the color up a bit. I hate cars that are all one color, sort of like a crayola crayon or a minivan. I like the chrome grill, headlights, door handles, and 2-tone mirrors. And the rims really work well with silver.

 

Is that a Bird House on the Hood ... or is it Bird Poop ......... ?

 

Well hell...might as well show mine !

http://www.acura-cl.com/forums/showt...id=57016:cool:

 

I agree that black is SWEET! BTW, how did you get that "sparkle" on your front fender??

But just remember, that the lady asking about black vs. silver, she's from Vancouver. We get rain almost 1/2 the year here! If I lived in SoCal or Florida, I too would choose black.

 

talking about photoshop...did you use solar flares??

 

I agree. After seeing a few black CLS on the road, I regret getting silver.

My next vehicle will be black.

 

Black looks good for about 20 minutes, then it drizzles and looks like crap. I had 3 integras before my CLS....all black. I can tell you, they show every damn nick, chip, and scratch times ten. My silver CLS stays clean (looking) for weeks at a time, even up here in MA...and the inevitable hood chips are almost completely invisible on the silver version. Black does look sharp, but at what cost??

HAIL TO SILVER!!!

 

Dude you live in Florida. Try driving up here in PA during the winter then you'll soon figure out what people are talking about. Road salt everywhere, freezing weather (too cold to wash), serious acid rain, etc. My 3 cents .

 

That's exactly what I was going to say, zero. I lived in Florida for 6 years and there is NO weather (other than rain/wind type stuff). Not to mention no potholes, concrete freeways, chicks in buttfloss.....it just ain't the same down there!!!

 

For the folks asking about the sparkle on the fender it was just natural. No photoshop. I had just washed and polished the car (as mentioned earlier just Meguire's Gold class) and the sun just happened to be in the perfect position when I snapped the digi cam.
For all the people up North I feel your pain and understand your position. I have never had to face freezing weather on the weekends when I wash the car. Given those conditions I might have picked another color too!

 

I have the Black and live north of Boston. It is tough keeping the car clean but I would never have gone with silver. I like the transformation in really detailing the car and with silver, you get a 40% enhancement for 5 hours work (and detailing is therapy for me).

So I wash it once a week, laser no-touch it in the winter, clay/Klasse/Blitz it in the spring, Blitz it all summer and that's it.

To really answer the question, I would not get the black Acura again because I think Acura paint sucks. After 18 months it is in worse shape from pits and flakes than my 23 year old Mercedes.