Color-changing car paint

[mtbc]

While standing somewhere around Lennox Town Center in Columbus, Ohio, looking out over the car lot, I watched a car slowly drive past and change color as it did so. For me the color change was a remarkable surprise. At some point a little later I saw another such vehicle and I thought that this new paint makes a welcome change and I would no doubt be seeing plenty more such vehicles on the roads. How wrong I was, surely well over a decade ago now.

Subsequent searching online found me interference pigments with brand names such as ChromaFlair®. These days I find that many such articles are dated around back when I first saw such paint for myself; I don't see later articles explaining why such pigments never became popular on cars. Perhaps I was unusual in being delighted by the effect or there are costs rather greater than those I have been able to uncover.