[Bootsie]

My hubby and I are considering the 2013 Rio hatchback. Our colour choices are narrowed down to the white and red. We both are leaning towards white because it makes the features of the car stand out...(more contrast).

We have heard that, surprisingly, dirt is more noticable on dark colours but that white might make rust more visible. Any thoughts/problems/likes with your colour choice?

 

[LordHelmet]

white is nice, the red is pretty nice too.
i would base it on preference.... white will get dirty fast. i have black and it gets dirty really really fast.
i think silver is easiest to keep "looking" clean.
either way i'm sure you will love it.

 

[MFury]

Keep the car clean from salt and you shouldn't have to worry about rust. I had a red Koup previous to my new white Rio and I find the dirt visibility to be low on both. What is more noticeable is bird crap on the red. I got undercoating and opticoat package to protect the paint better when I bought it.

 

[yiannos18]

I'd say white if you're looking for easiest maintenance of colour, plus, it hides scratches really well... unless you do some serious paint trading, then no colour is safe!

as far as keeping it clean goes, the colour of mine (Latte, don't know what its called over there) is by far the easiest to keep clean.. proof

Dirty:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0sy43uk66my62l2/2013-05-10 13.59.30.jpg

Clean:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qg9jwyhcjr1uj1v/2013-05-11 16.17.40.jpg

apologies for miserable photo quality.. and the dirty pic was taken with 5 weeks worth of rain, dirt, road grime, etc built up on it. Not bad, hey?

 

[imay]

Our Rio . . . well, my wife's Rio is Rich Caramel. Different, not a lot on the roads here - only seen 1 other of this color and it happened to be the same SLS model!
Hides the dirt pretty well, but looks fabulous when it is clean and parked in the sunshine.

 

[Kizzyr]

Here is my white, 3-door Rio. I was a bit sceptical of the paint colour at first but it was the last one they had left at a special price. After three months, I would say I am very happy with the white colour. It looks nice and as you said, makes the car's features stand out.

Dust is not so visible on the paint, but all road grime (especially from wet roads) is very visible on both sides of the car (in my opinion).

However, my girlfriend says she never notices any difference after I give the car a wash, so I guess to most people the grime is not so visible!

Well, when any form of nasty material is stuck on the white paint, it is very very visible. I seem to keep getting bird/bat droppings and tree saps on the car. Oh well at least I get to remove these harmful materials fast before they cause any damage to the paint.

 

[LA-Foal]

I got the red Rio and I'm happy with the color. Dirt is not very visible except for the bird crap as mentioned by MFury.

 

[sirwm]

I have white.

It is a fine color. Red was my second choice.
At the time of my purchase, white was in stock.

 

[Bootsie]

Thanks for all the replies. Looks like we'll probably go with the white and just give it the occasional wash.

Sounds like colour options are different depending on the country. We don't have Latte for example. Our choices were:

Aurora Black Pearl
Clear White
Chestnut Brown
Graphite (grey)
Signal Red
Bright Silver
Tanzanite Blue Pearl
Deep Ocean Blue pearl
Caramel Yellow

Kizzyr - I noticed that your windows are dark tint...is that after market? We didn't see an option for tinting on the kia website. Also, I noticed the lights on the outside top of the headlights are white on yours... in our pics the Rio has yellow there...did yours come that way? It looks way better. Here's what ours wold look like...

 

[Wry 'Cuda]

We went for white with our Cerato; another nice colour was a bronze, but I prefer "straight" colours rather than metallic, because they're easier to colour-match in case of repair.

My son reckons his car looks a bit like a "Priest's Car" because of the white colour and conservative styling. White doesn't show road grime too badly, and the occasional wash is all that we need. In the city, a slightly dirty car is less likely to attract attention from low-life vandals.

 

[Caleb217]

Go for the red . People love it i went for a jog in the park and was approaching my car where a group of kids walked by and fought over who would get the red Rio

My car does't show dirt because i wash it almost every day. Not because its dirty just because i love a clean car

 

[imay]

I'm guessing you are in the northern hemisphere where the yellow/orange in the headlight (I believe) is a marker or indicator light. Us southern hemisphere people have a white plastic (non-illuminated) insert in this area. Serves no purpose other than a fill-in.

White is a great choice and would have been my wife's next choice. Picked the caramel cos it was available and we picked it up at demo price cos it had sat in the showroom for long enough that they wanted to move it. Our advantage that no one else thought it looked good! Looks better outside than it does under fluoro lights in a showroom.

 

[imay]

In the end it's really up to what you like . . . and availability.

 

[Kizzyr]

Kizzyr - I noticed that your windows are dark tint...is that after market? We didn't see an option for tinting on the kia website. Also, I noticed the lights on the outside top of the headlights are white on yours... in our pics the Rio has yellow there...did yours come that way? It looks way better. Here's what ours wold look like...

Yes, I got aftermarket tinting done. I know that some dealers (at least those in Australia) also engage aftermarket tinters to come and tint their cars. I went with 3M Color Stable 35 (3M Automotive Window Film CS 35: Automotive Window Films: 3M Europe (English)), which allows 35% of the light through (that's the darkest legal limit here). It actually isn't that dark depending on the angle you look from, but when you're in the car you can actually see things through the tint very clearly even at night.

That white accent on the headlights, I'm pretty sure it's been mentioned somewhere in this forum that it is supposed to be used for parking light in some parts of the world. Here in Australia it seems to have no function (hence, it's white). Seems that if it's used as parking light then it'll be orange/yellow like the car in your picture... I think someone in this forum can provide a better answer than me.

 

[Kizzyr]

This site (which belongs to the guys that tinted my Rio) has a useful video on how to choose a tinter... May be of interest to you Bootsie.

Car Window Tinting | Ultra Tint – Window Tinting Gold Coast

 

[Bootsie]

Yep! I'm in Canada so that's probably why we have the yellow lights.....darn...

Cale217 - I agree the Red on your car does look really nice too.

 

[Rum Runner]

I've had a few cars over the years. White actually hides the dirty better than you would think.
I just got the black and I live on a dirt road. Very hard to keep clean, but I knew that as my Jimmy is black.
White stays much cooler than a darker color so that may be a consideration.
On the flip side I chose black as we get lots of light snow falls in the spring and fall and for sure the black helps melt the snow off. I brush off a lot less snow than my co-worker beside me with a silver car.
Red may have a better re-sale value in case you are not 100% sure if keeping the car for the long haul...

Ultimately color should be your choice

Cheers,
Paul

 

[sargeants]

I just got my white Rio5 last week.. and was also sceptical of the colour. Wanted the dark blue pearl, or graphite... but they only had the white available in my timeframe (instant).

The yellow is part of the DRL. Since the dealer couldn't get me the colours I wanted, they compensated by giving me a free tint (since I already signed and agreed on the price which included the paint fee, I think it's about fair)
I plan on making it part of the signal as well, rather than just the smaller inner light.

Today the dirt is showing with all the rain and stuff around. Will just make me take good care of it so it doesn't look so dirty all the time.

 

[beedee]

white for the win!

 

[Bootsie]

Looks like we're going for white! Financing was approved today so we're just waiting for them to locate one. Yay! Thanks for all the feedback. I think we'd have been happy with either colour but white just stands out for some reason.