What's the difference between ～みたい and ～っぽい in the following sentences?

Question

逃げたのは黒っぽい車でした。

逃げたのは黒みたいな車でした。

Why is the first sentence better than the second one?

Answer 1

逃げた【にげた】のは黒っぽい【くろっぽい】車【くるま】でした。

っぽい

• Used with a noun or verb stem to form i-adjectives to express the meaning "feels that way" or "has the tendency to".

• Used with nouns that express colors to express the meaning "has that color/characteristic" or "close to that color/characteristic".

逃げた【にげた】のは黒【くろ】みたいな車【くるま】でした。

NみたいなN

Example Sentence

この薬【くすり】は、チョコレートみたいな味【あじ】がする。

This medicine tastes like chocolate.

When used in this form, N2 (our 車) is described by giving an example of something (N1, our 黒) that bears resemblance. In this example sentence, you can see that the medicine bears resemblance to chocolate (in its taste).

Conclusion

Since "black" bears no resemblance to a "car" in this sense (the color "black" doesn't have the shape of a "car", etc; plus, using でした versus a verb that could possibly connect the "car" and "black" with みたいな better), we cannot use みたいな in this way and therefore っぽい is the better choice.