I do a lot of kvetching about the sad lack of color to be found in the automotive world, and I think I’m right to kvetch, as we are in the grips of a severe chromatic crisis, where actual, genuine colors have been muscled out of our global carscape by the pervasive and insidious specter of achromatic colors. You know what I mean, the brutal grayscale horde, white, black, and a never-ending gradient of gray.
Anyone who looks out a window at any random road or parking lot knows what I’m talking about here; the vast majority of cars out there are some shade of gray. Sure, automakers try to mask this by giving the non-colors evocative names like Slate and Dusklight and Graphite and Ennui and Abandonment, but the result is a world further denuded of color.
This is a well established trend, not just in the automotive world, but among almost all human-made things. For whatever reasons, we seem to be sucking the color out of everything, and there’s even been studies showing this to be true. Also, it sucks.
That’s the global color chart from BASF’s 2023 Color Report, and you can see how dominant the grayscale goons are. It’s 81% achromatic! Ugh. How is it in just America?
Oh it’s a little better in America. 80% achromatic. Again, ugh. Has it gotten any better recently? Here’s the 2025 global report:
Oh crap, it’s worse. 88% grayscale. And that’s not even counting beige. Blue is the top color at 6%, then red and green at 3% – green making a sort of surprise increase here – and everything else is barely hanging on at 1%.
My headline was hopeful, though! And here I am being all gray and gloomy! But I am hopeful, and I’ll explain why: the past two press cars I’ve received have both been blessed with actual, real colors! Honestly, it’s been far too long.
The first was a Volkswagen Tiguan R-Line, which arrived in a deceptively subtle shade of green:
In certain lights, it had a golden cast to it as well, almost iridescent in a way I was not able to fully catch on film. Or pixels. Whatever. I’ll just say it’s better in person, and the color has some real depth and complexity.
Volkswagen calls it “Avocado Green Metallic” after that stuff you can put on toast that will eventually prevent you from being able to buy a house, or something like that. It’s definitely a real color, but it’s also subtle enough that it could be a good way to lure those candy-asses too afraid of real colors to come over to the side of light.
I liked it a lot, and I have to donate props to VW for offering an actual, if perhaps subtle, green.
But then the real whammy rolled up to my house:
Hell yeah, Toyota! Yellow has been my favorite car color for decades – over the years, I’ve owned, let’s see, five yellow cars, and still have two. And this Prius is clad in a wonderfully, unashamed yellow! It’s close to School Bus yellow, but not quite. It’s less orange, and a little deeper. Toyota calls it Karashi:
For those of you who don’t know, like me ten minutes ago, Karashi is a kind of Japanese Mustard:
Here’s how our pals at Kikkoman describe it:
Karashi / Japanese mustard (辛子 in Japanese) is a condiment made by adding powdered Japanese mustard seeds into water or kneaded into paste form in warm or cold water. Karashi is primarily sold in tubes in Japan. The distinctive spice, felt at the back of your nose, is perfect for enhancing the taste of Oden hot pot dishes, “aemono” (dressed dishes often made with fresh seasonal vegetables) or “natto” (fermented soybeans).
That “felt at the back of your nose” thing struck me as odd at first, until I realized I know exactly what they’re talking about.
This yellow works so well on the new Prius design – which is vastly better than the previous generations of awkward-looking Priuses – and it made me realize how a, say, silver Prius can just turn into another anonymous suppository, but put it in this yellow and then the sporty, sleek, fun aspects of the design really shine.
Color matters.
When the press fleet driver dropped off the car, he mentioned that he wasn’t sure about the color, and he said it like it made him uncomfortable. That struck me as sad, because it’s a reminder of how conditioned we have become to being uneasy with real colors, which is a miserable state of affairs.
But the fact that these two huge carmakers, VW and Toyota, have both decided to let their press fleet cars exist in bold, unashamed colors, I take that as a good sign, a sign of hope. If these are they cars they want the press to see, the cars they want photographed and shown to the world, then maybe, just maybe, that means the pendulum is swinging back to a world with colorful cars.
I have a vision! A vision that requires color vision, a vision of a future where our roads look like a bag of Skittles was decanted all over them, a myriad of color everywhere. Seeing these cars ignited a little spark of hope, a hope that we will be freed from this automotive grayscale prison, led out by mustard and avocado-colored cars.
We all just have to believe!
Karashi is a really great color, especially for the new Prius. Makes me a little sad you can’t get a nice set of Bumblebee-esque racing stripes for it too, considering this is the first Prius with factory hustle.
The problem, as with any Toyota, is not the machinery itself, it’s overcoming the dealership. They have that biblical greed.
A close GMC dealer, the 3rd largest in the country, doesn’t do that dealer markup nonsense. We might get a Yukon after this ’16 Escalade dies (it’s already nearly there…) from that dealer
While we’re bringing back colors, can we also bring back decent quality paint? My wife’s northsky blue Silverado looks great, but will scratch if you breathe on it wrong. I had to buy a touchup kit after having it less than a month.
I’m one of the peeling-white afflicted.
Re: the color: it was an ex uhaul, I have to take what I can get. I miss my sunburst yellow Sentra every day.
Ah, Torch. I’m gonna have to disagree with you. Not on colors; my rant on cars only coming in ‘Boredom, Ennui, Depression and Red’ has officially reached the ‘rolling eyes, tuning out’ phase with folks – but about the current gen Prius.
It looked very pretty when it first came out, but it basically makes the car much, much worse. The ability to carry stuff is compromised, it’s harder to see out of, and I think it’s become the vehicular embodiment of Smooth_Spongebob.jpg
I am so sick of boring car colors. And black interiors. So, so sick of it.
Bring back more reds, oranges, yellows, teals, something. Anything. The sea of silver and gray…. so bad.
I don’t understand the logic of I’ll get sick of a color. Aren’t you sick of the grey scale or neutral color just looking at it once. I’m so sick of the German rainbow including the reds and burgandys. We need real colors.
I just heard some tech bro talking about his rivian blue rivian and saying how much he likes the color after taking a chance on it and only having “tame” colors. My first thought was yeah you idiot what did you expect. You like the color, it’s a decent color, did you not learn about colors in kindergarten or before? But I know there are a absolute ton of people like him. It’s sad. It’s probably a condition that needs some kind of medication with lots of z’s in the name because it’s fun to say while you are looking at a grey scale and beige world you have created for yourself.
My sister says she is a “beige mom” and is proud of it. Apparently that mean no colors. Her house is rather depressing. She is now saying her teenage daughter is the same and she owns it. No colors 20 “Stanley cups” in muted tones of something. Maybe 10 years ago my artist phycologist sister saw a car that was the exact car of the beige mom sister and she said she would kill herself if she had that color car. She didn’t believe me that it was the same. We were heading to her house anyway she made a b line to the garage and was observing the car in silence then went you were right it’s the same I can’t believe it why did she buy this. It was the Subaru khaki band aid beige. Really a horrible color but they sold a ton of them. Despite having some actual ok to good colors to choose from at the time.
What is sort of disturbing to me is people might also grow in this stupid grey scale world. I have a young couple that live not far from me. Guy has a blue wrx that never works. His wife had a light blue cross trec. He also has a blue raptor. It works all blue fleet. Then they traded the cross trec in for a new cross trec but white. Then he traded in his raptor for a new raptor but black. I asked him about it and he just went oh yeah wanted something new and more refined on both. Is the lack of color more refined ? Is this the distopian world someone has sold all these people. I would imagine if he could figure out how to get the blue wrx out of his garage to a dealer that would take it on trade that would turn black too.
For me, something like yellow is a color I might not want to drive every day, but I’m not a huge fan of yellow in the first place. Another issue is lack of availability of colors. When I got my Focus ST, I ended up with white because the only available color anywhere near me was metallic yellow with stripes, but even if I had time to wait for an order (in the market because my car got totaled), the blue was boring dark old lady blue that’s more high maintenance than black because it needs to be kept clean to not look terrible, but it’s tougher to color match and the only other color was red (not a bad red, but none around). I got the bright blue on the GR86 because it was the brightest real color that wasn’t generic “sports cars must be red”, but I would have preferred a bright emerald green or violet like Alfa Romeo or BMW have. Even when Toyota did the limited Hakone green, it’s kind of dark and flat looking and Subaru did the purple on the BRZ, it’s so dark it’s tough to see that it’s purple in anything but bright light.
I can understand why people are scared of some neon type colors. Certain body styles handle it better then others. Smuf blue doesn’t always look good. It could be one of the most divisive colors. I almost think the less sporty the car the more wild the color can be. Jeep and ram had all those neon colors that were mainly special order. They just sort of worked. The neon colors work on the broncos. But the smurf blue or yellow on a mustang or chargers I’ve heard people get sick of and I can see it. Could need a break now and then. That green on the 05 though maybe 07 mustang worked. The color aged well and I’ve never really heard anyone sick of those. The same with the new beatle colors. I’ve only heard people sick of the red. Primary or pastel colors seem safe enough and most people are good with them long term.
I’ve painted a few trucks safety green that just sort of works. Just like that primary green that Toyota and Nissian are using a lot now. Iridescence colors aren’t used enough could be a good way to sneak more colors in. GM had a color they called dragonfly green in the mid 2000s as a no or low cost option that wasn’t optioned enough. It was sort of a teal green that looked green, blue, and had some yellow in it. I think it might have been their answer to mystichrome but wasn’t quite as bold. Sometime white is the best option because the rest of the colors are just so terribe muted and German rainbow.
Yeah, the Smurf (Neptune) blue is a bit much on some days, but the other options weren’t all that appealing. The other blue reminds me of my Mazda3’s Stratos blue that only looked good when clean and in bright light. There’s the red, and the rest are non-colors except for the later limited editions that were the disappointing green or colors I also wouldn’t want to live with every day, like orange and yellow (not that it mattered as they weren’t available at the time).
Hyundai has what they call Neoteric yellow that’s actually more of a neon green. I’ve seen several konas with it. Its quite eye catching. It might be right on the edge of what non stick up ass people but not fully let’s do everything full crazy color people can daily. Especially with the konas look. They have their sort of mars red orange you don’t see much I get what they were trying to do with it I just think it has too much red. Just a little bit more orange like the element had and it would have a been a decent color not for everyone but some and probably more then the color they put out. That’s a big part of the issue trying to appeal to the stick up ass people. They will just buy the German rainbow, no reason to consider them in the color choices. In many cases there had to be some designer recommending actual colors then get turned into shades of grey and silver by committee.
Perhaps your friend needs a blue house and a blue Corvette.
Oh he has a blue house, I don’t think he is a gm guy.
Just a comment on this, I walked past a new building in my town yesterday that I haven’t really seen before, and it’s one of the most depressing looking buildings I’ve ever seen. The facade is covered in dark khaki/blueish gray planks, and the window and door frames are black. It’s horrendously sterile. It has no soul whatsoever. What’s maybe worse, people are building these same big black block extensions on their existing houses that look modern. The only problem is the original house is from the 70s. I don’t understand how someone can greenlight such a project for their own home.
The black windows and doors frames and black windows are interesting they have be “in” for at least 6 years so I expect they will go “out” soon. There is this style or house I see built almost everywhere. It’s like a white box with black windows and trim. Black roof varying complexity. When I first saw one I thought not to bad a little sterile but ok looking because it was in the middle of nowhere outside a town that was a bit depressed. So anything that wasn’t a run down FHA house was a welcome sight. But now I’ve seen them everywhere. The big “modern” black extensions have gotten too popular too. It’s going to be a very dated thing. Like the built it media center that doesn’t fit a tv. Or those 70s / 80s green house extensions.
I feel bad now for having two black cars,to my defence they are old and it was a coincidence,don’t judge.
Very topical discussion of the broader “color recession” across cars, houses, appliances, clothes… Ugh. I didn’t go look at all of Torch’s links to the broader trend, but likely some overlap in sources.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/08/colorless-gray-products-houses/688174/
I remember reading like *decades* ago in a textbook that during economically uncertain or politically conservative times, women’s dresses got longer, and the fashionable colors became more drab.
I expect by 2030 women will be wearing ballgowns and everything will be greige.
The way things are going I think women are closer to handmaid’s habits than ballgowns.
Once we finally solve the exterior paint color problem, can we move on to getting rid of the all black interior? I am not suggesting going back to green and blue velvet interiors of the 70s (although that would be cool). I just want a non-black interior choice in my car. When we were looking for my wife’s new car a few years back, finding one on the lot without a black interior (and an actual color) was a difficult task.
I couldn’t agree more. When I was shopping for an e36 M3 in 2018, I specifically sought out one without a black interior. Ended up settling for an Alpine White exterior with a Sand Beige interior. Sadly that car recently had to be replaced, but I found a Hellrot (Bright Red) exterior e36 M3 sedan with an unfortunately black interior to replace it.
Hellrot is a good colour.
Cool name anyway.
Yeah, just one other option would be fine—either red or blue can work most other colors.
My daughter came home with a primer gray Odyssey last year and I made the mistake of asking her what color she was going to paint it!!
This is the kind of journalism I’m proud to have my membership to pay for.
I totally don’t get this passage, can you explain what this means please?
$10 you spend on some toast with avocado shmear on it is $10 you can’t put on a down payment or monthly payments. It adds up.
There’s a meme about the US boomer generation blaming the lack of affordability of housing for younger generations to these “Millennials” (often used for any generation younger than them, skipping Gen X because everyone always has) is down to them wasting money on extravagance like avocado spread for toast. It was intended by the boomer as an insult, but ended up as emblematic for how completely out of touch they are to the reality, inability to do basic math, and conveniently forgetting how much easier they had it.
Thx!
My 260Z was Avocado green, too. Not a top color I’d pick, but it even that was far less muted than that VW.
It does look pretty cool.
Tried to get interested in the article because I believe color is important. This was not a story that supports varied color. Jason you disappointed me. It is everything that the Autopian site is supposed to be against.
When I read the story Jason supported varied colours,maybe it was changed at some point.
There’s a number of perplexing posts by this one that don’t seem to be related to the topic or are even in contradiction to it. Maybe drunk posting?
It all comes down to costs when you talk about car colors.Black,White,and Grey are a lot less expensive to buy.Red has always been the most expensive and Pearls are labor intensive. Yellow,Blue,Orange,and Green are great colors but the average buyer really doesn’t care.The accountants know that so unless it’s an ultra expensive car most don’t offer colors because it cuts the profit margin.If a color is offered it is usually an option anymore.
While you’re right that supercars and other forms of ultraluxe mechanical peacocking have always gotten the widest palette, going back to at least the mid-20th-century, the best color variation has come in the bottom of the market, with compact economy cars having the most vibrant rainbow. I have a few theories on this –
One, that being physically small, dealers order brighter colors to literally make them stand out on the lot.
Two, being inexpensive, consumers are more willing to take a risk on a color they may fall out love with in a few years, and a unit painted Neon Fuscia Riot Alarm sitting on the lot is less of a loss for a dealer. Also, a lower residual price means consumers may be more willing to gamble on a lower trade-in/resale.
Three, since there’s little that can be done to differentiate from competition on features when the list is ‘none, basically’, offering an interesting color is a real advantage.
I’ve been lurking on the reddit for a particular car, and I saw a post “Buyer‘s color remorse, should I wrap it?” with a picture of a white vehicle. My heart leaps!
I click thru to the post. They are thinking of a gray wrap. My heart sinks.
I’m really looking forward to what people wrap their Slates with. Third party companies will print any wrap you want and install it for $500.
There should be some fun printed ones too especially for businesses. Any color that stands out. The neon greens and the yellows look sharp on it.
Installed for 500$, really? That’s crazy. They must be really easy to wrap.
If I see a Slate with a white wrap, I’m going to shake my head so hard I’l get a cervical vertebrae problem. Though I guess if they actually get commercial sales, it will happen.
I remember a car talk probably 20 year ago. A women called in because she was going to buy or order a Prius. But said there aren’t any really good colors. They asked her ideal color was she said pink or purple I think. They said you could paint it or probably better to get it wrapped. Then told her buy the white it will be easier to wrap or paint.