Have you ever looked up what the manufacturer of your car says the color of your car is? It’ll almost certainly not be “red,” “yellow,” or “green,” but some mix of words that all add up to a vague description of your car’s color. Toyota has painted cars in “Black Sand Pearl,” “Celestite,” “Barcelona Red Metallic,” and “Blueprint.” Actually, those are just the colors used for Corollas. At least GM’s colors are better because “Pull Me Over Red” is great.
On Friday, Jason wrote about how the best version of the Volkswagen ID.Buzz might be the stripped-down cargo version. Of course, we’re huge fans of poverty-spec vehicles here so we’re digging the steel wheels, the black bumpers, and seeing the design without any frills. But hold on, the ID.Buzz still comes in real colors! Kleinlowe has a great idea:
I’m severely digging the Y2K acid green paint. It’s nice to see colors other than Boredom, Ennui and Metal Flake Seasonal Depression.
Huja Shaw:
Two-tone Regret and Eternal Pessimism are also standard paint jobs.
Nlpnt:
German Leasing Silver, Oops-We-Cleared-The-Primer Gray…
Yesterday, David wrote about how his “Holy Grail” BMW i3S has terrible ride quality. Well, Anoos makes a good point:
Sometimes a Holy Grail melts your face.
Ricardo Mercio gives good advice:
I’m a firm believer that, if you’re considering the sporty version of a less sporty car, you really should consider the “slow” version of a sportier car, if you can manage the practicality concerns. This is because a chassis designed as a sports car will usually have superior suspension geometry, lighter weight and a lower center of gravity, all of which mean it doesn’t need stiff suspension to control its body.
Meanwhile, an economy/family/luxury vehicle will generally have suspension geometry with a focus on NVH and ease of drivability (lower steering effort, better ride over bumps, gross weight capacity). With sub-optimal geometry, a heavier body and (usually) the addition of an even heavier engine, the springs have their work cut out for them in dealing with the body.
Drive an FRS and a Fiesta ST back to back on a rough road, and the Toyobaru will feel like a Rolls Royce by comparison. The Fiesta is certainly more practical and arguably more hardcore, but if you didn’t need the hatch, you’d be better off with the coupe for a daily driver. Likewise, an M2 will ride harsher than a base Cayman, as will a Mustang GT350R compared to a Corvette Stingray.
I can’t stand current budget/practical/family “super”-hatches/saloons/GT’s because they’re always deeply compromised to punch up at something they don’t need to compete with, and always end up as a worse product without a real purpose.
If you only want the top trim of a given car, please try the bottom trim of the more serious model. Chances are, it’ll make a lot more sense.
Contributor James Gilboy gave us a ridiculous deep dive into Nissan Altima drivers. Our favorite joke account, Jatco Xtronic CVT, gives us the real explanation for Big Altima Energy:
Well, many Nissan vehicles, including the Altima, are equipped with the extremely capable Jatco Xtronic CVT. Unfortunately, a lot of Nissan Altima drivers let that raw power, that ultimate capability, go to their heads, and they abuse that power on the road. That is the only downside of the Xtronic: it enables terrifying driving. A testament to how good it truly is, however.
Have a great evening, everyone!
My favorite color name came from a motorcycle journalist whose name I can’t recall, No Imagination Black.
Paint -colors- can not be trademarked, patented, whatever, but the color -names- can be. Thus the array of color names for essentially the same color.
My first purchased car, a ’71 Fiat 128, while a faint dirty green color was named by Fiat Arctic Gray, when any form of green naming convention would do. Here is a four-door version, while mine was a two door.
https://bringatrailer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/1971_fiat_128_img_6576-67212.jpg?w=940
I just happen to have the factory color list for Porsche in 1974 in front of me
Aubergine
Alaska Blue Poly
Dalmatian Blue
Gemini Blue Poly
Glacier Blue
Gulf Blue
Marathon Blue Poly
Olympic Blue
Sepia Brown
Chartreuse
Gold Poly
Beige Gray
Delphy Green Poly
Irish Green
Kelly Green
Leaf Green
Light Green
Ravenna Green
Zambesi Green
Green Poly
Light Ivory
Lilac
Earth Olive
Amber/Signal Orange
Gulf Orange
Raspberry
Bahia Red
Indian Red
Phoenix Red
Silver Silver Poly
Tangerine
Light Yellow
Saturn Yellow
Signal Yellow
Sunflower Yellow
Nine greens!
Of course, there were hundreds of other special order colors and paint to match if wanted.
It would be nice if car colors were listed with their RBG or HEX or even Pantone color values.
That way we would be able to more accurately find comparisons of the colors in real life, and not rely on overly glossy, photoshopped images and configurators.
Or, just be color blind like me, and order only black and silver cars, so you don’t accidentally blind your SO thinking you picked a “good” shade.
https://encycolorpedia.com/
I’ve recently been shopping for siding, which is extremely difficult to visualize on a 20 foot wall when all you have is a six inch color chip. I was desperately wishing for RGB values on each color so I could punch it into my computer and overlay that on a picture of the house.
Remember Statutory Grape?
Great color other than the fact it was as durable as edible underwear.
I often sing the praises of the interior colors of my youth by bemoaning the lack of “whorehouse red” options.
My wife and I have another name for the color depicted in the top photo: Wet Pavement. That flat gray that always, always makes any car simply disappear into the background on a cloudy or stormy day. I don’t know how it’s even legal to sell for street use. It is literally the same color as a rainy day out on the roads.
The paint on my wife’s Subaru is called plasma. And no, it’s not a nice electric blue like lightning or arc welding, or any other gases heated to incandescence.
Subaru “Plasma” is a sort of bile green, which is actually an accurate representation of various bodily fluid plasmas like bile and what blood looks like when you take all the red stuff out.
So give Subaru credit for an accurate color description. It probably sells more than if it were named bile, vomit, or snot.
Ectoplasm!
I bought a new 99 Tacoma and it had this beautiful pearlescent purple color that would seem to transform at different times of day. On the old window sticker it was listed as “Purple”
Must have been some cranky old guy in Toyota’s marketing department circa 1999. I approve. 🙂
I just helped a neighbor buy a new Rav4 and she got it in “Blueprint” which is a metallic dark blue. I’m delighted that it’s not black/white/grey/silver of course, but I’ve always felt that the sparkles in Toyota’s metallics are too big and clumsy, like those you see on many American cars with metallic paint. I much prefer the finer/smaller metallic particles you see in some metallics from BMW, Honda, and Mazda… sometimes, their colors are referred to as ‘pearl’ rather than ‘metallic’ perhaps due to the fine/smoother-looking finish.
Ricardo Mercio’s advice re: choosing a lower trim version of a better car (for your needs/priorities) instead of a sporty/modded version of a car that’s not originally intended for the purpose is WISE and EXCELLENT.
Also, some friends of mine bought a Subaru Forester yesterday (in the low $30s I think) and because buyers have been scrambling to get cars before prices are impacted by tarrifs, they settled for silver, which is a bit sad (but of course I understand, not wanting to wait weeks and pay thousands more for the same car just to get a better color… I’d have done the same) given that Subaru has a fantastic, deep-but-not-dark non-metallic blue available on some of the Forester’s 10 (TEN!) different trims. It’s called “Geyser Blue” and I see it on an Outback at a place I volunteer at every Wednesday. It’s really nice, especially set off by the little orange accents on the Outback. I’m not a fan of all the plastic cladding on Subarus of course (or on any crossover trying to look butch actually) but that’s a complaint for another time.
And I thought Mazda was overdoing it on some models with 8 different trims… but 10? WTF Subaru?
To be fair, it’s really only six trims, with three having a turbo engine option. I don’t know that I’d count a turbo option as a whole separate trim?
They seem to. But your point is well taken Rex. 🙂 I do remember the early 1990s when Apple used to have an entirely different model number for a desktop computer simply because it came with a CD-ROM drive. 🙂
It’s just too many… it makes shopping more laborious and time-consuming than it already is (and for some, shopping is not recreation). 3-4 trim levels seem plenty, provided of course that the manufacturer let buyers also select from some standalone options (like upgraded stereo, tow package, whatever) which of course they rarely do anymore (well, makers of semi-affordable cars rarely offer standalone options anymore beyond what can be installed at the dealership).
But (as is evident) I’m a curmudgeon. Though I’m not SO old and cranky that I can’t manage to still get some vicarious thrill when a friend buys a new car. For their lifestyle (heck, or mine!) a new Forester is a pretty good choice. I’d be even more envious had they managed to get one in Geyser Blue though. 😉
I always liked the name “high school pottery project clear coated gray”.
There was a certain greenish color that Ford had for a few years in the Oughts – I don’t know what it’s official name was, but I always thought of it as “Phlegm Metallic”
Jatco Xtronic CVT for the win, they got a smile out of me this morning.
Nicely done!
Bring back good colors!
The color name on my Miata is 100 percent honest. “Winning Blue”
Without waxing poetic about Kill Me Now Brown Cow Beige, why are so many colours so descriptive no one knows what they are?
What’s your first thought for a titanium car?
All the titanium I handle has a shiny chrome like finish.
I don’t even know what to expect if they describe something as “titanium”!
How about Bright Platinum? Although I’m still surprised at the number of people who have no idea what platinum looks like (not that metallic platinum bears much resemblance to the actual paint).
Any first year art student or lifeguard will tell you that titanium is white.
Lifeguard?
That white stuff on their nose.
Oh, very good!
Was excited to finally get my first non grey/silver car earlier this year. It took 8 tries and Audi Firmament Blue Metallic is a very pretty color in the sun even if it really just looks like a black car in the evening or at night. It’s like they wanted to offer real colors but just couldn’t quite take a big enough leap.
On occasion I will find myself speccing cars I will never own on manufacturers websites and inevitably find myself depressed when I get to the color choices. Black, white and 8 versions of gray with a special edition dark blue. UGH! They all scream “We will be invisible on a foggy/dewy morning before you’ve had your wake-up coffee”. Even a Desert Beige Metallic would be welcome. Hell, Mazda has jumped the shark with a “Zircon Sand” Miata. Just call it Mud.
The Mazda3 Carbon Turbo is only available in that Zircon Sand with a “Terracotta” interior. I looked at a nice 2024 when I was car shopping a few months back but I just couldn’t deal with the “Mud over Red Clay” color combo.
Mazda does have a Neato Red color on some cars (I’m not sure what it is called, but it is neato)
Soul red. Best color name ever
The naming of this is a shame as it should called the SP25 (or SP 20th Anniversary edition) to hark back to the SP23 trim from ’05. It actually feels like a modern take of the SP23 which only came in Carbon Gray Mica over Saddle Brown leather.
Black, White, Gray, and The Other Gray is the full palette on offer for most cars.
Makes me think of the odd old British Leyland colors of the seventies. On the MG side: Bracken. Tundra. Mallard. Black Tulip. Aconite. Mirage (an odd pale mauve.) Bedouin (sand colored.). Triumph had Saffron, Pimento Red, Damson Plum (a color which is growing on me.).
My car was Bracken, which was pumpkin on days the car ran well and “baby shit” when it wasn’t. There’s a more contemporary Mini in a color adjacent to it.
When I lived for a year in England, I thought the (old) Mini colors and bright car colors in general looked like M & Ms or the British equivalent Smarties. Those bright car colors all popped against the often grey cloudy skies.
https://www.teglerizer.com/mgcolors/
Speaking as a family member of someone who worked in a BL paintshop, I suspect the only reason they offered so many color options is because the quality control was so bad, no two cars came off the line looking the same.
Yeah I called that colour Chicken Crap- had a Mini and an MGB in it- my TR6 was French Blue thought
I love the looks of the TR6 and I like the French Blue. I wish the various colors of British Racing Green looked better for the TR6. I live in CA so only 1975 & newer cars don’t have to pass smog check. I have never driven one. I had the MGB from 1980-1989 so my memories of driving it are rose colored at best.
My if color names were honest – “Depression Gray” for that solid, mid-tone gray that’s become prevalent.