Yellow cars aren’t for everyone. They’re a bit visually loud, a bit boisterous, a bit hard to fly under the radar in, and some of them look a bit like cabs. However, they’re fun. In a sea of greyscale bereft of joy, they brighten things up. It’s the sort of levity now generally reserved for the brave, which is why buying a new yellow car often comes with a six-figure price tag. However, if you don’t want to blow that sort of dough but still want to put a few smiles out in the world, I have some good news. Subaru is making yellow cars again.
Subaru has made some great yellow cars over the years. The Baja is the one that sticks in everyone’s mind, but not only was the BRAT offered in a fetching shade of yellow, the U.S.-spec bugeye WRX could be had in either a pale yellow or a vivid one. Overseas, it’s been more historically common to get yellow Subarus, such as the WRX STI S207, but this particularly joyous and vivacious colour hasn’t had the widest availability on this side of the Pacific. Well, the time to right some wrongs is now, yeah?
Riffing off 2025’s BRZ Series.Purple, the 2026 BRZ Series.Yellow pulls a leaf from the Canadian-market BRZ Murasaki’s playbook by starting with the BRZ tS. This means you get Hitachi front dampers with digressive-feeling curves, Brembo four-piston front calipers, and cast iron knuckles. In short, it’s the good trim full of performance goodies, and now it’s getting the sort of color it deserved from the start.
To be specific, this is Sunrise Yellow, last used on the 2015 XV Crosstrek Special Edition. It’s a bold shade with orange-tinged undertones, more like Porsche’s Speed Yellow than its Racing Yellow, in case that’s your frame of reference. Maybe the product planners are big fans of Wiz Khalifa, because the wheels, antenna, and mirrors of the BRZ Series.Yellow have been blacked out to contrast the yellow paint.
I could go without wheels that visually blend into the tires, but that’s just me. Hey, at least they’re easy to change. The other big party piece is inside, upholstery with yellow stitching throughout. While Subaru hasn’t released a photo of this just yet, I’d imagine it’s largely—if not entirely—shared with the upholstery of the Toyota GR86 Yuzu Edition.
I know what you’re thinking: Didn’t we just have a BRZ Series.Yellow a few years ago? You’d be right about that, although that one was a little different. The 2017 BRZ Series.Yellow was sprayed in Charlesite Yellow, an eyeball-searing shade with far less orange in it. Still a great yellow, because all yellow paints are good yellow paints, just a more extroverted shade than what’s on this latest Series.Yellow.
Oh, and it’s not just a BRZ that Subaru’s painting yellow. The brand hasn’t shown off photos yet, but it has announced plans to reveal the first yellow WRX sold in America since Sonic Yellow briefly appeared on the options sheet for 2003. The WRX Series.Yellow will make its first public appearance at Boxerfest on Sept. 14, which means we’ll see the first photos of it this weekend. Like its rear-wheel-drive sibling, the WRX Series.Yellow is based on the tS trim, which means adaptive dampers, Recaros, big Brembo brakes, a little bit of everything that can be done without having to recertify the thing with the EPA.
If the idea of owning a new yellow Subaru is appealing (in the case of the BRZ, it definitely should be), you’ll probably want to act quickly. The automaker with Pleiades on its badge is only bringing 350 examples of each Series.Yellow car to America, and while each one should logically be priced a little bit above the tS trims of each car, I’d expect them to go rather quickly.
Top graphic image: Subaru
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“Who you callin yella? NOBODY calls me yella belly!”
-Marty McFly
I agree with yellow cars. The Double Yellow Beetle at the spring Torchfest is mine.
https://www.theautopian.com/the-autopian-nc-meetup-was-fantastic-despite-what-they-want-you-to-think/
I don’t care for a yellow car, but I fully support it as an option that adds to the black white red beige options on the road.
I love yellow cars. I hate black wheels.
Also three of my four cars are/were red, with one lime gold interloper.
I’ve never had a yellow car. Nor a green, purple, or orange car. But of all the dozen+ cars I’ve owned (three currently) all were purchased used, where color was the lowest priority. The one car I bought new was a Mercedes, and of the small number of colors available, most were not colors, and I wound up going with silver since it looked the best of what was available, and it was traditional for MBs.
I dunno whether or not I’ll be purchasing any new cars in the future, but if I do, I hope to be able to get a decent, real color.
How far we have fallen that a paint color is the most exciting thing that Subaru is willing to offer enthusiasts.
Remember when they used to make cool, fun cars that punched well-above their class?
I don’t want a BRZ, but I want that yellow.
Heck yes!!!! I love my 2017 Series.Yellow!!! Well everything except the name, which is dumb. I prefer the Inazuma edition name used in other markets, makes a lot more sense if you ask me! But yes to yellow cars! My mom has a 2015 Crosstrek in Sunrise yellow (and a yellow ‘01 Escape before that) so it kinda runs in the family.
Fiat 128 Rally.
Sorry you lost me in the first paragraph. You don’t need to be brave to pay over $100k for a yellow car but you do need to be brave to pay $100k for a Subaru.
We love our Solar Yellow Jeep TJ. Not a fan of some of Jeep’s more recent shades of yellow but I’m all for bright colors though – too many white and shades of grey cars out there.
I grew up with a few yellow cars, and yellow is a color that when done right is great, but done poorly is terrible. I like the yellow from the 2017 Series.yellow, as it is clearly a bold choice knowing it is a bold choice. I am reserving my judgement about this new yellow, as I fear it might be too mustard yellow for its own good, but then again it could be like the awesome yellow on the new Supra that is both bold and has a surprising amount of depth to it.
Now offer Forest Service Green as an option
When I’m running the DOT everyone will be required to offer their cars in that color if they want to sell in the US. 😉
I have a soft spot for yellow cars. My dad’s best friend when I was growing up was an older guy named Bob. He was quite the character, and I always enjoyed tagging along when he and my dad got together. He liked yellow cars so much that he simultaneously had a yellow Porsche 911, a yellow F-150, and a yellow Hummer. He passed away when I was 11 but not before giving my my Craftsman socket set, that I still use today. I’d love a yellow car sometime.
Be aware you don’t have to love yellow to realize if all your cars are the same color it is cheaper to repair all the cars in a small repair issue.
I paid the red tax when I needed panel repair.
The pale Blaze yellow was superior to the sonic yellow as far as bugeyes go.
“… because all yellow paints are good yellow paints…”
Err – No.
I have a massive aversion to yellow in general, and yellow cars specifically.
Especally when they’re that awful Crayola Yellow-Orange or Dandelion.
Bring on the yellow of the Cadillac Sollei tho.
And Subaru Sunshine Orange too.
Best lookin’ (non-exotic) yellow car I’ve ever seen is the 1989 Honda Prelude.
Isuzu Vehicross Proton Yellow
What color is yours?
Proton Yellow bought new in 2002. Still own it and one of my daily drives
Pix? I love that car.
pretty sure that’s the same y49/barbados yellow used on the 2g CRX Si… It’s pretty great, had one ages ago and I think it was the best Si only color.
My best friend in HS had a light yellow Subaru DL and he turned 16 before the rest of us so for a while there we all rode in a yellow Subaru.
a yellow subaru?
A yellow Subaru!
(everybody!)
We all live in a yellow Subaru, yellow Subaru, yellow Subaru
Did you ever find the sea of green?
Growing up on the Gulf all we had available to us was brown.
I endured six years in Beaumont and know what you mean. I saw blue water two times down there (High Island, “Crystal” Beach and Galveston) in that time. It would actually make the news when it happened.
We just had that a few weeks ago. All the news reporters were down in Galveston showing “clear” water. Which yeah, it was clear for Galveston but compared to Destin or even S.Padre not so much.
Btw, the Yellow Subaru we were in was mostly driven between Groves, Port Arthur, and Beaumont.
Oh. Groves. Nederland. Port Neches. (A slightly subdued shoutout to the Neches River Wheelhouse.)
And then friends up in Lumberton, Silsbee and Buna.
When I left Texas almost three years ago, in a U-Haul van pulling my car on a dolly, it was almost 12 hours, and I was still in effing Texas, approaching El Paso. Even going as fast as that U-Haul could go on I-10.
It would have been fun to know you back when I was there. You sound like someone pretty cool.
But full-throated accolades for J Wilson’s and JW’s Patio in Beaumont. Those and Elsa’s Greek Grill and H-E-B are the only things that kept me sane.
I grew up in the Triangle but we moved to Houston back in the late 90s. I used to still go back every now and then but I haven’t been there for years now. And yes, driving across Texas is such a slog. Visiting my family in Phoenix takes forever because I-10 never ends. The last time I made that trip I took the back roads through Roswell NM and avoided interstates. It took me twice as long but was a far more enjoyable trip.