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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Now offer Forest Service Green as an option
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.
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.
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