The current state of the automotive palette is a bit of a shocker. Look in any parking lot and there’ll be a sea of almost non-color, as black, white, gray, and silver dominate.
It’s not your imagination either: at least 70% of new car registrations in 2025 comprised those four colors in the USA and in the UK. Only blue gets into the top five on both sides of the Atlantic, adding up to a combined 85%.
New car buyers overwhelmingly opt to play it safe, it seems to save money on expensive paints and for wider appeal when it comes to selling it on, but they can also only buy what car brands offer. That becomes a vicious circle too: the brands don’t spend money developing interesting paint because it won’t sell, and it doesn’t sell in part because they don’t offer it.
It doesn’t have to be this way, as a press release from Bentley reminded us. The British brand recently celebrated its 80th anniversary at its Crewe HQ, and the opening of a new paint shop by Princess Anne, by launching a one-off Continental GTC in “Purple Supernova Ombre.”
Although few brands offer it these days, purple is the underrated automotive paint shade, and while marques like Bentley can come up with whatever paint they want for their six-figure luxury cars, there have been some pretty spectacular examples of purple cars in more mainstream stuff over the decades.
It’s a color that makes bad cars interesting and good cars even better, and I’ve pulled out some favorites to hopefully poke a few manufacturers into realising their designs deserve more than monochrome.
When Chrysler decided to build a literal hot rod in the late 1990s, it needed a bold color to match that whole vibe. Prowler Purple was a deep metallic shade that helped drive the message home when the Plymouth Prowler concept was revealed in 1993, and every single Prowler that rolled off the assembly line in its first year (1997) was finished in this vibrant violet hue. Its semi-sibling PT Cruiser later sported a very similar color.
While Bayside Blue was the default color choice for the R34-generation Skyline GT-R, it was Midnight Purple II that really showed off the car’s physical form.
There have been three generations of Nissan’s Midnight Purple, and although it started with the R33’s subtle, mostly black shade, it wasn’t until the II and III that the purple shone through. Nissan even leaned on the heritage of Midnight Purple for a new color for its run-out models of R35 GT-R, too.
The E36-generation BMW M3 is usually remembered for moving the M3 game on from its four-cylinder origins to the straight-six era, but it also birthed one of the M Division’s best paints and with one of the better names here: Techno Violet.
It was such a good color that BMW replicated it almost faithfully for a celebratory model as one of the five exterior options for the M3 50 Jahre – and left it off the corresponding M4 model.
For a brand usually known for its blues, Subaru sprang a bit of a surprise when it announced a limited-run variant of its rear-wheel drive sports coupe finished in Galaxy Purple Pearl. Although it only offered 500 cars (dubbed “Series.Purple”) painted in the hue, it was a pretty spectacular finish that complemented some of Subaru’s earlier “Series.[color]” cars.
View this post on Instagram
So far so good, if you want performance cars and coupes, but Honda was democratizing purple in the 1990s too with the absurdly named Royal Grape Purple Metallic. As far as we can tell, it was applied exclusively to the domestic four-door Honda Civic Ferio in admittedly upper-tier Vi-RS trim but again provided a fabulous splash of deep purple to the car parks of its native Japan.
The third-generation, five-door Volkswagen Golf wasn’t the most interesting car to look at – no hating here, I learned to drive in one – even in the more potent trims, but once again purple shows how very different a car can look in the good color. Dusty Mauve Pearl wasn’t a spectacular name, but the color itself was one of those that really pops in the daylight. Of course it helped that it was only available on the VR6 Highline …
Although the pun is almost enough to disqualify it, Jeep’s Prince-ly purple “Reign” shows that even off-roaders and trucks can get in on the game. Originally introduced in 2022, only a few years after its first-ever purple, Reign was initially only available on the Wrangler on a limited basis.
Stellantis brought it back “by popular demand” on the Wrangler and Gladiator for 2026, which at least shows that, even in the current grayscale automotive landscape, if brands make interesting colors, people will buy them.
Top graphic images: Stellantis; iOS
A good read on the subject of car colors.
The World is Losing Color – The Tattler
I love purple on vehicles as well. My parents had a dark cherry Tahoe in the late 90s that was more purple than anything and it looked great. The Stardust Metallic color option for the new Chevy Traverse is amazing out in the sun as well. I have always been a huge fan of plum crazy on the Chryslers too.
Purple Probes!
https://cloud.leparking.fr/2024/02/07/00/19/ford-probe-rare-1994-ford-probe-cars-trucks-strathcona-county-kijiji-purple_9006907885.jpg
You left out some of the recent purple-ish colors available on normie cars:
“Smokey Amethyst Metallic” on recent Buicks. “Midnight Amethyst Metallic” on the Lacrosse during the 00’s-10’s. Honda had “Smokey Mauve Pearl” on recent Civics, “Midnight Plum Pearl” on Fits, and probably several others I’m missing. Some of these are subtle and almost black unless you see them in bright light. I have a ’25 Civic Hatchback, and I’d LOVE to have had Smokey Mauve as a choice. I think it was in the early 20’s, but as noted, people are scared of color and don’t choose them, or dealers are scared to order them. I got the Civic in “Boost Blue” which I call “Smurf Blue” which is so common now it’s not that unusual. Still better than gray though.
BMW X5: Flat White with +$0.0; Metallic White, Black, Green, Grays +$650.00, Tanzinite blue +$1,950, Purple +$5,000.00+
The mid tier colors are just o.k., maybe the green adds enough value to offset the cost, of these the Tanzinite Blue is the best looker – but not worth $2k (at least not to me), the purple I really wanted not only is a super expensive custom color, but probably adds months to the build… thus my X5 is flat white.
I have a standing offer to buy my in-laws’ purple LS400 and hope that they won’t cause any more damage to it after rear-ending their other car and breaking the headlight assembly about a month ago.
Rivian’s Borealis is a really good purple too. The R2 will eventually have it as an option.
Totally agreement, purple all the things. Anything but ANOTHER shade of grey. No, that’s coal, this is anthracite. *rolls eyes*
Purple is a great color for a car but that VW is a perfect example of how it can be ruined…. that’s a paint job meant to make the color muted and blend in to other car colors. Either go big or go home. Purple doesn’t have be shockingly bright, but it should be purple. I think the Jeep is the perfect shade.
I’d get my M240i in Thundernight Metallic, although I see Zandvoort Blue is now available, so maybe flip a coin. Tough part is pairing an interior with it. I want anything but a black interior. A gray would work, but BMW doesn’t offer one. Probably have to get the Oyster leather I guess.
What happened to dark reds? I saw a third gen Prius that came in Black Cherry Pearl and think Toyota should pull out of the archives. I was too cheap to pony up for Persona appearance package at the time, but give me a Crown Signia in Black Cherry with a brown interior.
I currently have one purple car, and will be painting at least one more purple in the next couple years.
Funny, a purple Wrangler parked across the street from the barbershop I was at yesterday. It was beautiful. What a great color. Even funnier, was the woman who got out that had dyed her hair the same color.
As with most colors, it’s really shade dependent when it comes to purple. But I agree, we see far too little purple.
The purple on the Bentley is too gaudy. The purple on the Golf is too brown. The rest are lovely.
Special mention for Rivian’s Borealis purple which is an amazing color, especially in the sun.
I’m also a huge fan of blues that lean towards purple. BMW’s Velvet Blue Metallic on the new M2 CS is straight up purple in certain lights and it looks epic.
People who like green: It’s a good color
People who like orange: It’s a good color
People who like purple: Purple is my life, I dress purple, I glow purple, I eat and drink purple. If you come into my house and insult purple, I will personally tear you limb from limb
I only want to see you laughing…
The ghost of Prince rises up to disagree, thinks better about it, returns to the void.
How could a post praising purple paint pass over Porsche?
Porsche presently provides 28 shades of purple.paint for perusal by prospective Porsche purchasers
https://www.rennbow.org/color-wiki?modelYear=-1&model=-1&modelRarity=-1&searchInput=&colorFamily=4&conductSearch=1&go=search
Now that is a plethora of purple!
I had never pondered the permutations of purple until it was pointed out.
BRB, I’m about to pay for a Panamera.
Some of these are good examples that not all purples are created equal.
I adore Rubystar on a Porsche, but I’d say it’s verging on pink .
To be fair, if you’ve got the money Porsche will paint your car any color you want.