During my last visit to Kroger for a Coke Zero restock, I was blessed to see the wonderfully orange (metallic orange, no less) Lexus RC 350. Never mind that the actual color name is Molten Pearl, that car is orange. Orange AF, even.
As we are all aware, car colors are frequently barely colors at all these days, as Jason most recently wrote about here. Says Torch:
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.
I knew this to be true, but I didn’t realize how inured I had become to the grayscaleverse until that RC 350 warmed my retinas. It was like that scene in The Tingler when the otherwise black-and-white film renders a sink and bathtub full of blood in bright red. “Oh right, color!”
… and what a color. Orange is pretty much my favorite hue, not only for cars but basically anything meant to look cool in a coat of paint. Look, I even painted my latest RC (bud sadly, not an RC 350) in a bright shade of citrus:
So, more orange cars please (and all the other bright colors, too. How about you?
What Car Colors Do You Miss The Most?
Really any cool colors that aren’t black/white/gray
Good 2 tones. Weird bumper shapes and Mt. Everest high belt lines probably make it difficult to have a 2nd color bumper-down but if we’re going to have “oops all greyscale” at least a splash of something on the roof other than black would be nice. I really liked the white w/ red roof Kia did on the Soul.
Also side rant, every OEM please quit it with black wheels. They spend all this time making absolutely killer designs just to obscure it in black that hides all the details like they’re ashamed of their bold wheel choices.
Solid paint colors. Something like Honda’s Milano Red. Don’t know why exactly, but metallics just aren’t my bag, baby.
Yeh one of the few good paint trends the last few years are non-metallics making a mild resurgence.
As others have said, I would take any colors at this point.
All of them.
But if you want specifics, Dark Persian Green Metallic available only on 2020 model year Ford Escapes. It skirts the line between green and blue depending on the light and I miss it very much.
I’ve always liked dark copper / orange too. My ’79 Fairmont is “burnt orange glow” which is a metallic orange with a brown tinge. I’ve really grown to like the color but it’s too brown for my wife’s taste. I got some 3M wrap samples in colors that look good and I’m eventually going to wrap it in Fiery Orange with some retro stripes.
I mentioned Chevy’s 1966-only Aztec Bronze, also a brownish metallic orange, in my comment below, but what I didn’t mention was that they also offered an Aztec Bronze interior, paired with either Aztec Bronze or Cameo Beige paint. The monochrome spec looks spectacular; your wife would hate it.
Bring back the dark green over tan that was the official color of SUVs in the 90s. Rivian has some good outside colors but I want a tank or dark brown interior option to.
Dark green with tan interior is a peak color combo. It works on literally anything. I love it.
If I ever manage to own a Ferrari 355, it will be in that combo (there’s only a few that left the factory that way, so wish me luck haha)
Just colors. I don’t even care for orange, green, or yellow cars, but I am happy to see them on the roads and in the parking lots. Reds, blues, and purples are my faves. And bring back two-tones!
I was going to answer “YES”. We just need more color period. I’ll even take ones I don’t like, such as bubble gum pink, just to get more variety on the road again
I occasionally see a Pepto-Bismol pink Eclipse coupe at a local discount store. Our small parking lot for management has 8 vehicles some shade of red, mostly sedans and my coupe, while the other 22 or so spaces have grayscale SUVs and trucks. Across the street I can see a lonely bright yellow Cobalt coupe in a sea of drab.
I miss boiled-egg yellow, but what I miss even more is cars that look good in boiled-egg yellow. A Bug or Brasilia looks excellent in that color, but it’d be simply awkward to put in on a Mk8 GTI. I reckon a Rivian could pull it off, maybe a 718 (RIP).
1960’s Aqua Metallic (GM and Ford)
Ford’s 1960’s/70’s Medium Blue Metallic (Mercedes-Benz offered a similar color called “Quartz Blue Metallic” 2010-2012)
Toyota “Rose Pearl Metallic” of the early 90’s (Ford offered a similar color in that timeframe as well – I think it was called “Rose Mist”)
Ford’s “Ivy Green Metallic” from the 60’s/70’s
A simple mid-tone, enamel red – such as “Signal Red” from Mercedes-Benz, “Tornado Red” from VW, “Guards Red” from Porsche….
Just look at a chart of the paint colors available on 1966 Chevrolets (or any other GM car, they used mostly the same colors but each division gave them different names). Lemonwood Yellow, Regal Red, Marina Blue, Tropic Turquoise, Aztec Bronze, Madeira Maroon, and the tinted silvers, Mist Blue and Willow Green (plus Evening Orchid from ’65, one of the greatest purples of all time)…bring them all back, please.
Not too long ago, you used to be able to get a nice green on almost everything, either a deep emerald or a lighter jade, more of that would be nice
Also, other blues besides dark navy or really bright neon – like a metallic sapphire
Yes.
All of them.
Correct answer!
Yellow, yellow yellow. I ADORE a rich umbery orange, too. But just like seeing the fancy car corrals at a race day, variety is the spice of life. One yellow car is a treat, two is a nice surprise, and Guy Fieri’s personal garage is too much.
Yes.
My head always gets turned by those Outer Banks Broncos with the powder blue paint and white wheels. What a nice, fun, cheery color!
Remember when a decade or so ago, VW gave buyers (at least here in Canadia) the option of like 30 colors for the GTI? And they were real colors too, not just greys.
VW (and every other brand!) needs to go back to that.
VW once offered a near-limitless factory paint option.
Mercedes-Benz offered 30 paint colors in 1979 – all colors for all models – none requiring special order or factory approval, just certain metallics requiring a small upcharge on certain models.
Current Mercedes-Benz offers more colors than most other luxury makes, even if it’s usually with an upcharge. Ironic, given that the whole “silver is sophisticated” thing is largely their doing.
Only for certain models, and often for thousands of dollars more.
They ran that program in the US, too. I regularly see a Golf R in a really fun bright metallic green (Viper Green, I want to say?) that was obviously a special order.
I was parking streetside this morning in my White Civic, and marveled at the fleet of appliance white vehicles up and down my suburban landscape. I almost want to paint it purple just to not be so bland.
Y’wanna know a secret? As soon as I figure out the logistics of it, I’m redoing the clear coat on my white-as-Buddy-Holly Prius, then getting a bunch of extra-wide wet erase markers and going to town.
All the colors! The roads are almost completely littered with white or black or shades of grey/silver. It’s a monochromatic hellscape.
Worse is that silver/gray vehicles can be difficult to see until the last minute. It’s for that reason I think they should be outlawed, with the return of actual chroma to the roads being a nice plus.
As a color blind person who rarely thinks of color like the rest of the world does, I have owned more red vehicles than any other color (ironic since I am red/green colorblind). My favorite colors of the vehicles I have owned are the metallic forest green of my 2000 Jeep Wrangler and the Light Metallic Khaki of my 2005 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. I have to throw in a nod to the Mystic and Mystichrome of the 1999 and 2004 Mustangs.
British Racing Green.
The dark greens Toyota and Mazda are using these days are a good start and I like the Army Green on my 3rd gen Tacoma.
That being said a real BRG on a Miata – not the new zinc would be excellent.
BRG Miata with a tan interior…. I feel like that’s something we’ve been asking for a decade, but nope, Mazda just keeps pumping out the bland colors (apart from Soul Red).
If there’s one car that should be dipped into all shades of the rainbow, it’s the Miata.
BRG over tan and red over tan are such classic combos for roadsters, just works so well
Call it M-Edition II
I really enjoy a nice deeply colored blue.
What I miss the most though is the retro style striping that used to come with certain trims, like the old CJ’s, F150’s and more used to have. Practically every car you see now is either white, grey or black and it’s just so boring.
1) Bright Yellow
2) BRG
3) Savanna Beige L620
4) KitchenAid Avocado
Are you describing 1970’s appliances?
We need more teal/aqua colored cars.
It frustrates me to no end that manufacturers dip their toe into this color occasionally now (Jeep, Toyota, VW, etc.) only for it to be eliminated the following model year.
It didn’t sell.
It wasn’t, also, stocked anywhere but middle-nowhere-northern-Idaho as a singular top-trim model, nor available for custom order.
But that’s not the point.
Agreed. Tahitian green on the 4th Gen Civic Si worked so well on that car…
Agreed about Hondas in teal; My 5th gen Civic EX Coupe was Aztec Green Pearl.
My ’94 GMC K1500 was Bright Teal metallic.
My ’85 Bonneville was painted Ford Cayman Metallic.
I have a distinct affinity for shades of teal.