The world of car color is often so boring. Look at any photo of a modern highway, and it’s a sea of grays, blacks, and variations of white. Maybe you might see a dull red or blue breaking up the gray, but that’s about it. You will almost never see a candy green, hot pink, or eye-searing yellow on a normal car. What color would you love to see on a regular car this year?
In decades past, automakers weren’t afraid to paint their cars in bold, beautiful colors. Americans weren’t afraid to buy cars painted in those colors, either. Today, you can buy jewelry made from formations of old car paint that accumulated on top of itself in the paint booth, called “Fordite.” I love Fordite because, depending on the era in which the material was made, you can see the sorts of vibrant colors that represented certain periods, be it earthy tones, metallics, or pastels.
If you were to make Fordite out of today’s car colors, you would probably be disappointed. There are lots of metallic colors out there, but few that really pop. In recent history, bold colors were usually reserved for the cheapest cars and the most expensive cars. Sure, a Chevy Aveo might not have been super fun to drive, but it did come in great colors!
Sadly, even cheap cars are becoming so gray, leaving only a few special holdouts and lots of expensive cars that aren’t afraid to display some color proudly. That’s a shame. If I were in charge of an automaker, and I’m glad I’m not because that sounds scary, I’d offer every car in my lineup with bold colors.
Do you want a minivan that’s purple with metal flake? Sure, I dig that! How about a hot pink luxury SUV? You rock your Pepto-loving self! Instead, you usually have to buy something like this Corvette or the Shelby in the topshot to get the spice:
Here is what my colleague, Thomas, thinks:
The time is right for yellow to make a comeback. Since trends work in 20-year cycles, just imagine the nostalgia for a yellow GMC Hummer EV, or a yellow Lamborghini Temerario, or even Porsche adding Speed Yellow back to the regular color palette. The Corvette is ahead of the curve on this, as it was available once again in a proper yellow starting in 2025. We have enough highlighter yellow-greens, it’s time to properly let the sun in.Beyond that, mother-effin flip paints. Dark hues and demure neutrals are so five years ago, maximalist excess is in. Give me off-the-chain pearlescents, give me ChromaFlair, give me paint jobs louder than one of Don Cherry’s suits. Can it be tacky? Sure, but who said that questionable taste could never be cool?
I have said this in the past, but don’t be afraid to express yourself. If you like bright colors, go ahead and rock those colors! Make the world a little bit less gray. Sadly, this doesn’t help right now because unless you’re buying a GMC Hummer EV, a Porsche, or a Corvette, you’re usually stuck with boring colors. But a wrap can solve that. What colors would you love to see on normal cars?
Top graphic image: Shelby American
I’d like to see colours be a no cost option. Part of the reason you never see colours on cars now is they are often kept behind an exorbitant paywall.
Then the manufacturer removes the options because no one is buying them.
White paint is also apparently hard to get right.
Teal!! The world needs more teal cars. Purple is also fantastic, but really just any bright color and I’m happy.
You could get the previous generation Toyota CH-R in teal and it makes me happy every time I see one.
Red.
I miss the emerald, green that Dodge had on their pickups. That was a beautiful color.
Kia K4 Hatch yellow all the way (though I heard on the press event it looked splotchy?)
The new Bolt has some bright color options. I usually have been stuck with boring colors because it’s what is available, but I always go for a color if I have the option. I finally have some good colors in the fleet. Soul Red, Winning Blue, Portimao Blue. I have Grey Ghost on the Bolt, but that at least looks slightly purple in the right light. And we have our old STS in Thunder Grey Chromaflair.
Really bright but deep green.
Blue. I want to see truly great blues. Not the “almost as dark as black” blue, but bright stuff like that Mustang. Or something really sparkling focused on blue instead of red.
Safety yellow. Makes school bus yellow look orange.
Oh man I would really love for teal to make a comeback.
It used to be everywhere. From Ford Escorts to Chevy 3500s to Geo Trackers, teal was gorgeous on any vehicle it was laid on.
Closest we got in recent years is Jeep’s Bikini color, which, while gorgeous, was a bit too heavy on the blue, and while that color looked amazing on a Jeep, it really would have improved so many cars. I’ll ignore the obvious ones like the Supra or the Mustang, think of something like a Genesis SUV draped in that color. It would just work so well.
Red. I’d like to see red cars again.
But I would really love to see the old bright GM Yellow or Nissan Orange.
All of my cars have been bright red or blue, so I am fully onboard with this. I would love to see more deep, metallic greens and blues available, for instance.
But it’s not just a matter of paint hues…some cars out there only offer three colors to choose from, which is ridiculous. Take the Golf R, for example: There’s a very pretty metallic blue, but if you want something else your options are black and grey. Yawn.
Orange.
And not burnt orange. Like ORANGE orange.
This. Orange needs to make a return. Any and all shades of orange would be a welcome change from black, white, and infinite shades of grey.
#1 Baby blue. Growing up with a s10 in that color does that to you.
#2 purple, you don’t see purple very often, especially bright purple.
Purple is a good one. Having formerly owned a purple vehicle, I support it.
The baby blue heritage hue available on the Bronco Sport is indeed sharp. It’s a great truck color.
I second purple, it’s an underrepresented color in the automotive realm.
I almost bought a 95 S10 in that color a few days ago. Great color even if it was badly faded on this one.