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
We need more green cars.
From hunter green to BRG to neon green or olive and everything in between.
I’m so sick of people calling every and any shade of green or brown on cars “baby shit”. Its so obnoxious. It will be a lush, deep, metallic green reminiscent of beautiful waters surrounding a golf course….baby shit. A fantastic rich dark brown color with a sparkle like a desert sunset….baby shit. Could be Dodge’s Nitro Yellow Green from the 90s….BABY SHIT. A delightful soft and creamy Sea Foam…BABY. SHIT.
Like what are you people feeding your children? Also, do you not have any other association with browns and greens other that feces? Grow up.
I honestly have never heard this before. Don’t ruin green cars for me.
I like colors… bright, rich colors as well as more desaturated ones, but I especially like them without metallics or pearls for a change. Though I can appreciate the appeal of flat or satin-finish paint, I tend to prefer the normal shiny finish just for durability and ease of cleaning.
So: teals are always great, along with chrome yellow, blues light as powder and dark but not too close to black. And of course, a green car is always great, though there are a few less-than-pleasant greens of course. A medium blue-grey like the Area 51 used on some Fords is very good too, and a refreshing change from all the now-cliche Nardoesque greys. VW had a very, very light blue-grey on the New Beetle that I think was called Vapor, and on that car, it was unusual and appealing. The mustardy yellows seen lately on some Rivians, Kia Souls, and the new Prius looks great on all those cars. I’m also a big fan of the Tiffany box aka Robin’s egg blue as on the new Nissan Leaf.
I’m not completely anti-pearl/metallic of course, provided they don’t have the big, ungainly flecks of metallic as traditionally seen on so many domestic cars, as well as more than a few Toyotas (I’m sad to say). Metallics are best with a very fine grain: VW’s 2000ish oh-so-smooth Satin Silver is SO much nicer than the gaudy and sparkly Reflex Silver they offered at the same time. I’ve seen a few pearlized medium yellows on trucks and cars (wraps, at car shows lately) and they look great. Also, the metallic dark green on various Bullit-edition Mustangs looks good on almost everything from a Range Rover to a Miata. Metallic oranges are also good, though like teal metallics, it tends to have a retro connotation, which is either fine or not, depending on your POV and the car they’re applied to. There are also some very good metallic coppers out there over the past 15+ years, including from both Infiniti and Lexus, as well as on Buick’s Envista… a really good copper, like a shiny penny and NOT at all orangey or pinkish, can be awesome and really makes the chrome pop. Kudos must also be given to a few of BMWs deep/dark metallic purples as seen on M2 and M3s, etc… they always look great, at least on those cars (and the overall darkness helps hide some of BMWs more questionable styling choices of late).
I don’t mind straight silver when it’s historically/visually appropriate as on some Mercedes, but if it’s on a ‘regular’ car, it’s better if it’s got a visible amount of blue or green mixed in, or the faintest hint of purple. Straight gold cars have an appealing 1970s vibe, even when they’re totally modern vehicles, like David’s fancy BMW i3S, which looks fantastic in rich gold metallic with black accents.
White? Super common of course, ala work trucks, etc… SOMETIMES it’s the right choice, like on a first-gen Scion xB… it reinforces the rolling refrigerator vibe in the best possible way. But generally, no. Same with black (more than a few of my cars have been black, mostly because that’s what was available). Yes, it looks appealingly sinister on an Impala SS, but it’s overuse usually makes it just bo-ring, especially on so many anonymous crossovers. Same goes for all the infinite varieties of metallic grey used on almost everything over the past decade plus… nice on a FEW cars, but mind-numbingly mundane on most, due in part to over-exposure.
Proper orange.
There are a few out there—Jeep, and the Tacoma. Honda’s reworked Passport is available on orange. You’ll notice the three I’ve mentioned are all trucks and SUVs.
Let’s get some orange hatchbacks and sedans out there.
1) Emerald green.
Greens are rarely available and when they are, it is usually seafoam (bleh) or dark forest (meh) or vary rarely lime green (not my thing). A real green that’s GREEN preferably with some metallic in it would be nice.
2) purple,
plum crazy is decent but I don’t know that stellantis/FCA/AMG/notgonnabeinbusinesslong offers it anymore, bmw had a nice purple on the 2 series for a while, but purple has always been under-represented.
3) teal
It’s been a while since the 90s, lets bring this one out of retirement.
Also, I’m so sick of cars I’m interested in being only available in black interior, or only allowing a black interior with the ONE color that is actually a color (the Mazda 3 was like this when I shopped them a few years ago. A great red and a decent blue exterior color were only available in black interior, even though there was a great deep red/burgundy leather available with the greyscale paints WHY).
I was recently helping a friend shop for a VW Taos and was surprised to see that it comes in 2 very nice blues (a more muted blue/gray and bright cornflower blue) and a vibrant green. Not bad for a rather boring crossover. Unfortunately, to get the bright colors, you need to get the “SE” trim which comes with the terrible capacitive-touch HVAC controls.
Subaru agrees with Thomas – the WRX and BRZ both get bright yellow paint jobs this year (though it’s a limited edition so maybe doesn’t count as “normal car” per se).
Speaking of, I just today saw a newish WRX in Hearing Aid Beige.
Dark Bronze, like basically black with Bronze flake in it.
BMW has some amazing blues – Portimao and Marina Bay, specifically.
What needs to go away is the “clear coat over any matte finish” look.
I support every single word of Thomas’s take.
More greens! But anything bright and colorful in general, the grayscale-only options from most manufacturers is so tiring. It’s a shame that Dodge is the only manufacturer that seems to understand that the people want colors!
I’d like to see the dark metallic greens that were everywhere in the Early 90’s, like the Taurus, comeback.
Not so much any specific color, but how about some two-tone treatments that aren’t black and white floating roofs?
Cars and crossovers with a paint break at the beltline. Pickups with contrasting flanks. Minivans with honest-to-bog fake woodgrain sides. Okay, maybe not that last one, but the first two, definitely.