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
Bright blues, yellows, and oranges. And some nice deep greens. Need more of all of those. Nothing wrong with tossing in some fun pinks and purples too!
Guards red, speed yellow, forest green
My 2018 crosstalk is sunshine orange and I love it, they should bring it back
Maroon, forest green, and salmon pink. Maybe some seafoam green as well.
I remember there was a study which maps automotive color diversity and general social sentiment. During more optimistic times car buyers choose brighter colors, in times of uncertainty, more drab, boring colors.
These are dark times.
Echoing a good portion of the comments, actual colors. As to a new color that I recently encountered, I was surprised how interesting “Grey Sky Pearl” is. I encountered it on a rental Altima this last week when we went to see the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.
Pictures don’t do it justice, they just show it as sort of an off-grey color. However, up close and in person it seems to have shades of lavender and maybe a little blue, changing with the local lighting environment. We noticed other people checking it out as well. So, while it may not be quite as in-your-face as the other colors I’d like to see, it still brings the Big Altima Energy and I wouldn’t mind seeing more of it around.
TEAL needs to make a comeback
I like this in theory, but then the chances go up that I would no longer have the only teal corvette in town.
Just buy a white car and apply these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_(design)
I read
As a used car buyer I generally go with white or silver. Cooler in the summer and hides road grime well.
If I was going to buy a car new and could choose a color it would be darker shade of blue.
My wife’s Acura is black – NEVER AGAIN.
Ford had two short-run colors, Magma Red Metallic in the late teens and Persian Green Metallic for 2020 only. Both stunning and would play optical tricks on your eyes depending on the angle of the sun. I’d link an example of each but there’s really no pictures that do them justice.
I love Magma Red, I wish I had gotten that for my F150, but I bought used so I couldn’t find any. Every time I see one I want to trade mine in LOL.
For me it’s in the top 3 best optical trick colors ever released, up there with Mazda’s current red, but both below my absolute winner: Mystichrome
Literally any color that’s an actual color, that is not white, black, nor fifty shades of gray.
Literally any other color in the crayon box that is a color. Every single one. Hell, make me a burnt umber car. At least it’s not silver.
Burnt orange from the early 2000s need to make a comeback!
Oh yeah! That coppery orange Infiniti used on the press release shots of the then new FX35/45 is one of my favorites.
Our Subaru’s:
I love the color in the Mustang shown at the top, I’m big fan of bright blues and greens.
And could I make a request to give us more non-black leather options for the interior?
This!
And non base level cloth options. Ie wool or velor
My Wife’s 25 A3,which came in the Navarro Blue, has white leather.
The yellow Honda offered on their mid-1980’s Preludes with green tinted windows.
More greens, please: Classic BRG, medium-to-dark metallic greens, even sage greens like that “hospital-green Fiat” from Yellowjackets. (Not a car show by any stretch, but the car casting is pretty spot-on.)
I’d like to see copper and orange tones make a comeback as well.
And give me some nice browns while we’re at it.
I love my Polymetal Gray Mazda3, but let’s face it, those muted blue-gray hues are likely a fad that will look dated by the end of the decade. (Bookmark this post and see how it ages in 5 years.) One moment they were novel and eye-catching (and a reasonable facsimile of matte paint without the penalty of having to maintain matte paint), but now they’re everywhere – which is a sure sign the industry will move on in another year or three.
Agreed about BRG. I also like the Green Ford is using on the Maverick and Bronco. I wish it could spread to the rest of the lineup and other brands would follow suit.
Greens and blues WITH matching interiors, just like the good old days.
And bordello-red. Must not forget bordello-red.
Heck, at this point, I’d settle for color-matched interior accent trim, stitching/piping, etc… I don’t need the whole interior from headliner to carpet, dash to parcel shelf to be the same color, but a well-placed, color-coordinated splash here and there to break up the basic black would be welcome.
Automakers: Hmm, okay, let’s ask our shareholders and see if they like us spending money on more than two or three neutral interior colors.
Shareholders: The numbers say 90% of consumers just buy whatever is on the lot, so nope.
I’m a big fan of maroons (i.e., Ford’s Royal Crimson, Mazda’s Artisan Red), hunter greens (BRG all the cars!!!), and any non-neon yellows (i.e., Audi’s Vegas Yellow)
Literally ANYTHING other than black, white, silver/gray.
Gray and silver should be banned, not just because they’re boring, but because they can be difficult to see and therefore dangerous.
I very much like the almost grey paints, some of them are very complex on closer inspection.
Sort of like how Porsche and VW signal orange has tiny flecks of green and black.
And some of the greys are just bad mixes of black and white.
If you have a grey that has a really choppy spectrum, it will react differently in different light and is much more interesting.
1) In the 70’s, Ford called it “Medium Blue Metallic” – and Mercedes-Benz calls it “Quartz Blue Metallic”
2) For 1979, Lincoln called it “Medium Turquoise Metallic” – and in the late 90’s, Mercedes-Benz had a similar color which they called “Aquamarine”
3) In the late 70’s, Mercedes-Benz called it “Thistle Green Metallic” – it was a pale silver-green.
4) In the late 80s/early 90s, Mercedes-Benz called it “Almadinrot” – also called Almandine Red, or Garnet Red.
5) There’s a particular dark plum color which Porsche and Audi call “Viola Metallic”
Recently saw someone got their Mustang GTD in Porsche Racing Green, and it only continues to reinforce that Green is the best color for almost all cars. Still, any color that isn’t grayscale is welcome.
There’s a Porsche Macan at my apartment building in Mamba green, and every time I see it, I think wow Porsche needs to offer this on more models. Hits the sweet spot between unusual, sporting, and elegant.
I have a Synergy Green Camaro. I love it, it was 90% of the reason I bought it. I wasn’t at all in the market for a Camaro; I wanted something with a manual and a v8 that wasn’t a truck. When this thing showed up at the used lot, not only was it both of those things, it was also crazy bright green–SOLD!
I see people taking pictures at stoplights, any time I’m at the drive through, the workers usually say something nice, little kids love it too. I also got a dumb vanity plate on it with a frog so that helps. You cannot be a serious person in this car and I think more people need that reminder. Stop being so serious, you’re not that important.
When you drive a purple Jeep (not that I like Jeeps, but I do like the color), you aren’t fooling anyone. That is a person with a sense of humor.
You can drive your black BMW cheap series and pretend you are very important, but there are few people out there who qualify.
This country has forgotten how to have fun. A car with a silly color will not fix all the problems of this country, but it might remind people to lighten up a little.
Don’t be dull, stop buying black/white/gray cars. When you’re dead, everything will be black so get some color while you still can!
The answer for me will always be French Racing Blue.
One of my dream cars has always been a Jag XKR-S in that beautiful color.
All them except grey, white, silver, & black
BMW Technoviolet
That is one of the coolest BMW colors ever.