Although it’s been the “in thing” for the past decade or so, the popularity of grayscale shades has largely eliminated the choice of actual shades of color when it comes to new cars from most automotive brands. Even many “colors” offered by automakers today are rather bland and drab in comparison to previous decades.
Not that there’s anything wrong with a silver, gray, black, or white car. For certain types of cars, more subdued hues are fitting and actually look better. It’s also beneficial for those who want to blend in.
But there was once a time when you could still get these grays in addition to seemingly every color under the rainbow. Bright shades like this 1998 Plymouth Breeze’s Alpine Green Pearl might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for those who want a bit more expression, there are relatively few choices left in exterior color today. Do you miss having the option for color on new cars, or are you fine blending in?
I really like the pale greenish color on the Volvo wagon next to the Breeze.
There are two color combos that really struck me…both Olds Toronados if you can believe that:
1. 1979 Toro, charcoal gray, no vinyl top, maroon leather
2. 84ish Toro, non-metallic beige exterior, but the interior was what I loved…taupe and gray interior tones…very low key but it was lovely. That was a demo from Bob Pulte Oldsmobile and I only rode in it once.
Can’t stand the clay colored leather in some GM vehicles…in an otherwise battleship gray interior. There is a TV spot that GM is running with some interiors that look more like peanut-brittle or honey than clay, but these are surrounded by the same dull gray.
This post has gotten me thinking about color names…what color names do posters remember from past cars? I had a 77 Honda Civic in Alluvial Gold, a 90 Accord in Seattle Silver, 92 Accord in Bordeaux Red, 96 Windstar in Medium Willow Green Metallic. Those colors seem self-explanatory.
We have an ugly little 13 Civic in Urban Titanium(leased, being turned in tonight, thank God) that we picked out at night…looked like a smoky, warm silver color under the lights, but in daylight it’s a horrible light brown…I surely don’t associate titanium with brown, I think of it as more of a silvery-platinum color. My dad had a 2001? Civic in a titanium color that was really pretty, that’s why I thought the 13 was going to look good.
Firethorn Red and Fire Mist Claret were two GM metallic reds of the 1970s. There was a spate of clever colour names in the late ’60s-early ’70s: Plum Crazy, Inviolet, Panther Pink, Moulin Rouge, Sassy Grass Green, Sublime, Curious Yellow, Tor-Red, Go Mango (“Go, man, go!”) and the like from Chrysler US; Thar She Blue, Little Hood Riding Red, and Bondi Bleach White from Chrysler Australia; AntiestablishMint, Hulla Blue, Original Cinnamon, Freudian Gilt, and Thanks Vermillion from Ford USA, etc.
I had an ’87 Ford Laser in “Oxford Blue”. A dead-ringer for the colour on Dad’s ’55 Morris Oxford – truth in advertising!
Color names–hmm. Yellow Beige (’79 Malibu), Light Titanium (’91 Crown Vic), Vineyard Gray (’91 Accord), Light Blue (’82 Malibu), Opal Opalescent (’96 Mark VIII), Silver Birch (’03 Marauder), Bright Red (’00 Alero), Corsa Blue (’12 Forte Koup)
Most seem pretty straightforward, though “light titanium” was basically silver.
I was pleased to see Chrysler add Forest Green Metallic to the 300’s colour palette this year, but I doubt I will ever see one in the wild.
I’m sort of surprised nobody’s mentioned http://www.autocolorlibrary.com yet (unless I simply missed it).
I’m generally a reasonably calm and calmly reasonable man, certainly not the type to have an extremely negative reaction to a colour of paint on a car…with one exception: that awful metallic lipstick red/magenta Ford put on Escorts in the mid ’90s. (Okeh, two exceptions: those Mary Kay pinkmobiles.)
Even though I have complained; with others here; about too many silver and grey cars; this time period (the last 10-15 yrs) is not as bad as the 70s in someways/colors; which is usually considered the colorful/disco era; but not in the cars I managed to buy.
Back then grey was one of my favorite colors; mainly cause I had a Mazda 1800 SW in the nicest pearl grey every seen; it had a metallic look to it that in strong sunlight made it have a slight pink tint; the best paint job on a cheaper car I’ve had.
But half of the used car I bought; being a cheap-skate (and raising a family) were either a baby-throw-up brown or some green in an off-colored dead-pea or dead Douglas-fir look. One especially turgid green colored little 76 Toyota Corolla; that otherwise was a great car; made my wife ask “what have you drug home now; can’t you find a car that doesn’t look like it’s last trip was thru the digestive track of a cow?” It didn’t stay around long.
Truth. It was as though the entire auto industry were trying out every possible variant of Shìt Brown and Overcooked Pea Green and other putrid colours that aggravated the offensive designs of the era and didn’t help the half-decent ones.
Oddly enough, I really like the current Jeep “Rescue Green” despite it being a metallic canned-peas green. Perhaps it’s the different paint technology today; there are some very unintuitive things done to achieve particular apparent colours. About 13 years ago, there was a metallic red/maroon colour available on Chev Corvettes that involved something like a base coat of dark metallic silver, a coat of a transparent, almost fluorescent hot pink, some other layer I forget at the moment, and then the clear coat. I guess if you can afford a Corvette, you don’t have to care how much paint repair costs.
(I am pretty sure you did not mean “turgid”; it’s a word that has nothing to do with colour. Billious, maybe?)
I was loath to buy a ’74 Continental Town Car because it was painted Overcooked Pea Green. Damned nice car otherwise.
The ’79 I ended up with is wedgewood blue, a far more flattering and timeless hue.
It’s true that some colors take quite peculiar paths to come up with the final result. The Opal Opalescent paint on my Mark VIII was basically a pearl beige or dark pearl white. The door handle broke and I had to repaint the replacement part, and I learned that the color was a tricoat with a peculiar almost greenish base, and then a *very* pearly, semi-translucent layer that turned the greenish base white, then a clearcoat to finish it off. I’m sure that one was an extra cost color originally, but then again I didn’t buy it new!
No; I actually looked turgid up before I used it.
One of the definitions is: “swollen and distended or congested.” it sounded right; to conjure up the thought of it’s coming out of the “ass-end of a cow” as my wife said nicer. LOL
Sorry, no. Green cannot be turgid, even if it sounded right to you. In all fairness, neither can red, orange, yellow, blue, indigo, violet, turquoise, puce, dun, beige, taupe, or any other colour.
Not to belabor this point; but I used it as the car was a small, kind of round two door so should of said : “One especially putrid-green colored little; turgid, 76 Toyota Corolla;”
As the definition of turgid as I said is: “1-swollen; distended; tumid. 2. inflated, overblown, or pompous;
So the car seemed “swollen, distended” in appearance to me; now if that isn’t ok I suggest you are being a little turgid about it; difinition no. 2.
One thing no one has touched on; why people buy weird or garish colors. People see colors differently.
I see most colors just fine but have been told by my eye doctors over the years that I am what they call “color deficient” I don’t see weak colors that well.
So the light reds, browns, greens and yellows can blend into the same color; like the wiring harness in an old car, motorcycle or even TV; makes it fun when your trying to restore one or repair a harness; or are a TV repairmen; like I was back in the 70s.
So when people buy cars; what men see as putrid-pea green; women (and it’s usually women with the “good” color seeing eyes) will see differently and like different colors; especially grays, greens, silvers.
The only thing I can’t understand is why some women (especially if they know you are color deficient) get ‘hostile’ if you like or see a color differently then they do!LOL I’m mostly talking about my wife (and daughter, sister; etc.) but we had to ‘agree to disagree’ to get along when we were painting our houses.
I painted one house an off yellow; she said it was drab–come on how can yellow be drab? but they did put black in it when they mixed it. She also painted our kitchen the most garish off pink/red that I had ever seen; just had to close my eyes when I went in there; for years.
When buying a car; it was/is mostly how good of a deal we could make and mechanical condition; so I was in charge; luckily Lol.
So that might explain the lack of taste or them buying a certain color in a lot of drivers.
Not only do people see color differently (actually their BRAINS interpret colors differently), but some, as they get older, have their color vision muted by cataracts. They go on for years without realizing it, until they have them removed, and then marvel at what they have been missing.
I think the Holden Commodore SS has one of the more colourful paint ranges available, as the “sports” model it gets some options not available in other trim levels. And that is since they have dropped the purple that the previous model came in.
From 2000 they started to do a ‘hero’ colour for each new model release, the first was Tiger Mica, a bright orange/copper type colour.
my favourite colour name was an aunt’s valiant. to my eye it was a dull red but she said it was called “autumn rust”. of course after a few years in salt laden Ontario it was an “autumn rust-ER” also spring, summer and winter one too!
Don’t start e on this!
50 shades of grey, at your Audi dealer now
It does disappoint me how automotive color choices have gotten boring. The love of vivid colors was some of my motivation behind buying my Focus ST. It’s easy to find in a crowded parking lot too.