One automotive paint color seems to be more polarizing than any other. You either love brown cars or you hate them. Which camp do you fall in?
I’ll often message Brendan Saur photos of cars I see (and vice versa), unless I’ve put it on my automotive Instagram. This photo was hardly Instagram-worthy but I had to share with someone just how much I love the color combination: a rich, chocolate brown (“Mahogany”) with a cream interior. Well, Brendan told me he liked the interior color but had some choice words about the paint color and, indeed, brown cars in general.
Well, count me as someone firmly in the “Yes” camp for the color brown. That’s probably not surprising, considering I wear brown leather shoes and belts much more than black, and one of my favorite pieces of clothing is my brown leather jacket. Heck, a lot of things in my life seem to be a shade of brown. Unlike black, though, brown has many different shades and not all are equally pleasing.
The Cocoa Metallic that was the Buick Enclave’s “hero” color at launch? Appealing.
Ditto the Dark Mocha Metallic on the LaCrosse and Lucerne.
Kodiak Brown Metallic on the 2013-14 Lincoln MKS? I love it.
The brown used on the DS 4? Very nice.
The crème de la crème of brown paint jobs would have to be the two-tone brown on the Lancia Thesis. Absolutely stunning!
But some aren’t quite as nice, like the Marrakesh Brown used on the first BMW X1. In the metal, this brown looks much like a glass of fountain cola sitting in the sun.
And some older cars came with brown paintjobs that weren’t exactly flattering, either. Like my parents’ old VC Commodore, which looked like this.
On a related note, while I may wear tan (or camel) chinos almost every day, I find tan, beige and other similar colors look terrible on cars. When was the last time you saw an exciting car painted beige? The only beige-adjacent shades I like are the sandy “Gobi” paint color available on the Jeep Wrangler…
…and the striking Desert Khaki on the Subaru XV Crosstrek.
Overall, I seem to like shades of brown on cars with few exceptions, and I loathe tan/khaki/beige shades with even fewer exceptions. Tell me: does brown do it for you, or aren’t you down with brown? And are you a fan of tan?
Brown will, for me, always be the default trim color of 70’s malaise cars.
I don’t like brown cars, but at least the color complements the styling of 70’s cars much better than it does new cars.
The only brown car we’ve owned was the ’76-ish Buick Century my wife had when we got married. An oak tree fell on the trunk late one night. It was still drivable, but we sold it off shortly after.
Son No. 2 had an ’84 Mustang L for his first car, and both the brown paint and the brown plaid cloth seats coulda come straight out of 1979.
at least the color complements the styling of 70’s cars much better than it does new cars.
I always liked the Ford LTD coupes and Continental Mark IVs with a brown vinyl roof over brown metallic paint. (Remind me of Barnaby Jones and Frank Cannon respectively.)
Absolutely agree. My buddy’s parents had a metallic brown 70 four door T-Bird with brown vinyl roof which to 15 year old me looked just great. Sometime after I remember painting an AMT Thunderbird in the same colour.
+2 on the LTD Hardtop Coupe. I had a ’73 in “That 70’s Gold” with a brown vinyl top, and while it looked good, the car I lusted over at the time (my teenage years) was an LTD that lived in my area. This car was a metallic brown ’72 LTD Convertible with a tan vinyl top and tan leather interior that was simply stunning. While normally, I don’t prefer brown cars, this one is one of my exceptions. (Sorry Paul ;o)
Me too, and detailing it buffed beautifully. In 1957 Plymouth had two gold’s, one light leaf gold (Champagne now) , the other deep and rich, almost dark enough to be brown, but with a lot of gold glow to it, that’s what I need to restore on my ’57.
I think light green was a popular color for 70s cars
Nothing like a nice brown colour on a car. You can also be a member of the BCAS – Brown Car Appreciation Society.
Like many colors, A LOT depends on the shade of brown we are talking about. I once owned a 280Z that was a dull shade of brown, like the Stanza pictured here. I guess you would say that I tolerated that color.
My sister owned a Maverick that at one point was painted a metallic, root beer brown. It had a vinyl roof that at one point had a light brown tint to it… that we had changed to a “pumpkin” color. Liked the car with it’s orange roof, hated the light brown roof.
Count me in for brown. I’m sure plenty of people are tired of the greyscale palate used for almost all cars in the last few years. Anything a little different is most welcome.
Nope, not a fan. I do like dark green, though, as seen on the Corvette and Chevy SS.
Now that I think of it, my mother’s early 1990s Nissan Maxima was originally beige, but was for some reason repainted Honda’s similar-vintage Cappuccino Brown after it was in a major accident. No wonder I never saw another one that color!
And then, out of the blue, this Kenworth W900 by the Vernon Truck Wash popped right into my head.
I remember an article about this rig in a Dutch magazine, back in the eighties, and it blew me away instantly. A bit hard to see in the picture below, but the tanker semi-trailer has exactly the same two-tone paint job as the tractor unit.
…so the answer is yes.
I got so thoroughly sick of brown cars in the 70s (exacerbated by GM clinging to some pretty awful browns all through the 80s) that I swore I would be happy if I never saw another one. But I am starting so soften and have seen some attractive browns in recent years. One you missed was offered on the Chrysler 300 a few years ago, but I certainly have not seen many.
I wished I had been a quicker draw with my camera last week when I saw a brown Audi station wagon. It probably had an automatic, because nobody would have ever bought one with a manual.
You’re right JP, I forgot about that one. I loved the 300 C Luxury Series, which was often in that color and paired with the gorgeous cream leather interior, complete with leather-wrapped trim.
They offered that on the 200, too. Very nice on both vehicles with Chrysler’s newer frosted chrome emblems and grilles. Not sure if it made the jump to the Town & Country or Dodge, and also not sure if they have used it on anything newer.
GM had a very, very rare Chestnut shade on the 2002 Olds Aurora which was similar. Deep, dark brown with plenty of metallic depth. Certainly not the flat, ugly pallette from the 70s and 80s.
I’m definitely a Brown fan.
One of the (few) trends that I’ve liked in the car market over the past few years has been the resurgence of brown. I find that brown cars will turn my head even in cases where I’m ambivalent about the car itself.
I’ve never been able to warm up to earth tones in general (brown, orange, tan, beige, along with that very popular 1970s shade of split pea green), but I think it’s the resurgence in the popularity of brown as a color offered among various automakers in the past few years that’s really turned me off to it.
On a very boxy looking car of the 1970s/1980s, brown worked just fine, but on modern cars which are a lot rounder in overall silhouette, it just isn’t anywhere near as complimentary. Metallic Brown paint just looks kind of icky on a modern car to me. On a related note, the tan/taupe/beige/off-white colors, such as that of the Subaru Crosstrek’s “Khaki” aren’t appealing to me either though.
Brown leather interiors on the other hand, I love, finding them very natural looking and warm. The fact that my 228 had the brown “Terra” Dakota leather was the deciding factor that made me buy it “off the lot” as opposed to ordering it.
I agree that brown works on more “square” cars, When I first saw a gen 1 Taurus brownish/root beer I thought that it looked like a literal piece of s___t. LOL.
I do like brown interiors as well.
Some cars look really great in brown if it’s the right shade, like this Fire Agate Pearl Lexus LS.
That is very nice on that car. Wow.
I have that same color on my ‘12 Lexus GX 460. I really like it and is quite rare on that model.
I hate khaki too, beige is a color I absolutely despise on cars, without exception..
I like that brown is coming back to options lists but I hope it doesn’t become a default color ever again. In the big picture I just wish people(and dealerships) would stop striving to be so anonymous, everybody has a different favorite color, PICK IT. That’s the point!
Count me as big brown fan. I especially remember a lot of brown Jaguars in the ’70s, and always thought they looked great. I’m happy to see a lot more brown lately, rather than all the grays.
I’m sure I’m in the minority here, but I also wouldn’t mind seeing some beige…not the dull and common colors of recent Toyotas, but the non-metallic, creamy ivory beige that you used to see on every other Mercedes in the 70s and early 80s. And any non-metallic shade other than black or white would be welcome.
My 1980 Audi 4000 was brown (solid, not metallic) and while it wasn’t my favorite hue of all (or even that) time, it wasn’t at all the worst either.
I do like a lot of the modern metallic browns out there, or more of them than I dislike anyway. Most of the tan/beiges are appealing as well although back when I had the brown Audi (1988-ish) I found the tans that where available then to be horrible and very undesirable. We had a tan 1969 VW Bus that was OK by dint of being what it was but we also had a 1979 Celica at the time that was not appealing to me at all in that color.
The Porsche brown you mention is very nice. There is a slightly lighter one called Macadamia that is also extremely nice and was offered on the 997 and 997 Turbo range.
The brown that JPC mentioned above on an Audi wagon was likely Sable Brown if it was an A4 or A6 from the mid/late 90’s. A hair on the light side but nice. And in the A4 at least it was available in manual form. But quite rare in any form.
Overall I suppose I am a Yes vote. 🙂
Not my favorite color, but I have a sentimental liking for brown cars. My very first personal vehicle was a two-tone tan/dark brown 1st generation Camry. Ah, the coats of wax I put on that car….
Kodiak Brown and Guard are two colors that change depending on the type of day. They really show themselves on sunny days but can appear black when their is cloud cover. Pretty cool stuff.
Guard is a great color; I’ve only seen it on new Mustangs and Fusions. Like a dark mineral green by day, shadowy by night.
I had a ‘Kona coffee’ Honda Civic for a while, and just got sick of the color.
@Brendan: you’re so right. Some shape and shade combinations can trigger subconscious associations. A boxy brown car may pleasantly activate the Chocolate Bar department in your brain. A rounder brown car, on the other hand, may painfully alert your brain’s Dog Turd department.
“dog turd” – glad you said it and not me, but that is indeed the first thought that comes to mind when seeing many shades of metallic brown on most of today’s rather blob-shaped cars.
Agreed!
Once had a (used) s…. brown 1978 Monte Carlo Landau with a caramel coloured interior. Ran fine but it was the butt of many a joke because of it’s hue including from my new wife. Kept the wife, sold the car to my father in-law. Never brown again !
https://media.ed.edmunds-media.com/nissan/titan/2004/oem/2004_nissan_titan_extended-cab-pickup_base_fq_oem_1_500.jpg
Officially called “Copper Metallic”. Only available the first 2 years of Titan production.
Liked it enough to buy one. Does it for me.
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/17/67/ac/1767ac9292009bd899a84bc215f36663–volkswagen-rabbit-inside-doors.jpg
Also liked the “agate brown” ’77 Rabbit I had (until the Dodge pickup ran that stop sign).
Yes, if kept clean and shined. Number one brown is the ’83 Olds,,,
Second is the ’11 Malibu
Third is the ’75 CDV/
The Coupe de Ville looks nice in brown. I luv big Cadillac beasties.
Ford trucks always wore Brown nicely. Especially the 1980-1996 trucks.
Metallic brown and flat beige are a yes for me; reversed are hard no. I really fell in love with the later several years ago when I came across a woman who had an A5 cabriolet at a gas station. I had to ask her what it was because it was so distinctive. She told me it was a special Audi Exclusive special order color called Bonnard Beige. I can’t find a single image of that exact color online, but it was only faintly warmer than this:
I agree with the author, so much so that my wife and I chose a Hyundai Santa Fe in Frosted Mocha (coffee theme seems to be popular in recent brown cars) with light tan interior. This isn’t a great shot, but it’s the only one I have handy. Took it today at Dairy Queen when we parked next to a sister car. The owners turned out to be a nice retired couple who we had a nice chat with.
My last Mini was a Clubman in Hot Chocolate (metallic brown) with nonmetallic black C-pillars and roof. I thought it was gorgeous.
Nope. Not a brown fan, it never looks right to me in any way. It’s like yellow, no matter what shade you put it in, it seems off putting. The only yellow car I’ve liked was the 70 Buick GSX, but that was because it had a contrast in black to help it out. I guess if you were to put a brown car with a silver, maybe it could work, but otherwise brown is brown, and brown is bleh, at least to me.
It depends on the shade of brown, and the shape of the car (as mentioned above). I don’t like really dark browns, they look too much like black. I like my colours to look, well, colourful, not ‘Is that car black or…?’.
But then I used to own this, so…..
What about brown as an interior color ?
I’ve been very happy with the brown plastic and tan fabric interior of the ’88 Civic. Been looking at it for almost 30 years. The body color is Almond Cream.
I’ve noticed that Subaru Desert Khaki on the street, and liked it — but the color itself is more like Dusty Pistachio, isn’t it ?
I had a Mitsubishi Mighty Max pickup in fargo brown, a sort of metalic tan. It took a long time before it looked dirty. Which is good if you don’t really want to wash your car every week.
You can “thank” the Color Marketing Group for setting color trends on most everything, including vehicles. At the core though, CMG looks largely to the fashion industry as their main guide post.
CMG has been predicting color trends for decades, and their color charts tend to become your consumer color reality. During their meetings things can get heated when the choices are made. The people belonging to CMG largely are color pros from various industries and the choices made do have significant effects on corporate bottom lines!
BTW ” that very popular 1970s shade of split pea green” was nick named Ash Tray Green: story goes that a Pontiac execs wife had ashtrays that particular warm green and told her husband it would be a good car color! Many GTOs proved her right!! 🙂
Personally I’ll be happy to see a return of jewel and ocean tones, with gray scales going away……despite my silver metallic Accord: blaah!! DFO
I was in the pigment business for many years, and always enjoyed the CMG presentations. A guy from Benjamin Moore, Ken Charboneaux, was always the most entertaining.
I do like some of the new browns, it’s very nice to get away from the silver/gray/black continuum that has dominated things for years. I eagerly await more greens, though shade differences are far more polarizing than browns.
Brown =
While the truck is not so impressive in UPS’ Chocolate Ganache livery, UPS’ fleet of aircraft look great in this color, although it is tempered somewhat by the white. Check out the 747-8F in UPS Livery…..
I love chocolate, so brown is pleasant.
Yup. Really wanted my xB in Torched Penny, an iridescent brown, but I couldn’t find one then.
Be glad you diddn’t get it; That color is next to impossible to match if you ever need to fix damage. Source: an acquaintance who had what is supposedly Toyota color code 3R2 and couldn’t get his rear bumper redone correctly after 3 tries.
Had a Torched Penny Xb that got totaled in a rear end collision. it was a great color (and car), got lots of comments from car customizers and suburban moms as well. The paint had a not so subtle color changing aspect to it (from a rich root beer to a sort of greenish-brown swampwater) that I’m sure was hard to match if the car was damaged
looks near the dark 57 plymouth gold.
Our ’85 Cherokee was a metallic brown, and we loved that color, for 15 years.
I don’t mind brown at all. However, I’m also color blind. I can’t see green. Different shades of green either look brown or grey to me. My 1994 Taurus SHO was Deep Emerald Green. It looked brown to me!
I’d be quite happy with this, although it turns out to be a 220CE, despite the big wheels.
1964 Studebaker Bermuda Brown!
Brown? OK for car paint, car seats, trucks bringing goodies for my bikes, for shoes and belt. Not OK for car steering wheels or dashboards, and especially not for motorcycle seats.
Ah, Steve McQueen’s Ferrari 250 GT Lusso, an elegant brown, what’s not to like about this?
Granted, but then that car would look nice even in purple and green polka dots.
hehehe. maybe, maybe not.
Purple, you say, Aubergine a.k.a. eggplant, could work, and the car that could pull off purple with green polka dots likely would be this Aubergine Talbot Lago Figoni & Falaschi “Teardrop”. Amusing thought, non?
Aubergine’s a very nice colour, though rarely seen thee days.
While I can only approve of the Talbot, it’s a bit too exclusive. In the “cars I might be able to afford one day” category, I think this one wore that colour best:
This looks like the one from the Blackhawk Museum from a few years back, but it had whitewalls, how many can there be this color.
The matching interior of McQueen’s Lusso, tasteful, don’t you think?
A nice shiny brown car can look nice depending on the shade, but an old beat up car usually looks worse in brown.
Brown (and big) worked for me… literally.
1972 [coffin nosed] Impala sedan; interior matched the exterior.
And it was just before the emissions strangulation of the malaise period. Always looked good to my eyes and seemed quite quick to boot.
Back then.
Coffin nosed! – Where did that come from?
How about a Porsche 911 that isn’t the common Guards Red, or Silver, how about Copper Metallic Brown? Elegant, like McQueen’s Lusso, don’t you agree?
I had a ‘79 300SD in a brown color I called “Electric shit”, same color scheme exactly as the 6.9 in Ronin. And I almost ordered my van in Dolomite Brown, but went with Navy Blue for $995 less.
My wife had a Ford Contour in chestnut. I liked it. I also liked Ford’s mocha of the 90’s and Chrysler had a brown that was just brilliant in the sunshine but ordinary in diffuse light.
I think my favorite color combo is forest green with tan interior. I only had it once in a Peugeot 304.
I find if a contrast colour is used with the brown it can look nice but if it is just a solid monochrome…ew!?
Looking back, I guess brown has been one of my favorites…
1977 Ford LTD
1983 Toyota Corolla
1978 Toyota Corolla
1984 Chevrolet Celebrity
1983 AMC Eagle (orange brown)
2013 VW Sportwagen
If beige and gold counted as brown, I could add a few more to the list.
This does it for me
Mr. Regular would be proud.
Now in BROWN!
Just remembered another amazing brown car I loved. My moms friend had a beautiful 1984 Delta 88 in metallic brown with matching vinyl top and those American Racing wheels with all the holes drilled in them. (I realize that’s a terrible description, so I’m attaching a photo.) It was really the height of middle class muscle and luxury for the times. Sadly in ‘86 or so it was stolen out of their driveway. Back then pretty much everybody had at least one car stolen from them, it seems- even my dad’s prized 85 Riv got stolen from a mall in North Riverside, IL in ‘93 or so (we were one of the few to actually recover our car), my aunt got her car (one of the last of the pre-fwd Park Aves) stolen from a Sears at North and Harlem Aves., list goes on and on.
It’s been years since I’ve known someone who got a car stolen. Not sure if it’s socioeconomic or better anti-theft technology. Gut says it’s a bit of both.
I liked the medium metallic brown on late 1980s Chrysler Fifth Avenues. I think Chrysler called it “mink.”