There are a few manufacturers selling vehicles in this country that seemingly don’t want everyone to drive something painted a dull shade of grey or white. Large, teutonic sedans from Ingolstadt or Munich all seem to be on the greyscale (when was the last time you saw an A6 or 5 Series in any sort of bright color?), but even these manufacturers let loose with their sportier offerings. The natty Turbo Blue found on a TT RS is particularly eye-popping.
What’s your take? Given the option, if you were to buy a new car today, would it blend with the pavement — or would it be visible from space?
Your author is squarely in the latter camp, preferring palettes like those available from the gloriously unhinged folks at Dodge. Go Mango, Hellraisin, Sinamon Stick — the names are as delightful as the colors themselves. And, yes, those three names are real paint shades for 2020.
There is a case to be made for those who prefer to blend into the asphalt. Convention holds that a Challenger painted in eye-popping B5 Blue (not available for 2020) will get picked off by the gendarmes more easily than one dipped in a vat of Granite Crystal. I’m not sure that holds as true today as it did twenty or thirty years ago, but there’s no denying that the human eye will, of its own volition, spy the brightly colored car first. Whether the cop’s speed-reading equipment finds bright-colored cars faster is up for debate.
Bright colors? Or stealthy subterfuge? The choice is yours.
[Image: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles]
brighter the better – had a female trooper at church – she would arrive a horrific crash sites regularly – people screaming – mangled bodies – perfect nightmare – 1st thing out of a victims mouth ” i just didn’t see them ” no one in their right mind pulls out in front of an oncoming vehicle – but since so many people neglect to put on their lights on grey / cloudy days , or heck , even at night – the slaughter continues –
I’ve had grayscale cars just sort of disappear into the background, even metallic light blues. Only to be surprised when they finally registered on my brain.
Something about rainy gray days, no headlights on, and the color of worn asphalt.
When my wife drove a Mini Cooper S, I was happy, given the small size, it was yellow.
Forget “forgetting lights off” on rainy days… I can’t get people to turn them on even when reminded. I have a battery of tactics I deploy. If the car is behind me, I turn off all my lights, turn hazards on and off once or twice, then turn my lights on. If the car is incoming, I flash once, then do the same dance again. My success rate? Never more than 20%. It’s really rough out there. As someone who passes other cars three to five times for each hour I drive on two lane roads… they terrify me.
As we veer off topic . . . . then there are those who will not lower their high beams at night no matter how may time you flash them. That’s when I long for a laser.
The car knows when the wipers are on, and the car knows how to turn the headlights on. It would be a relatively straightforward exercise for the OEM to link the two so that the headlights come on when the wipers are engaged (intermittent/low/high, not in wash mode).
[There would be fewer collisions. Some might translate that into fewer new cars sold, but a fatality will never be a customer again.]
Many cars know when it is dark out. All cars could know – the light sensor is not expensive. [But the OEM would lose the “auto headlights” priceable feature.]
(Many OEM’s tie features like this to trim level. But ironically, in higher-trim vehicles with auto headlamps, many drivers rarely touch the headlamp control, so they don’t turn the headlamps on in the rain [they don’t think about it, and many wouldn’t be able to quickly engage the control if asked]. Notice how many of the headlights-off-in-the-rain vehicles are luxury models.)
Of the 33,654 fatal motor vehicle crashes in 2018:
• 52% occurred at nighttime
• 34% occurred in other-than-clear weather conditions (daytime and nighttime combined)
https://cdan.nhtsa.gov/query
GMC’s “marine blue metallic”. I always liked this color. It is eye catching and clean but not too bright.
The most recent brand new cars I bought have been grabber blue and “go mango” orange, the most recent used cars I bought were bright red, sterling silver (dark gray), deep green metallic, a blue-ish silver and a bright silver. This is over the past 2 to 3 years.
I’d be in the same camp. A cool blue, emerald green, orange or purple would suit my tastes. A note on the bright colors and how they relate to being noticed by police: I was always told that since we, as a population, are “programmed” to notice the color red (stop signs/signals,etc.) having a red vehicle automatically gets noticed due to this factor. Take a notice to all the brand names that have the business/product, especially food oriented, in a red font – Burger King, McDonalds, Red Robin, Kelloggs, etc. Seems to follow.
I prefer to operate under the radar, never thought it was a good idea to draw too much attention to your car, although I would make an exception for Mazda’s Soul Red :)
I would say I prefer color, and I do, but I don’t always practice what I preach.
The GTO is Impulse Blue Metallic and the Land Ark, which was painted in 1994, is bright teal. Otherwise, my driveway consists of black, silver, gray, and white.
I went to the Lexus dealer and essentially said I didn’t care what color it was as long as it qualified for the lease deal. But before I pulled the trigger on that I was looking at blue Mazda 6es, blue/green/purple Chargers, and blue Stingers. Though the Mazda blue is so dark it hardly qualifies.
I see BMWs and I think a Chevy crossover in teal and it reminds me how much I miss it.
Blend, as a Tuned meth eating SHO owner in dull as dirt gray I get away with soo sooo soooooo much crap I would be ticketed for in a ‘shiny bright blue or red vehicle..’ ..
Yep, got to have a car that’s dull and fast to keep ahead of da cops and da revenuers
I’ve watched enough episodes of “Live PD” to learn that cops stop beat-up vehicles frequently for bogus reasons (e.g. no tag lights),
and then search for contraband, check for impairment, or run ID checks for warrants.
Yep. Fishing for white trash, basically. I see it here all the time. Meanwhile all the nice cars are consistently running 10 over on surface streets with impunity. Probably because if you can afford a nice new car you can afford an attorney who will shoot that questionable probable cause straight to hell.
All for the color, me BRG. When we ordered my wife’s 2015 Edge early, they asked for a color preference, we said “Yes, Please!” Red or blue, we got red.
We also feel there is a difference between a color to own or a color to lease.
Also, with the economy slowing, cars will fall back to the dull colors, if history repeats itself. Bright colors sell well when people are feeling more upbeat.
Someone painted a Fiesta ST grabber blue and I love it. Mine is black because there just weren’t many left at that point. The Orange is good too and the Dodge in the picture is just about perfect.
I think the greatest color ever put on a car was that lime green that Porsche used in the 70’s (And Jack Baruth on his Audi).
The problem is they still get a grey, tan, or black interior. Even into the 90’s you still got blue on blue, red on red, etc. I know the why, but I still miss them.
Timely post for me. I was recently in Florida and for fun rented a Challenger. It was apparently the only one they had and it was Go Mango orange. It practically glowed in the TPA rental car garage. No trouble finding it!
I took special care when driving it though as it did attract police attention on numerous occasions! I was even passed by a semi with trailer at a good clip but the cop still followed me for a while. There was no one else on the road at this point, as all the other traffic had pulled away from me (going faster!).
While I like the color it had, I would probably go for the F8 green. Not enough green cars these days. I also like the dark red color offered on Challenger and Charger. Kudos to PSA/FCA for offering a lot of color choices on their vehicles. Also, while my rental Challenger had 17,000 miles on it, it was holding up very well (albeit not a Hemi version). No noticeable wear or damage.
My 2014 Mustang is Ruby Metallic Red – I love it but Grabber Blue would be even better.
The Ruby color I call “Grandpa Mustang”. It doesn’t scream “pull me over!”
My Challenger is header orange. I have no regrets. It’s as happy to look at as it is to drive.
Nice!
My old Challenger was Hemi Orange, the new one, bought in July ’18, is TorRed. Never got any police attention in either of them, except when an OSP trooper pulled me over to ask is he could sit in my orange car and take pics of it.
Color. I’m sick of monochromatic stealth.
I wish more cars were offered in yellow.
I had a Duster that color, with a black vinyl roof. Not in-your-face or schoolbus yellow, just… lemony. It was a good car, but the 318 was prone to flooding. Several times I had to stick a screwdriver or stick down the throat to open the choke. Then I made an extension to the throttle lever, so it would unload the choke when I floored it.
Sometimes I ramble on like Grandpa Simpson or Joe Biden.
I’m happy with my Highland Green F-150. Last year when I was used hot hatch shopping I didn’t want a “look at me” color or one with boy racer body cladding. I ended up with a Shadow Black Focus ST and am fine with it although I would have prefered a lighter color. I would never have bought one in Tangerine Scream or Triple Yellow. But I’m old.
My Focus ST is Performance Blue. Love the colour. Whenever I see a Tangerine Scream, I admire it, I like it, but I know that I would never choose that colour to see everyday. But then, I’m old too……
Stealth. I like colors, but the trick is to get something not a shade of grey-silver, or white, the official colors of “this car was spec-ed by the Sales Manager”. When I had a choice, I got a BMW in Oriental Blue Metallic, a navy blue at a distance, close up with metalflake of all colors. Clean, it was very pretty with the sparkles, with a bit of road mist on it, faded away. Likewise, my current car is Emerald Green, which has a color shift-it looks black in dim light, or off angle, but close up- 90 degrees you see a deep green, again with a few metalflake sparkles.
When I buy a new car, part of the question is “which color does not stand out from the pack”. I compensate for this by using the parking lights on the car….I’m not a fan of Daytime Running Lights in general and de activate them, but in any sort of grey weather, the regular marker lights go on. Benz has a nice bright LED in each corner of the car that stands out with the marker lights that doesn’t light up if you use DRL.
I always attempt to drive like I was a motorcyclist….expect the unexpected at any moment….years of motorcycling in Boston teach reflexes….
Running radar is boring, any car that is a color will stand out from the pack. I’ve play with both laser and radar, and it’s not exciting…but the red base Golf will stand out from the Grey Charger SRT in the pack. Want to make people think you are fast ? Noise. Drive your noisy car below the speed limit in any subdivision and the moms will wrinkle their noses, and make hand gestures at you to SLOW DOWN, even though you haven’t hit the speed limit….
@speedlaw: I understand that you believe in what you’re saying but I have to disagree with you in so many ways. Allow me to cover a couple of your points:
• “I’m not a fan of Daytime Running Lights in general and de activate them, but in any sort of grey weather, the regular marker lights go on.”
— I am of the opposite opinion here because even in bright sunlight the average monochromatic car (mostly silvers and greys) tend to fade into the pavement on nearly any road surface. Worse, when you’re in broken lighting conditions such as bright sun and dark shade by nearby trees (and some buildings) the cars almost literally vanish. You don’t need grey skies to make your car disappear, you just need the lack of contrast that greyscale vehicles provide, at which point almost any light is bad light for them. I, personally, am a fan of full-time DRL, though I agree they don’t need to be as bright as full-on headlamps. On the other hand, those corner lamps you describe are often not bright enough, especially if they are amber as compared to white or a brighter yellow. I personally like those LED headlamp surrounds because they are low-powered yet bright enough and often shaped to be eye-catching–which makes certain your car is visible in any kind of light. Yet their light is diffused enough that the driver will not mistake them for automatic headlamps which means they forget to turn on the rest of the running lamps after dark.
• “Want to make people think you are fast ? Noise. Drive your noisy car below the speed limit in any subdivision and the moms will wrinkle their noses, and make hand gestures at you to SLOW DOWN, even though you haven’t hit the speed limit….”
— Again I disagree. The noisy cars in my neighborhood tend to be the ones driving more sensibly and while they do garner attention, they are not the ones speeding or getting the complaints about speeding. The vast majority of the complaints come from the near-silent factory cars (unmodified, believe it or not) who will do 35mph plus in a subdivision with a posted 15mph speed limit. Kids have been hit and it has been more because they never heard the car coming and have accidentally run or ridden their bike out in front of those cars. Oh, I know the issue is as much the parents’ fault as it is the speeder’s but the point is that contrary to your argument, the noisy cars are ignored by comparison simply because you know where they are and can tell how fast they are going by exhaust sound and the audible Doppler effect when they are speeding.
In other words, your first statement here is just begging for trouble because without DRL, even if you can see perfectly, others cannot see YOU. It’s good that you turn lights on in grey weather but those light are needed just as much in clear weather and they need to be bright enough to be seen 100-300 feet away.
Your second statement simply goes counter to what I see every day in my neighborhood, though it may be different where you live (but I wager isn’t what you think it is.)
If a driver can’t see a car in broad daylight, they are not paying attention, and should turn in their driver’s license.
If supernormal glare is (supposedly) needed to see a car in broad daylight, then there should be six more headlights, two for the left side of the car, two for the right, and two for the rear. Then I guess we need to go about somehow making all the bikes and pedestrians bright and glaring as well in order to compete.
I would far prefer to see a group of oncoming cars ahead, light off, with differing colors, shapes and edges so I can discern what is going on, who is passing who, etc. With their lights on, all of those details are drowned out by the glare of the lights. I learned early on that lights on in the daytime out on the open road made the discernment of an oncoming vehicle as to whether it is a cop car or not far more difficult. The oncoming glare does interfere with normal vision. Eyes adjust to glare, rendering every other detail in the visual field harder to see.
DRL is a lowest common denominator, incompletely thought out concept. IMHO they are as much for fashion and symbolism and marketing as they might be for safety.
I am grateful that the LED type are taking over, they are far easier on the eyes than the older high beam reflector headlight variety.
If the daytime running lights are glaring to you, it is odd, they are not bright enough to be glaring to me. I can’t tell you how many times people have pulled out in front of my bright red or orange cars (even before DRL) there is no way you could miss them, but they did. I can easily tell how many. Cars and what they are doing in the daytime with the DRLs on. Oh well we will just have to disagree on this one.
I couldn’t care less whether the oncoming car is a cop car or not, so long as I’m able to see it from a comfortable distance. Just as an example, the entrance to my subdivision is on a north/south road and in the afternoon, the wooded other side of the road shades the highway (45+mph speed limit) and without headlamps, those greyscale cars simply vanish until they’re maybe 200 feet away at best, making it risky to pull out into that lane unless you can be CERTAIN nothing is coming. I’m not asking for glaring headlamps, I’m asking for enough light to break the greyscale and make at least the front of the vehicle visible (though as slowly as some people drive, it’s easy to come up behind one when you’re at highway speed and they’re doing 20-30mph slower, risking a rear-ender because you simply couldn’t see them–especially with sun glare in your windshield.)
The point is that lights are needed that can at least tell you A) there’s a vehicle there and B) which way it’s traveling.
QUOTE……”Want to make people think you are fast ? Noise. Drive your noisy car below the speed limit in any subdivision and the moms will wrinkle their noses, and make hand gestures at you to SLOW DOWN, even though you haven’t hit the speed limit”
Ya got that right. Clueless mommies in our previous subdiv. would yell slow down when I was driving a loud Mustang or Miata at 5 under the posted limit. Sometimes I would even back up and ask to see their radar gun, or say something like “I know exactly how fast I was going, do you?”
It depends on the car. I could like almost any color if it is just the right color for a particular car. Some colors don’t show off the lines of the car well.
Unless I drive a refrigerator, hearse, or battleship, I need to have it a color.
I applaud your choice of bold colors, and your vehicle will stand out even more when parked next to my boring white one. Synergy!
Last purchase was a red Chevy truck. I have no problem with some of the gray scale colors out there, but I do have a problem when they are 75%+ of the cars available. It’s frustrating when you go to look at Wranglers, and there are 20 black and one orange in stock.
Stealth. But in Amana White… highly visible, but so many of them that they’re less noticeable by smokey…
Do love a nice metallic blue… somewhere in the 60’s Shelby shade or a bit darker (Had the mid 90’s Ford Probe GT in Blue with Tan Leather interior, what a looker)
I read somewhere that silver is the stealthiest color. I noticed that the latest Cannonball run they chose a silver vehicle.
I used to only want white or black. But I love the Orange Crush of my current Jeep, and its visibility seems to be pretty good.
my current truck is black, but that’s because I bought it used and beggars can’t be choosers. Whenever things settle down and I replace it, it’ll be with something in a color. not loud like bright orange, but a nice deep red or blue. And not one of those “Mercedes red or blues” which is just pearl black with a slight red or blue tint.
How about something in-between?
I don’t want either Plum Crazy or Stealth Bomber Gray. I want a nice dark green or blue. Though on a sports car I’d really like something more fun – Primrose Yellow has long been a favorite. But sadly due the the craptastic choices available, my ’17 GTI is appliance white (which admittedly is a good color for that car due to the red detailing), and my Fiata is metallic black – because for ’18 the only actual color available was a crappy red, and I don’t like red to start with. If I were buying a ’19 it would be the lovely blue they came out with.
That Challenger is gorgeous! My favorite color scheme is bright red or
blue with a tan interior. Problem is, cops notice these colors more
than grayscale colors. But if you want anonymity, grayscale it must be.
I’m a fan of maroons and burgundies which for some reason you don’t see much anymore. The 1960’s GM Honduras maroon looked deep and rich. A friend of mine had a 65 Corvair convertible finished in it with a black interior and top and it looked great.
Also the Mercedes Benz Tobacco brown just exuded quality when paired with a brown or saddle MB Tex interior.
A QOTD was posted some time ago about car colors. I’m definitely in the non-stealth (at least non-bland) camp. here is what I posted previously…
I hate bland colors (Silver, White) in cars and try to avoid getting one if I can help it. In my car-owning career, I’ve only owned one silver and 2 & 1/2 white (See 56 Chevy below) cars.
Even the silver car only spent half of its life burdened with that color. A natural gas line erupted near where my car was parked and showered it rocks with debris. I was able to get it repainted a beautiful shade of metallic dark blue.
1. 69 VW Fastback – Blue
2. 81 Dodge Colt – Silver. Then Blue
3. 56 Chevy 210 – Two-tone, Red & White
4. 89 Pontiac Grand Am – Blue
5. 93 Geo Prizm – Gary-ish. Maybe dark Taupe.
6. 95 Mazda 626 – Dark Brown
7. 2000 – Dodge Grand Caravan – Forest Green
8. 03 Toyota Matrix – Blue
9. 06 Suzuki Grand Vitara – White
10. 13 Chevy Volt – Red
11. 14 Kia Soul – Kale Green
12. 15 Chevy Spark EV – White
13. 18 Chevy Volt – Gray (Satin Steel to be exact)
14. 17 Buick Lacrosse – Red
Some new cars look great in color. The Arteon in yellow, Audis wearing their custom green or red and the departed Chevy SS looked great in orange. For the fiscally wise, though, it’s best to pick up these colors used.
I see a lot of intelligent people talking up dark green in the comments.
Why thank you, it’s the color of my Miata :)
My preference is a color, but not a loud one. But color is pretty far down the list of priorities when I’m car shopping. My actual ownership history:
Dark red (87 Taurus)
Dark red (89 Taurus SHO)
Dark blue (88 Accord)
Dark gray (04 TSX)
Tan (06 Civic)
Silver (09 G8)
Dark gray (13 Forester)
Silver (08 LS 460)
Dark green (95 Legend)
Dark red (16 C-Max)
White (11 LX 570)
Silver (16 Highlander)
Dark gray (19 Bolt)
Of all those cars, I actually had a color choice only on the TSX, C-Max, and Bolt.
Color! I went from a orange Z to a blue C7 and everyone who sees it claims they love the color. I’ve owned various reds, blues, greens and yes even yellow.
I will never get another white or black vehicle as they are impossible to keep looking good in addition to being boring. While I am not a fan of grey/silver it does work on some cars. My current truck is silver but I did that on purpose since I knew it wasn’t going to get much love (its just a tow vehicle). My mistake was Dodge offered a two tone paint option at the time and since I ordered the truck I should have checked that box and gotten sometime more interesting.
Both. I currently drive a deep burgundy BMW wagon (E91). It’s a very nice color, but the wagon bit makes it quite “respectable.” I drive 10-20 over the speed limit nearly at all times, with the exception of urban areas where the speed limit it 35 or under. Police never give me trouble.
Still fondly remember my first car – a 66 Malibu convertible in “Aztec Bronze.” Sort of a cross between red and brown – looked better than it sounds. It was unique: attractive and visible to other drivers without being conspicuous to the police (I assume – never got pulled over in that car). Loved both the car and color – I would love to still have it. Great paint color.
Whenever I’m asked about color preference at a dealer, my answer is a consistent “anything but black, white or silver.”
The only time the color choice caused trouble was when I had my Focus ST in Tangerine Scream. I got entirely too much attention from people thinking I wanted to race.
That said I’m currently rocking my suburban any vehicle, a CX-5 in Soul Red. It is even greater because my favorite color is red. I also considered Mazda’s dark blue, because it’s not black, white or silver.
QUOTE……”Whenever I’m asked about color preference at a dealer, my answer is a consistent “anything but black, white or silver.”
YIKES great way to end up with some horrible beige/tan/champagne/sanddrift pearl!
If I’m honest, most of those colors fall in the silver category and are discounted. I can’t even recall the last new champaign colored vehicle that I’ve seen aside from my dad’s Escort from 21 years ago. I take your point though.
Most every FCA color is one that I would rock. Otherwise, I like blues, reds, certain greens, burnt copper (on certain cars), chameleon, certain purples (a big plus considering I’m in Minnesota – and I’m not even that interested in football).
nrd515, that is some pretty hardcore pornography right there. I’m not sure if that’s quite appropriate. Haha
I would completely rock that car
10 years ago, I was negotiating with a local dealer via emails and I gave him a list of acceptable colors, ranging from most desired to acceptable, to NOPE, and somehow the guy on the other end couldn’t figure out I wanted “Detonator Yellow as my first pick, with TorRed, and Hemi Orange as my other two desired choices. There was a kind of weakish blue I put as my last, and least acceptable color, with a note added “Only if I can get a GREAT deal on it!”, so what car does he find for me to trade for. the weak blue one. Not equipped correctly at all, so it would have been a no anyway. I reread the email I sent him and it seemed perfectly clear. I ended up with Hemi Orange, and never got tired of it. I hate weakish and anything like FCA F8 green colored.
My pic hosting site is acting up, this is a duplicate of my old car:
https://paintref.com/graphics/sample/challenger2010hemiorange.jpg
Both my Miata and my Alltrack are bright red. It makes them easy to find in a sea of black/silver/white cars.
In parts of Scandinavia (Denmark and Sweden) in the mid 70’s the majority of cars that we saw were bright yellow. Similar to how Toronto Police cars were historically painted.
Was told that it was a ‘safety colour’.
’16 Challenger R/T 6sp, Plum Crazy!
I have a Mazda CX5 in Soul Red, and it gets compliments all the time. I’ve found when looking at cars on dealer’s lots, you usually see grey, dark grey, silver, and black. And they all seem to have black interiors. At one time, when cars came in many colors, you could get a matching color interior.
Well if I have to buy a 2020 and B5 Blue, Plum Crazy and Yellow Jacket are not available then I guess Indigo Blue, Frostbite, Octane Red, Go Mango, Granite, Black, White, then TorRed.
I should add, we have a car in Blue Streak Pearl and one in Intruder Purple. The Durango is Driftwood Metallic and the Rogue is drab but we didn’t have any choice in that one.
I like maroon but not red. I have owned more white vehicles than any other color. I currently own a white truck, a black Mazda3 and a gold color Genesis. Black is very hard to keep clean but is usually a beautiful color when clean. Right now I would lean towards a medium-dark silver/gray metallic grey range. I might take some blue colors.
When I was young I wanted a either a yellow and black Challenger/purple and white Challenger or a red and black Chevelle SS. Now I am more interested in not standing out and owning something that doesn’t show dirt so I don’t have to wash it all the time! But different colors look better on some cars but not all cars.
There became a plague of white cars a year or two ago when people realized that there were other colors besides grey and black. So now there are three colors: Black, grey, and white.
I have a Sublime Challenger and a B5 Charger and can’t for life of me understand why anyone would buy Destroyer Gray, but, to each his own.
My dream is to have the most dad-mobile of dad-mobiles you can find, and have it be an absolute monster of a sleeper.
So, bone stock muted exterior (although not just white, black, and gray. Darker blues, greens, and burgundy like reds are always nice), but some kind of luxury sport sedan inside and underneath.
I’d probably have to either learn how to be a master level resto-modder or spend a small fortune to do this, however.
Example: if you could put the exterior of a mid-level CUV or even a mainstream large-ish sedan over something like the Audi RS5 or maybe a mid level Charger drive-train and suspension underneath (Hellcat would be too much).
Alas, no such beast exists.
So, yes. Stealth. Always.
Before black, white and fifty shades of gray became the norm it always struck me that in poor visibility it was invisible-color cars that would invariably be the ones with no headlights on, as though their drivers reflexively wanted to blend into the scenery. So I figured it was a personality trait. Now, of course, invisible colors are the norm so there goes that theory. Or maybe not, because driving a car painted a loud color takes a concerted effort today. When I was driving my Colorado (pumpkin) orange BMW 2002 in the early ’70s that model was offered in 24 distinct hues, black being the LEAST common. BTW, that great color on the wide body Challenger at the top of this article is identical to one that was available on the E46 M3!
Strangely, there are still people who think that parking lights are appropriate while driving in twilight.