I ran across this most decidedly NON-factory painted VW New Beetle behind a local dealership today. Pink cars are pretty far and few between these days, so my interest was piqued. Could it be a Mary Kay VW?
Upon further reflection, I decided that it was customized by the owner. Plus, this car is a few years old, and if I understand correctly, top MK sales people get a new car every year. VW has offered some retro colors on NBs in the past, including pastel yellow and sand beige, but I don’t think pink was ever under consideration!
It looks rather similar to the ’50s Cadillac pink, which I believe was called Mountain Laurel. Even car colors had cool names back then! Unlike the bright neon pinks seen on custom cars today, it was subtle, at least as subtle as pink paint can be on a gigantic, befinned Caddy.
This is not the first pink car I’ve seen this year, but that one was a lot bigger than a VW. Rest assured it will appear here on CC in the near future.
Someone went to considerable expense to have his or her (probably her) NB painted this way. The paint quality was quite nice, so I’m sure it wasn’t cheap, and the car was otherwise stock, with VW alloys and a black leather or leatherette interior. An interesting find, any way you slice it. So, the question: When was the last time you’ve seen a pink vehicle, and how long ago was it?
I’ve seen a few pink Mary Kay Cadillac Escalades around here in NE Illinois. Pink looks more natural on that VW (which I think I’ve seen before) than on the Escalade.
There is a Techno Pink Spark by Chevrolet, but I have yet to see one in the wild.
I Thought I heard Mary Kay uses a Pink Film over white cars so it can be taken off after the year.
I saw one the other day on the road, I had to do a double take.
Whoa. Didn’t know about that one.
I think this is a brilliant marketing idea for Chevy, especially for a sort of dorky looking car like the Spark. My daughters (and their friends) usually hate cheap cars of any kind, especially hatchbacks, but when they saw the Spark was available in pink, neon green and bright blue they loved it. Its the first car they ever liked that is even remotely affordable for a first car. In my experience, color is very important to women, offering some cool unique ones (and on all models, not just the up-level ones like most manufacturers do) will increase the appeal dramatically.
My wife and I saw one of these the other day in a parking lot. There was another couple looking at it and the conversation went like this:
Husband: Now that’s just terrible.
Wife: I think it’s cute.
That is exactly the conversation my dad and stepmother would have.
We get these at the dealership I work at. They also come with neon pink racing stripes and pink accent interiors with pink patterns in them. Modern Dodge LaFemme, anyone?
The Spark is actually made in Korea by Daewoo. You can get them in Techno Pink (pictured), Denim Blue, Jalapeno green, and Salsa red, among other colours.
The CC Effect strikes again. I saw my first pink Chevy Spark on my way in to work this morning!
Who cares about the VW when there’s a delicious W124 beside it?
It’s definitely not a Mary Kay car; only the top-end Cadillacs get the exclusive MK paint. Reps lower on the totem pole get domestic cars in generic colors (back when my mom was selling, a red Grand Am with a MK stick-on label).
Of course, you can always take the car credit instead and lease whatever you want.
We’ll take a closer look at that Merc one of these days. Here’s a preview:
My Aunt had a MK pink Cutlass in the late 70’s when she got through MK as a dealer.
The only pink car I have seen recently was a Mary Kay Cadillac Escalade, other than that, nada.
A regular defendant at the courthouse where I practice drives a Pepto Bismol pink newer Range Rover with matching pink wheels. License plate is something to the effect of “PNKPNTHR”
That plate belongs on a pink Crown Vic! (Or Grand Marq, or heaven forbid, Town Car…)
Desert rose?
http://wwwa.autotrader.ca/a/Lincoln/Town%20Car/NAROL/Manitoba/19_6438117_/?showcpo=ShowCPO
Cadillac Escalade and CTS. But than I work at a Caddy dealer. Both MK cars. As my dad would say when we’d pass one of these on the road. “There sure are a lot of ugly women in this town.” LOL!
MK must have raised their qoutas. I can remember MKP G-Body Regals in the 80’s and MKP GPs in the 90’s. I dont recall in those decades if a MKP DeVille or Brougham was the top prize as I’ve never seen one. Maybe I remember seeing a 85-90 MKP DeVille but I haven’t seen anything pop up on the used car lots or in the boneyards for years. Even a moderately equipped CTS or SRX is quite a step above a non Caddy intermediate.
OK who is going to be the first to do a CC on a Neiman Marcus special edition? BTW it wont be me unless I happen to get lucky and stumble opon one. You know when you actually think about there is a bunch of weird stuff that came out of Texas.
“There sure are a lot of ugly women in this town.”
ROFLMAO tks for the laugh…sounds like something my old man would say
If we all drove pink cars…. it would be a Pink Car Nation.
we should all wear our white sport coats when they come to take us away haha.
A white sport coat and a pink Citation.
I like Jimmy Buffett’s version better. “A white sports coat and a pink crustacean…”
I’ve seen a Mark Kay, STS, DTS, CTS, SRX and Escalade down here in FL. There was a Mary Kay XLR available I heard, you must have had to have sold a quadrillion MK product for that. From what I recall the MK pink is a special fleet deal with GM and Cadillac and once the cars run as a MK lease car is over, they have to be repainted so no non-MK “riff-raff” are seen driving a MK Caddy.
I think that pink on the VW IS factory, I seem to recall that there was a very small run of them, maybe for some TATA cancer charity or something?
Love the Cadillac ads, the stripes on the Beverly Hills’ canopy lend a psychedelic effect, and the first ad…”ladies, get your formal gear on…were heading down to the Pump Room(?!) for dinner and dancing”
It is the pink Impala taxi I see every few days. The p-imp is a ’01 to ’05 model.
There’s a couple of pink Escalades in my neck of the woods. Escalades always seen to be either Black, White or Pink. The last time I saw a pink car that was not an Escalade was about three years ago at a car rental agency. A customer there had just dropped off his rent-a-car, and was waiting for his wife to pick him up. Before I could ask him why he didn’t just borrow wifey’s car, I saw the answer: his wife pulling up in a new Bug liek the featured car, painted a similarly ghastly shade of pink.
I drive through inner city Detroit frequently and I see pink used often on box style B bodies, and late model Chargers and 300s all with 26″ or larger rims. While I admit these cars aren’t my thing I do enjoy seeing the brightly colored paint jobs in a sea of silver and beige mainstream cars. Often these cars are even two tone, thankfully the product placement on these cars seems to be a southern thing I haven’t seen that in the north.
Someone in the Richmond, VA area is definitely doing well with Mary Kay – I’ve seen her driving an STS, later a DTS. They definitely stand out in traffic. Unfortunately for me, what immediately comes to mind is a story arc in Bloom County – “Attack of the Mary Kay Commandos”. And I start giggling hysterically.
I have always thought that the car Homer Simpson drives is a Mary Kay pink Cadillac.
There is a 2006 DTS in MK pink not to far from here.
I see a pink Fiat 500 on a fairly regular basis…
Pink cars are not all that uncommon these days, at least around here. I see several custom painted imports of varying quality as well as more than a few Donks, there are still quite a few of the early 90s GM pink cars driving around, plus some high end custom jobs; a Lotus, a Porsche 997, a few Smart cars. I actually thought there were pink New Beetles available from the factory, I have seen enough of them to make me wonder. Also cannot forget the Panther Pink Mopars which are by car the wildest muscle cars.
I see a pink Vanagon occasionally around here, but not when I can take a pic of it. It was not a a stock colour for that model in any year, so someone went to a little trouble with a re-spray. Hold off on the Vanagon jokes Canucklehead, but it is definitely not a good colour choice on that vehicle.
alistair
My wif and I were coming out of a local diner and I spotted this H2 Hummer. After I stopped giggling I snapped a quick pick.
I saw a Mary Kay pink SRX a month or so ago.
There is a girl in my area, even seen her in my neigboorhood who has a pink and grey camo job on her 80’s 4Runner.
I caught this Pink & White JK Wrangler 4 Door last year in Truckee. The Plate reads “Ken Whoo” and it has “Barbie Edition” on the side of the hood where the Rubicon package lettering would be.
As a Jeep enthusiast I appreciated the owners sense of whimsy.
Lots of pink Jeeps in Sedona, Arizona – home of Pink Jeep off road tours.
I’m still waiting for that “Panther Pink” Mopar on the street.
Saw a pink Smart car last week.
In northeast philly there is some company or another that has a fleet of pink second gen ford escort wagons.
Guy that used to work with my wife had a pink champagne Crown Vic. He’s an ex-marine and ex-cop, and he always referred to it as beige.
A former division head at the big ship place where I used to work had a FWD Eldorado (1980 or so) in bright Pepto-Bismol pink. A couple of years later I was watching a demolition derby and that car or one just like it came out onto the field, to a big cheer from the audience.
That Ford colour I believe is “Desert Rose” as per the Town Car in the link:
http://wwwa.autotrader.ca/a/Lincoln/Town%20Car/NAROL/Manitoba/19_6438117_/?showcpo=ShowCPO
Can’t recall the last pink car or truck I saw, but as much as we all bemoan the neutral and boring interior color choices available these days, you have to give them one point in their favor: You can take your ride to Earl Scheib and whatever color you want him to paint it, it most likely won’t clash.
Surprised no one mentioned the Fushia Challenger that was available 2 or 3 years ago. Those have got to be rare. I want One, even though I Liked the Plum Crazy one better.
Hot pink BMW 750i from the mid- nineties today! At a car dealers at Moorooka, will try to get a shot of it in the next few days ( unless it just flys off the lot,hehe!)
I don’t know about anywhere else, but at least in Australia you can get a hot pink Yaris. Saw one this morning, but they don’t seem too common. I think the older shape also came in a similar colour.
Back in the 50,s in Australia they did a pink and grey FB Holden,better known by most as Nipple Pink and Hangover Grey.Pink was,nt a colour available on the all new Gay look Hillman Minxes,thats unless Kiwi Bryce knows better ;o)
Followed a pink Nissan Escargo yesterday
When my wife purchased her white 2010 Ford Flex she was already planning to “pink the top”. We agreed we’d wait three years to confirm her desire and clear one of the Ford Motor Company warranty periods.
With April 2013 we will be at 36 months. The pearlized pink repaint of the roof has already been researched and budgeted for. We’re going to have a two tone (pink top, white body) Flex.
I wonder if you could cover it with plastic film for less money and zero hit to your resale value. But I have never researched it. And if the wife wants the roof painted pink, then it ought to be done.
I never thought of the plastic film but I LIKE THE IDEA!
I’ll start my homework now.
Thanks.
My father-in-law has a pink Nissan Moco. To be fair, it’s a bit more of a salmon-hued pink, but the thing is pink nonetheless. Miraculously, it’s nowhere near the most embarrassing car I’ve ever been seen in, the atrocious in every way imaginable Mitsubishi Minica. The Minica makes EVERY other car look like an E46 3-Series. I will go to pains to work in how awful that POS is no matter how little it relates to the main point of what I want to say, which here is that my father-in-law drives a pink kei car.
Who the hell would name a car “Moko”? In Mexico, and possibly other Latin American countries, “Moko” means “booger, nose nuggets”.
I spotted a Mary Kay Nissan Altima the other day. . . . .
In 1972 a pink T-Bird that sat outside of Jerry’s Ford for quite a while. My school bus passed it every day.
There’s a pink BMW 5-series, I’m guessing late 90′s vintage, that roams my neighborhood from time to time. Need to get a shot of it next time.
I just saw a MK pink Caddy DTS somewhere here in Grand Rapids about a week or two ago. The door scripting had been changed over to M A R Y K A Y instead of C A D I L L A C…
Back in the early 80’s, a Ford dealer in Cuyahoga Falls, OH, had a whole row (7-10 cars long) of pink 2 door Ford Granadas, the Fox bodied 1981 version. To make it worse, they had a black and white vinyl interior. I can remember being sent over there to pick up a part for the Ford dealership where I worked and coming across these cars. I was stunned.
One of the poor b*st*rds tasked with selling these things mistook me for a customer (even though I was in my work uniform!) and tried to sell me one at a phenomenal discount. When I told him I was there to pick up parts, he stomped away rather angrily. About then I heard another guy trolling some prospects by calling it a “Valentine’s Day” special car (it WAS early February)…
Really? Really?
Even when I was in sales, I could never come up with such creative B.S.! It’s a good thing I was working the parts counter back then…
A VW Beetle, just like the photo.
Back in the ’60s & ’70s, I used to see lots of pink Mustangs. I think you could order them in pink if I’m not mistaken.
When I was in the air force, the Lt. Colonel who headed our office had a pink Barracuda! No joke. He sold it to an airman in the office who needed a car.
I took my hat off to him – a 20-year-old having the guts to drive it, too.
In 1972.
He never repainted it…
Yesterday, while waiting for a light at a very busy intersection, I saw a pink Audi Q7. Not only was it screaming pink, but it was the matte finish that is so popular with Asians at the moment. Said Audi had a rather small Asian female driver. I didn’t see any Hello Kitty decals but they couldn’t be too far in the offing. Exactly what the enginners at Ingolstadt had planned for their German SUV.
Following the thread suddenly jogged my memory on a motorcycle that I always wanted to own (and still do): a late-90’s Triumph Speed Triple in what Triumph called Nuclear Red.
In reply, the Triumph riding community renamed it Dog Pecker Pink. Much to the disgust of Triumph at Hinckley. We’ve heard that they dropped the color because of our renaming it.
Two pink car sighting (both in the past five years or so, but neither is real recent):
1) I used to drive by a parking lot quite a bit that would frequently have a pink 1990s Toyota Camry parked in it. I always wondered if it was a Mary Kay car (maybe they switched from GM to Toyota sometime around that era?). It was a light shade of pink. Not very obstrusive, but definitely pink.
2) At a car show/cruise night, I saw a pink 1968 Mustang convertible — with a manual floor-shift transmission. As I was walking away from the car, I passed two teenage girls who were walking in the other direction, approaching the car. I heard one of them say something to the effect of “Oooh! This is the car I want! [pause] Dammit, it’s a stick.”
Just saw a pink Honda Jazz (Fit) yesterday, parked at a hotel. Unlike in the U.S., guys here in Indonesia would happily drive a pink car or motorcycle. They have yet embrace the notion that pink is for women only.
Besides the Spark (which has already been much discussed here), that last factory painted pink cars I can think of were mid-90’s model Hyundai Accents and Ford Aspires. Although I haven’t seen any of these for years. I many of those penalty boxes are left on the roads these days.
The last one I can think of was the Ford Probe in that metallic pink reminiscent of 1961-62 GM cars.
I see a pink MK CTS all the time around here, lucky person if you ask me
1971 Holden Torana GTR XU-1 (the racing homologation model) in “Strike Me Pink”
In 1971-72 you could also get your Chrysler Valiant Charger in Magenta or your Ford Falcon in Mulberry which were both slightly darker pinks.
In more recent years there has been at least one pink colour available on a Falcon, plus the B segment cars mentioned above (Spark, Yaris, Mitsubishi Mirage)
Oh, yes, our neighbour growing up had a pinky-purply XB Falcon wagon!
Holden offered a couple of shades of pink on the HQ too. My late Uncle was a Holden salesman in the 70s, I still remember my Gran telling me about the day “Billy turned up in a new Kingswood to see if we’d be interested. But it was pink!!”. (They kept their blue-green Volvo 164E)
I see a pink Mary Kay Escalade every once in a while. When I was 16, my Dad and I looked at a pink 56 Cadillac for sale for $ 250. It was pretty beat up. I recall the driver’s side window was cracked, and the air cleaner and other items under the hood were covered with surface rust. The car ran, but didn’t really sound good.
My mother vetoed my buying it, (she was right), but I’d buy it now.
Here’s one you wouldn’t expect. Have seen a pink Dodge Charger – yes Charger – around Columbus, Ohio. We’re talking the 2006-10 Charger. There’s a script Barbie on the drivers side of the car – and perhaps both sides – and the pillars and the roof are white. To better explain, the color fades from pink to white. All very professionally done and quite sharp. Am guessing the lady’s name is Barbie (Barbara) or that she is a fan of collecting Barbie dolls. Perhaps both.
The last, and only, pink car I’ve driven is a very HOT pink ’59 Cad Convertible! Won it in a contest. The company sponsoring the contest dragged the car out of a junkyard, did a slap-dash restoration on it, sprayed it with hot pink and inside it was black & white tuck and roll seats. At the time (late ’80s) I could park it and within 3m there would be a group of people looking at it. It was most popular with females 10 and under, unfortunately… (GRIN!)