In the early to mid Nineties, there was a brief interest in pastel colors for new cars, resulting in baby blue Tempos, metallic mint green Tauruses, and apparently, metallic aqua Rams.
While not to everyone’s taste, at least it was more interesting than the silver, light gray, medium light gray, metallic pearlescent opalescent titanium gray, and beige color palettes of today.
I didn’t even notice that Aztek until I loaded the photo into CC!
I’ve seen quite a few in this colour out here on the prairies.
I loved that color on mid 90s Rams. It reminded me of a friend’s 63 Newport that we rode around in during our high school years in the late 70s.
Maybe it’s the lighting but I’d call it more a light blue than an aqua. Aqua has to have some green in it. Quite a bit of green in fact. Or, if you prefer it needs to have some yellow.
I think Chevy had a similar metallic light blue in those years. Not sure about Ford.
Such a color would be welcome today amid the sea of dullness.
I think Chevy had a similar metallic light blue in those years.
My 96 Sierra is a two-tone with the white and what GM calls “Stellar Blue”. It’s an amazing colour.
It IS an amazing color when contrasted with the white or gray.
It also suits the 88-98 GM trucks smooth, clean design far better than the lumpy , overwrought Dodges of the era.
> It also suits the 88-98 GM trucks smooth, clean design far better than the lumpy , overwrought Dodges of the era.
If you say so. I don’t think it looks any better on that bland, boxy Chevy than it does on the stylish Dodge. 🙂
My personal opinion, for sure!
I liked the Dodges when they finally redesigned them in ’94, after 20+ years of the same truck. It wore thin pretty quickly. I’ll admit that the GM trucks did the same, but I think the ’88-’98 look will hold up better in the long run. The two redesigns are probably exhibit 1 and 1a when it comes to “radical spaceship makeovers” among trucks.
My monitor is a bit off these days, but if the color on that Ram is the one I am thinking of, it is almost exactly the old early 60s Chrysler Holiday Turqoise. More blue than green, that was used on the Pace Car that year..
Try again Drat, photo not attaching
Like this?
That Newport 4 door hardtop is a dead ringer for the one that I spent many hours in. You nailed it.
Blazers and S-10 pickups had a neat shade of Strawberry Pink metallic in those years. Red enough to not be confused with Pepto-Bismol or a Mary Kay car. Different but cool.
I always liked metallic light blue…Ford had a neat variation about this same time.
The shade shown above reminds me a little of some mid-’60s Chevies…except those would need to be a little less bright.
It is a sea of dullness today by contrast. Good observation, 88.
I thought the color described for the S-10 was more of a magenta color than the pink tones and they also had a dark jade like green and a true purple too.
S-10’s of that era also were available in a Dimetapp metallic purple too!
Ford/Chevy had similar ‘florescent’ trucks. This is why Chrysler called their new car ‘Neon’. This just before the great Biege era, which is happily over,
Just as funny looking now are lime green Chevy pickups ifrom 1976.
“Aqua has to have some green in it”
True, think of K-Mart’s old color schemes.
Mercedes had a genuinely astonishing aqua-green in the early 1990s. It’s not very bright here, but you get the idea. It’s something I would expect to see on a Geo Metro, or one of those fun-edition Ford Rangers.
On a related note, I drove past a Ford dealer a few days ago. There are a lot of fun colors on Escorts and Fiestas these days. As I think about it, what could be worse than a gray Fiesta?
Wow they brought back the Escort? Everyone sure has missed those!
Oops. Let’s try Focii and Fiestas. Sorry, but little 4 cylinder domestic cars not named Neon look alike to me. 🙂
+1
…and speaking of Neons, I saw a never-wash black 2-door yesterday on the freeway – about as un-neon as a Neon can get.
Early 90’s Ford Rangers had some bright colors too (beyond the bright Yellow Splash). The 92s and possibly 93s had a non-metallic Aqua and the very bright Calypso Green metallic was also available on Rangers for several years.
There used to be a relative of a neighbor who would come by with a Calypso Green Club Wagon. Egad, that was a little too much of that color.
I don’t think that many were sold, but I recall the Neon being available in sort of a day-glow green for a while in the mid 90s.
One year only, ’95. Nitro Yellow Green.
Somewhere between SubLime and Sassy Grass.
That shade was primarily intended for racers in showroom stock classes.
Dear Lord, I wanted one of those Nitro Green Neons. But, the “keep a low profile” side of me (the one that likes to drive at extra-legal speeds) managed to overcome the urge to trade in the Turbo Lancer for one of these.
Don’t see too many trucks in that color. It’s not my favorite color for a vehicle, but better than the Ford aqua color that I always call “Ford uglyblue”. I see this Dodge is rotting out in some of the typical locations for its vintage.
Ah yes, the pastel 90s. I wasn’t a huge fan of my the color of my Impreza when I first got it, but its grown on me. On the plus side, it’s hard to miss in a parking lot of boring silver, black, grey and beige.
Here it is (if you can see the paint through the mud), with my very similarly colored truck sticking out in the background. I guess I like that color more than I thought.
I never saw an Impreza in that color. I like it.
I’ve only seen one other in the flesh, but it was a coupe if I remember correctly.
The bright teal and dark teal was popular at Pontiac back when I was selling them in 95-96, greens in general were pretty big, and now its hard to even find a car that had green available.
Green’s coming back. I noticed some Ford half-tons in a great shade of dark green at the local dealership.
I had a dark green 96 Lumina and at the same time my mom had a dark green 96 Concorde, which was then passed down to me. But you’re right, now you can hardly find new cars that are painted green.
Bimini Blue was a popular Mustang color from 89-93, and the light metallic green. It is fun to see these ‘light and airy’ colors on Stangs converted to drag racers.
Nice thing about a Dodge, it can make even an Aztec look better!
Really? I always thought the 1994-2001 Ram was far better looking than its Ford or Chevy contemporaries. Maybe not in this shade, but especially in black. Bonus points for a 2-3″ lift and some big tires.
Slow news day? Writer’s block? Tom’s next article– “CC Outtake: 1995 Ford Ranger… The Wheels.”
It’s a 17-year old truck in an unusual color. How is that not a Curbside Classic?
Yeeu got a purdy truck, thar city boy!
> While not to everyone’s taste, at least it was more interesting than the silver, light gray, medium light gray, metallic pearlescent opalescent titanium gray, and beige color palettes of today.
Hear, hear! Where’ve all them damned colours gone?
Along with the Nitro Green Neons, I fell in love with that eggplant purple that GM was putting on it’s cars; when I was looking for my Sunfire, I originally found a purple GT model. Alas, it had an automatic and some other mechanical issues, so it fell off of my list quickly.
With the nice weekend we just had here in Western Michigan, lots of folks are airing out the equipment. Just this weekend, I saw a mid 90’s Corvette (I think it may have even been a 45th Anniversary model) in that purple. All waxed and shiny, it looked farkin’ great!
My old Ranger truck was in that Calypso green that Ford offered back in the early 90’s. They also offered them in a very cool shade of purple that I liked as well, I think the late run of the 89-92 gen trucks had it, as did the 93, 94 trucks for sure.
I loved how GM offered a magenta like shade on their S-10’s for at least the 94 MY, that and the purple would’ve been on my radar back then if I were interested in the trucks.
Yes, I’d love to see more jewel/pastel paints, and more non metallic colors too and yes, bring on the sky/baby blue (non metallic), more yellow, more bright blues, magenta, coral, putty (or as VW offered in ’57, putty and beeswax, which was really a darker shade of coral with gunmetal gray).
speaking of colors, I think I read that Fiat will be offering even more colors for the new Fiat 500L when it debuts for 2013, if so, I hope some of them are some of the colors mentioned here.
As for that truck, very cool color. I grew to love that green on my old Ranger even though I’m not a green kinda guy and yes, saw a similar year Ranger with the non metallic jade green that was more turquoise than anything else.
Chrysler offered a teal color, not quite this color, but it was available on the Concorde, Vision, Intrepid, along with a lilac color and I know the teal was offered, as was I think a purple color for the cab forward mini vans.
For those who haven’t seen a photo of it, here is my now former green truck!
I’m quite partial to the Arcadian Blue (or possibly Sky View Blue) on my 1969 F-100. I’ve seen one or two other late ’60s-early ’70s trucks in this color in our area – always catches my eye.