The topic of automotive color comes up here from time to time. The topic seems to be becoming irrelevant in this modern world of silver, white and black cars (which aren’t really colors at all, now, are they?) However, for those of us who pay attention to cars from earlier eras , color is a topic of major importance, whether we like to admit it or not.
We have seen endless debates here at CC about whether a certain car looks best painted light or dark, vivid or conservative. Some colors have become ubiquitous for a few years, and others have appeared very infrequently. Jim Grey’s CC piece on this Fairmont reminded me of this perfect example of late 1970s FoMoCo awfulness, at least when it comes to the color.
Really – did some designer open the refrigerator to see a three-day-old bowl of butterscotch pudding that needed to be thrown out because one of the kids had left it uncovered, and exclaim “THAT’S IT!” Or was it Phil in Vinyl Development who figured out how to tint plastic to match the puddle of dog-barf on the kitchen floor, then got his buddy in the paint shop to mix up a special color to go with it? However this came about (and it would have been impossible in any decade but the ’70s), I hereby nominate this car as the most awful car color combo of all time.
I believe that Ford called it “Light Chamois”, and am prepared for maybe three our our readers to tell us that this was their favorite automotive color ever. Understand, however, that any positive testimonials will have to be accompanied by recent drug tests before they will be taken seriously by the editorial staff here at CC.
OK, maybe I am overstating things a bit, and there is certainly the matter of individual taste at play here. So, this is where we open this topic up to the commentariat: What is the worst color combo you have ever seen on a car? There are decades of unattractive colors and odd color pairings to choose from, so let’s see which ones left you particularly cold?
The very last Porsche 928 made featured a light metallic pea green exterior and a plum purple leather interior. I wish I had a photo of that interior to share.
After this last decade of incredibly boring colors, anything looks good. Well, maybe not so much this color Fairmont. I don’t recall color combinations I haven’t liked so much as a really appealing color on cars I didn’t like.
The last of the line Mercury Mariner in “Lime Squeeze” is bad enough if one only were to consider the outside. Open the doors and this lovely palate awaits…
I forgot Mariners came in that color. I remember seeing is when it came out on the Mercury website as a computer generated image and thought it was a mistake. Then I saw one on the road…
One of the last brand new Mercurys available for sale when I was cruising Cars.com the other week was a Mariner in this color. I was looking through brands and was surprised to see that they indicated there was still 2 or 3 new Mercs available but the others were actually used. Not surprised that one in that color would be a tough sale.
Would that have been a special color for promoting the hybrid?
Actually, no, it was a color made for the Ford Fiesta along with “Sangria Red” promoting a bold forward direction for all the smaller Fords including the Escape and Mariner. We might not care for it but it was the #2 color on all Fiestas sold in Asia
I got my OZ car license in a V8 falcon in that particular shade of yellow whatever I didnt pay that much attention to it as it wasnt my car butv yeah Ford butterscotch aint my favourite.
At least that was COLOR. Modern cars are all some sort of metallic grey from silver to some sort of black.
I’m with you 100%, toffee. I hate to tell JPC, but I definitely like the featured car’s interior and am OK with the exterior. Greens and browns are pretty rare these days, and blue is not that common. I like to see the full spectrum of colors as options. Seeing mostly variations of silver or gray, along with black and white is almost like what I remember seeing on TV, before my parents got a color TV. An absence of pretty or bright or vivid or otherwise unique colors almost borders on some form of mental illness. I like all the unique hues people have posted examples of. Like they say, different strokes for different folks.
The P38s are some of the best looking trucks. Just elegant and really haven’t aged very much. But I always thought this was SO tacky. Great truck in the wrong color. And the 80s red vette with the red interior.
I’ve always liked the yellow Range Rovers. Then again, my previous vehicle was a bright yellow Ford Ranger pickup, so I’m probably biased. And possibly colorblind.
It could almost be a Camel Trophy tie-in, but its the wrong shade I think
A GIS for “ugly cars” is kinduva fun browse.
What is this?
Marcos Mantis, I believe. Corgi made a model of one in the Seventies.
Wrong in any colour, what an ugly brute
Didn’t some of those 928’s have plaid seats?
These? Yikes!
I don’t have a problem with that, and I rather like it. Considering that the majority of vehicles I’ve come across in the last 10 or 15 years are a morbid black seats, carpet, dash, and door panels – and the ones that aren’t are usually some shade of gray on everything – I consider anything, and I mean anything, that isn’t black or gray is a huge improvement. I’m definitely not a follow the crowd type of person, and I do like individuality and uniqueness.
Brown on any new vehicle. Brown was never that great of a car color, in my opinion, but it looks particularly hideous when paired with current automotive design trends. A coworker has a new brown Explorer and the color manages to make an already ugly, overstyled vehicle (in my opinion) look even worse.
Dark brown was a great color when cars rusted so badly. I admit that metallic brown was one of my favorite colors for vans and trucks in the 1970’s. The problem was the hideous butterscotch and brown plaid interiors that came in them.
You mean like this? (Son Number Two’s ’84 Mustang L, which is not actually upside down in reality)
Come on, brown is very flattering! I think you’d love this Kia with the houndstooth upholstery pattern to match. 😉
I also like the dark brown on big 1970’s cars, but anything beyond that not so much, especially if it has any sporty pretenses to the styling.
Brown is good if you are driving a total dunger it hides the rust,.
Brown is just awful, always was. A friend of mine had a really nice modded ’78 Camaro Z28. It was fast as hell, and was in nearly new condition (in 1985). The only problem was it was kind of a brown metal flake. If I had to have a brown car, it would be my choice, hands down, but there are so many better colors.
How now brown car?
You hardly see brown as a selection of colors available on cars (or anything much for that matter)…it seems to have dropped off the palette of colors for industrial goods since the ’70s, when as an “earth tone” it was popular. Now it seems that some sort of beige has replaced it…I actually had a ’78 Champaign Edition Scirocco which at the time whose color wasn’t very common, but since has become very common (it had very nice brown vinyl seats that many people mistook for leather). I like a good solid brown car (and brown upholstery is fine with me), even root beer brown would hit the spot, but then again I tend to prefer neutral colors versus bright ones, I like my car to blend in rather than stand out. One color I’d like to see more of in cars that seems to go through phases of popularity is a very light green..another color you used to see more of in the ’70s but not so much now.
Then you’ll like this…
Other than the color, no, I’d rather have something like your avatar (is it a custom 500….can’t quite make it out?) in brown..which my father owned back in the ’70s.
My favorite brown color is the copper color you used to see on cars in the ’60s (for some reason I usually associate it with MOPAR cars).
It’s my ’79 Seville, which itself is an unusual emerald green top and interior over mint green
I do not know to be somewhat in love with Tan Kia Sorentos or dislike them because while it is on the Beige Spectrum it is a change and plus old school Volvos came in Tan from the forges of Sweden.* Plus, Sorentos are just wannabe SUVs (aka jacked up Station Wagons/Hatchbacks) so that makes me dislike the Sorento as a vehicle even though it has a few interesting design features.
http://edge.vinsolutions.com/images/live/DealerImages/132500000/132500030/0.jpg
* http://static.cargurus.com/images/site/2009/05/09/03/55/1984-volvo-240-pic-64793.jpeg
I kind of love Desert Khaki colored Subaru XVs (and the car itself is cool), but then I kind of dislike them because Subaru XVs are available in several other colors that are more cheery.
http://www.cars101.com/subaru/crosstrek/crosstrek13-side14.jpg
What I do hate almost universally are car interiors that are 100% black like the interior of a rental Chrysler Town and Country my friend got as a free upgrade. What made me like the vehicle even less was the Silver exterior and the California license plates because I did not want some local shooting her. Note, that was an attempt at a joke.
I know that shade of prosthetic limb beige your talking about on Kias.
Here is the Oslo Ivory Honda had back in 1983, and this was my car, shortly after I got it in the spring of 1992.
Well, this combo in the subject car for sure, and any standard beige color, metallic, or no. My old Civic was what they called Oslo Ivory, less beige than anything, but rather pedestrian in color choice IMO nonetheless.
It was paired with the tan/brown interior, which would’ve been fine in another color, though if you got the metallic red, the interior was red, same for the blue, though I think the tan was used if you got a green one.
Another combo was one Ford used at the time of the Fairmont’s introduction was the dark green metallic with this same butterscotch vinyl interior. The dark green was fine, but paired with this Godawful color for the inside was beyond me, and is worse than the green on green, usually pea green with olive or variations thereof green interiors, often clad in you guessed it, vinyl.
I saw a vintage Falcon with literally, the beige/tan paint, though unrestored, but all original and it made the rather humble Falcon look rather homely about a week or so ago.
Most other colors, I tend to like, some more than others, but non truly offensive to my eyes though you will most likely not see me driving a green car, a silver, gray, or white car if I can help it that is, as they just don’t appeal to me and the colors often just don’t do the cars much at all.
My father’s 76 Mercury Monarch Ghia was that dark green paint and butterscotch leather interior combo that you mention. Not my favorite.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for unique color combinations, especially today with limited choices of black, taupe, and gray interiors. I’m a huge fan of the current “Saddle Leather” trend.
That said, cars from the ’70s were the worst in this area. Too many colors that were similar to bodily fluids. When it comes to the ’90s, I nominate the 1996 Ford Taurus, in “Rose Mist Metallic” over “Grey-Violet” cloth. The cloth pattern is hideous, and the purple interior plastics are nauseating. I can’t believe this was a factory option in 1996!
That is hideous. I rode in a Gen 2 Taurus with dark green interior plastics. You know that couldn’t age well.
And sorry Charger fans, orange cars do nothing for me.
You are right; this is harsh.
The first Catfish I drove was this color – and it was a fleet car. Thankfully it had a gray interior.
I don’t mind it on the exterior but that interior likely is a factor in why we can’t have color in the interior any more. I’m sure something like that was chosen/authorized by some on that wanted to justify the elimination of color choice. “See we offered different colors and only sold 17 of them, so we’re only going to offer tan or grey now.”
Brendon, I think we can safely put this one into the top ten. I had forgotten about these. Until now. Curse you.
That colour features in the RHD SHO Taurii floating around here. At least I think it’s that colour – the only one currently on trademe appears to be a shade or two darker:
That flesh paint takes some beating but my Dad’s hearing aid beige Allegro was the worst car colour I’ve seen.My maths teacher had a pea soup green Vauxhall Viva HB wagon which looked pretty awful to an 11 year old.My parents had a few green and brown cars they got a little cheaper,I never liked the Ford Ludlow Green of Mum’s MK1 Consul or her Cortina
My grandfather up in Hull had the SAME hearing aid beige Allegro! This isn’t you, mum, is it? 🙂
LOL no was your grandfather’s Allegro a dud or did he get a good one?
There was a good one? really.
They did say ONE!
How soon did NZ roads and climates see off the Allegro Bryce?I’m assuming BL sold them there.
Still the odd (hah!) Allegro driving around down here in NZ Gem. My Dad was a BL dealer mechanic through the 70s/80s, and serviced many an All-agro in his time. Other than the hydragas sagging they actually lasted longer than anyone really expected I think. We never got the facelift model with the four round headlights though.
How about this color for your über Mercedes.
Source: http://www.500e.nl/voorraad/
The color isn’t that bad. I was more amazed by non-power, crank windows in an S-Class!
Dutch Comfort ~ Buchhalters Version.
I like and dislike the color at the same time…strange…
Funny to mention BTW is that the black W126 560 SEC on the list was owned by one of the most notorious Dutch criminals, the late (and killed) Klaas Bruinsma. What’s in the trunk ??
You see what color and big black rims do to a car ?
The W126 pictured above is “Chinablue”. Bruinsma’s W126 was as black and “evil” as a car can be, I guess he would never choose Chinablue…. Doesn’t get more intimidating than this.
Make it matt blak and you have a sale.
No Bryce, don’t molest The Reverend’s car !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaas_Bruinsma_(drug_lord)
Call me crazy but I really like that
Me too, and I *really* like the blue cloth interior.
Add me to the fanclub, great color (on this car, at least).
That color suits the W126 better than bright red or teal, which I have seen in person.
I actually like that color to be honest.
That said, Fiat has had a similar shade of it available now for about a year or so on the European 500, especially with the TwinAir motor.
A color I’ve always loved is the “Grabber” Blue that Ford used and so did several others, including Fiat (and the Fiat derived Yugo). We had what Yugo named Adiratic Blue for about a year or two in 1986-87, but none after that.
Yugo also came in silver, dark blue, a dark red, white, black, light metallic blue (available after the Adriatic Blue), gold, and I think a light tan. The gold and tan were OK, though they were, along with silver not colors that did much for the humble car.
The GM equivalent was Mediterranean Blue, which is what my ’71 Vega was… Loved that color.
There is an avocado green E-class wagon on the same site too, Mercedes Benzes from other countries are strange sights for me, crank windows and cloth seats and hubcaps on an MB seem so foreign.
In short, I think the US only got the fully loaded versions.
But in those days a base model Mercedes (or any other German car) only came with a steering wheel and for the rest you paid extra.
Of course I exaggerate, but 30 years ago crank windows and cloth seats was nothing to be ashamed of here, S-class or not.
There was a “special edition” 05ish Altima that used to be parked at the Pizza Hut down the street with, get this… a Silver body, Black cloth carriage top, WHITE leather seat skins in an otherwise grey interior and yellow stripe tires. I don’t know if dealer specials like that count but I never thought a mixture on neutrals could be so appalling.
Money doesn’t always buy taste,
Ugh.
On a Challenger 🙂
On a Bentley 🙁
Hands down it was that 1980 Malibu I owned at the tail end of the 1990’s. it was passed down from my grand dad to my dad to me when I was in college.It was puke green(official in GM speak it was Dark Green Poly Code 44) with a nasty brown interior which the seats in it were vinyl(after getting into that car one extremely hot day in shorts without stopping to think and burning my legs badly, I never wore shorts again nor owned a car with uncovered vinyl or leather seats.
The paint was so faded (despite spending the first 10 years in a garage) that it made the paint look more ugly. During that time my neighbor had a early 1970’s blue maverick coup with a ugly white top and more rust then paint on it but what paint it still had was shiny, it drove me nuts to no end figuring how that could have been
Having a brother who was a painter for years I always cringe when someone says their paint was called blah blah Poly by the mfg. GM nor any other mfg never officially called any color Poly, that is just the generic name aftermarket paint suppliers use for any paint that is not a straight color, ie metallics. The official GM designation in the brochure is Dark Green (Metallic).
The “Phoenix Yellow” an “Kiwi leather” E46 M3 was also pretty hideous. When I used to vacation to the Cape every summer, I always sighted a Phoenix Yellow M3 convertible with red leather. Equally awful.
That sounds revolting,There’s some awful interior/exterior combinations.At a car show looking at the visitors cars I found a 68 Buick Skylark badly sprayed lime green with it’s original maroon interior.
Pale yellow with deep red interior (or vice versa) was a fairly common color choice for high-end convertibles in the US in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. I googled “1941 Packard convertible”, and this was the first image.
I knew a 1946-48 Chrysler Town and Country convertible that was medium metallic green with a maroon interior. I thought that was pushing it a little bit. I thought that even more when I saw a 1965 Chrysler station wagon in that same combination. The owner swore that both colors were original.
Enough people dislike shades of tan and brown that the expression “sh*t brindle” is fairly well-known. I am one of those – I very seldom see a brown car or a tan interior that I like, the tan interiors on black-on-tan late 1970’s TransAms being one of the few exceptions.
Ahh, the BMW Pee Yellow.
The Coral OO7 Tbird, was worse than the Tbird yellow IMO, Should have been more pink.
i suffered thru 9 years of a triple sable brown, brown corderouy seats .ick…brown top, it was a manual cavalier convertible 84.
But the worse The Purple Neons in Magenta looked crappy from the start, as did their med teal green. Only tape graphics separated Plymouth from Dodge models.
Yellow Camaros…Fox Mustangs in Brown, yuk… Coppers dont look as magical as they age.
The neon Neon was like a yellow green highlighter, glowing in the sun. I’d be one of the few who WOULD like it.
But Gray Charcoal Metallic, Dark Grey , I don’t like those in general, Next I Hate Black Leather interiors.
Black Ice metallic looks like scratched up black to me, Give me a Solid color any day, but one that looks clean longer than black.
I agree about the scorching black leather (or “leatherette”) interiors. I hate them, yet manufacturers often force you to select them.
I live in the Houston area, Anything with a black roof is terrible.
Other than that I have no taste. Someones junk, another’s treasure goes for colors too.
Me too. Care to say where you teach or is that giving too much away?
Retired from New Caney ISD, live on the outskirts of the great city of Conroe and am a former owner of several saturns.
Manilla and flesh tone as I call it, the Fairmont comes close but actually has a little bit of a punch to it’s hue. I drove an AMC Eagle in similar colors for a while (beige on top, brown lower body) and really couldn’t stand it. This was about ten years ago so it’s not like there were any cars around in similar colors. Combined with the awkward stance and wire wheels it really made for an ugly ride. The pictured one isn’t mine but is about how it looked overall.
That color combo, while not my favorite was quite common back in the day. I was going to say that is one original car, except for one thing.
The wheels. They are sourced from either a Ford Explorer, or Ranger.
Those hideous wheels are from a Ranger, I’ve got a set I took off of my mother-in-law’s Ranger when it needed new tires. I do not believe they ever made a 15″ version of that wheel and all Explorers came with a minimum of 15″ wheels.
Hardly anyone still makes 225/70-14 tires anymore and the few that do are expensive. So it got some Crown Vic 15″ since there are way more 215/70-15 still available.
I think Mercedes-Benz may have popularized that color shade.
That’s not far off my suggestion: the family 1959 Dodge station wagon, which I always said was the ultimate 1950s car: tailfins, pushbutton automatic transmission, and two-tone salmon pink + metallic bronze paintwork.
(This was in Vancouver, so I have suspicions it may have been a Canadian-market Plodge as I’ve never been able to find a another pic which shows the same combination of front- and back-end styling that I remember.)
It’s unbelievable what Bentley will let you order as a paint color, bespoke run a muck. This one was either for a woman who sold make-up to every other woman in the country or it’s Barbie’s
Double demerits for the ugly, gigantic wheels.
Those wheels are truly horrific… an avant garde version of the garbage rimZ sold at Pep Boyz.
My grandmother gained her licence in about 1960 after my granddads death and had their 56 morrisminor repainted in pink, a perfect little old lady car except my Nana learned how to drive sideways and feed the steering wheel racer style.
I’ve always wanted a panther pink/moulin rouge 70 Coronet or Superbee or an A body.Barbie’s muscle car rocks
You’re a far more secure man then I am to actually want a pink muscle car. I see the irony, but pink is wrong on so many levels, even on Cadillacs
I was under the impression that Gem is female.
I’m female I think a pink Superbee would be the right mix of girly and tough for me
Oops!.. my bad
Is this Lady Penelope’s pink car (from Garry Anderson’s Thunderbirds)?
I don’t know if its the worst, but I really don’t like white with a black interior. So bland! However, take that white paint and pair it with a saddle tan, red, blue or green interior, and it’s cool.
Also don’t like silver, as I’ve probably mentioned a hundred times on CC 🙂
I agree refrigerator white and black has to be one of the worst. Refrigerator white though is pretty bad no matter what interior it is paired with. Now an off white like Ford’s Wimbledon White isn’t totally bad. It is one way you can tell an Econoline was painted before it was put into it’s current use because Ford never offered refer white and it seems when they get repainted they always are painted refer white. It really would be that hard or expensive to put the 2 drops of yellow and drop of black in it.
I too agree with Tom on this. That combo was fairly popular in the mid to late 60s, and has been one of my least favorites.
Of course, who can forget the “Metallic Pea” Family Truckster…
My ’71 Chevy pickup was in a similar metallic avocado. I had the Earl of Scheib redo it in a more pleasing dark emerald shade. Generally, I hate most greens. The bile green offered in recent years is not one of my favorites. Much to my surprise, the solid light gray-green offered on the Fiat 500 looks good on that car, but only because it is 1950’s period correct.
I was in Kewanee today, and while looking for a place to park, saw a stock-appearing 1988-91 LTD Crown Victoria (whitewalls, factory turbine alloys, etc.) in light yellow with what appeared to be a maroon interior. Not exactly ugly, but very unusual. I should have gotten a picture!
You were mighty close to us, Tom – call next time!
My worst color combo is a black car with a red interior. My favorite – I know, nobody asked – is red with saddle brown interior, although I’m rather fond of yellow with black interior; I wonder why?
Second worst combo is… hmmm… lots of them too numerous to mention, but that sickly orangish-tan interior on Ford Fairmonts with almost any outside color, usually some sort of brown on late-70’s models stands out in my mind. Fortunately my FiL’s 1978 Fairmont was a nice metallic brown with an acceptable tannish interior.
I’m not a fan of green on a car and I thought this Givenchy Edition Mark V looked particularly bad. My Dad had a much more elegant 78 Cartier Edition in champagne with dark red trim.
That’s the rare Peas and Carrots Luxury Group 🙂
I have to say though, I always liked that shade of emerald green.
In western Washington, that color’s normally referred to as county-sheriff green.
Its the “green for the money, gold for the honeys” Rev Don Magic Juan edition.
Emerald green is my favorite car color!
The color is the only thing I like about that car!
That orange-ish chamois color that Ford used in the 70s ruined so many otherwise decent colors. Like that emerald Mark V. It just looked bad with anything.
I’m not so keen on the tan, but that blue-green (bleen? grue?) is beautiful!
In the mid-1990’s Ford made the Gen 2 Taurus and their new Windstar in white with a dark green interior. The Windstar was especially bad since it had a red stripe on its body side moulding which did not look good with a green interior.
The chamois color does tickle my gagger, but not as much as a dark exterior color with a chamois interior, vinyl top, body side moldings, and for good measure put some on the deck lid as does this Cougar XR7. Some of them even had chamois colored wheels to go along with the package.
I think all of the domestic manufacturers had some ugly green colors in the early seventies. Green is an OK color, but it has to be the right shade to be considered attractive in my opinion.
I also miss the color choices of the past. While I don’t mind a bland exterior color, what they need is a bright interior to set them off. My favorite is red, which always looks good with a white or silver exterior. Even blue is better than the basic grey or tan we have today.
Personally I don’t mind that combo.
Ugh, I thought of this car as soon as I saw the topic. Dark blue and tan is very nice. That’s not tan, it’s…ah, um, “Luminous Butternut.”
Volvo V70-R. Beautiful wagon, hideous color mated with a brown interior. It should have been black. Like the brown, just not with that exterior color.
I have a V70R in the other interesting combo, red with the same orange-brown “Atacama” natural leather. I admit it’s not for everyone, but I love it.
From the outside
Nice! I love this color on Volvos and I’m a big fan of that generation S60/V70 too. I even like the weird turquoise one up above. When Top Gear tested the S60R, theirs came in that color. I’ve never seen one in real life, though.
Thanks! That teal is called Flash Green. It, Sonic Blue (bright blue) and my Passion Red are the 3 “R” only colors. Flash Green was discontinued in the US for 2005, but was kept in the rest of the world. You can identify the ’04’s because they still have the black lower trim and door ding guards, and that went body color on the 2005-2007 R’s, like mine.
I think it’s a beautiful brown just hate that exterior aqua color. And for some reason, anytime I see an r wagon it’s in that color. Yours is beautiful, btw.
Thanks! The Flash Green is definitely an acquired taste. I tend to not like cars in their “show color”, that they made the show and magazine rounds in, like the Flash Green, but I like it. Too bad it’s 04 only in the US.
My least favorite colors are most greens. I particularly dislike the various aqua greens that were popular in the late 80’s or early 90’s, while I like most of the aquas used in the 60’s. I also particularly dislike the Deep Emerald Green that Ford put on so many Taurus, Windstar and Explorers in the 90’s. On the other hand I do kind of like the Legend Lime on the 05 or so Mustangs.
Anything with red and a tan interior, especially cloth. Blech.
I grew up with a “light chamois” 78 Fairmont wagon, and would put that color at the top of the list, except that it was better then the previous car.
In 1974 my parents ordered a Pinto wagon. Having seen lots of cheerful yellow Pintos running around, they decided to go with that. Unfortunately Ford decided to add a little green to the mix for ’74.
If the Fairmont looks like skin, the Pinto looked like something that should stay inside your skin.
Oh, I was waiting for someone to bring this one up. This combo graced a lot of Fords around 1974-75, and I hated every one of them. I have to admit that this one does suit the Mustang II, though.
Why is it that some of the very top contenders for ugly color combos seem to keep coming from Ford?
I wish I had a pic of the car that my dealer got instead of the car I ordered. Somehow, the salesman, who is the owner now, checked a bunch of the wrong boxes on the order sheet, and instead of a “Silver Frost Metallic” with red stripes Roadrunner;
a Satellite Sebring, in the ever so popular Avocado green, with some oddball, and even more horrible, green and black checkered interior! This one is the closest one I could find, the one they tried to get me to take had a white vinyl top. I made them put the order through again, and I got what I wanted. Mine had different wheels on it, and a black interior.
Like this?
That’s a colour combo usually seen on warplanes,maybe a pin up girl mural or sharks teeth would set it off.It also looks half finished like the lower halfs in primer
Warms my heart!
My personal favorite for the worst color combo was my Brother’s 70-ish Mercury comet -lime green with a green and white Hound’s-tooth vinyl roof.
That blue on the European doesn’t make it here, They list a luce blu, but’s more metallic. I almost bought one, but wound up with the Seafoam green(Verde Chiaro) I have. Was debating getting a pentastar for the Fenders. Look what you all have done! 🙂
I wasn’t a fan of old-style all red interiors.
A confession: I can’t recall any. The examples here are mostly good (bad); but when I see a gawd-awful color car….the stomach lurches a bit; and then I swallow down the upchuck and move on. And try to forget what I saw.
In my later years, I’m getting good at it. I can forget ugly women and ugly cars about as easily. Makes life go smoother….
That is all.
This is a new one on me. I have seen lots of those old Blazers, but never one like this.
It’s “bright teal” WA9830 over standard GM metallic gray, the latter of which is just now starting to jettison from the vehicle in fingernail-sized chunks. GM offered the color for less than the full 1992 model year on the S-10, S-Blazer and Sonoma/Jimmy. My parents have had this one since new.
Normally I’m a pretty big hater of most teals, aquas, lavenders, etc. from the 90s, but this actually looks OK to me. It would be a disaster without the big silver-grey bar separating the upper and lower portions, however!
IMO, bright colors usually work best with lots of flat surfaces and hard edges, so this is an ideal vehicle for this color.
I think that a car that looks good in baby blue would look better in almost any other color. Except maybe s-brindle or goat-vomit green.
Colors are weird. I’ve seen some metallic greenish-brown colors that resemble nothing more than metallic olive drab. But make it lighter and you’ve got lime gold which I usually think is a good color for a car.
Another weird thing about colors: Add white to blue, you get light blue. Add white to green, you get light green. Add white to red, you get pink. Not the same thing at all.
Add me to the long list of people who miss colorful interiors. And there’s nothing wrong with a bit of chrome in the interior either. The chrome band across the bottom of the dash on my convertible would reflect back to me and the passenger whatever colors we were wearing, which could make for some interesting combinations with the red and black interior colors.
I remember those Fairmonts and that color as well. When I look at the pics I can’t help but think of two words. “Tin Can.”
I’ve seen a few silver Miatas with tan tops and tan interior. They are the most disgusting color combination I’ve ever seen. With your basic gray & beige/tan interior choices of today, “being different” = being stupid. Yuck.
I dislike orange & beige exteriors, and any shade of brown/beige interior. I like yellow cars only if they have white interior or have yellow leather interior (late ’70’s Cadillac). And no white cars with black interior!
Trans Ams, Camaros & Mustangs of the late 90’s in this color are quite nauseating also:
That photo also shows why you should never attempt to pinstripe a 4th-generation Camaro.
That gold was a very short lived color, I always thought it was cool on a Firebird of that vintage, sort of a Rockford Gold.
The 92 Mustang in Yellow With White seats came to mind. Too desperate t be noticed in the old body by using schockin new color. 7up color /with white did this much better, soft Teals ,did not. I wanted a 95 Chromatic color changing cobra covertible, … Or rarely seen Purple Mustangs of 94.
The Aqua pearl on Ford EXP in 82 was nice.
No orange? Are you getting enough vitamin C, brother? 🙂 Now I want to write a “why orange cars rule” post. Give me some time to round up some images.
Don’t do it!! :O
Make mine a Big Bad Orange 69 AMC Javelin
Junqueboi – I agree a million percent, although bright orange is sometimes cool (to my eyes anyway).
This shade? Never. Toyota and Nissan had colors like this for awhile, too. It looks like a chicken nugget dipped in honey mustard.
The current “Commando” and “Dune” used on the Jeep Wrangler are pretty awful. Pea Soup and Peanut Butter would be more accurate.
The worst automotive color I have ever seen was a Porch 924 that was painted lavender–this was back in the 80’s, I was a civilian employee working at Ft. Leavenworth.
It was driven by an officer which certainly does not say good things about the Army officers’ corps or certainly their sense of color coordination. It looked hideous.
Hands down my least favorite “color” ever was Ford’s Mystichrome paint on the SN95 Mustang. I’ll admit that part of not liking it is that I don’t really like that Mustang at all, and consider it a huge letdown from it’s Fox-body predecessor… but I’m also just really put off by anything gimmicky like that. By which I mean, did anyone want a purple and green Mustang before you could have both of them at the same time? No. So it’s not actually that it looks good, it’s appeal is based on the fact that it does some kind of magic trick. Whenever I saw one (and I haven’t seen one in years, proving that it was just a novelty/fad who’s moment has long passed) I thought I was looking at a really elaborate, expensive bong. It gave off the same vibe as the back room at a head shop or a reptile enthusiast’s basement.
I always wondered what would happen if you had to just partially repaint one of these? It was cool, but a novelty, I wonder if there were any other Mystichrome colors on the drawing board that never got made because of the lack of interest in this color.
If is a real PITA to match paints with ChromaFlair pigments and it is really expensive paint. Ford has used it twice Mystic on the 1996 Cobra and Mystichrome on the 2004 Cobra. They are slightly different as the Mystichrome is in a black/green base and has a touch of traditional metalflake, it will shift to black at extreme angles while Mystic does not.
GM has offered a couple of ChromaFlair paint options http://www.cadillac-chromaflair.com/
Man, I completely forgot about the “Mystic” Cobra’s. I nearly lost my mind the first time I saw one in real life, I would have killed for that car… that was about 9 months before the color shifting paints became played out, hard.
This was kind of a mini-trend at the time. I remember women’s raincoats that sort of changed color as the light moved. And Windstars with the same effect. Because everyone wants to look like a minivan and/or a raincoat?
Ha! Wow, I remember that now that you mention it, although I’d completely forgotten about color shifting raincoats. When Ford came out with these colors I remember lots – and I mean LOTS – of people getting similar custom paintjobs done on different kinds of cars. Usually hideous lowriders, and that’s what Google image searching “chameleon paint” returns. Where are all of these? I really don’t think I’ve seen one since the 90s. Scrolling through the results, I have to admit it does look kinda cool on bullet-shaped exotic cars… just not on Civics, Escalades, minivans, etc.
Another winner – and from Ford again. Actually, I thought I recalled another color like this that was offered on the early Windstar. But I can’t find a picture, so maybe I am imagining it.
Theres Chameleon blue, offered at least on Thunderbirds, Cougars, Mustangs and Probes. It’s a darker purple blue. They had at least one other shifting color my neighbors had a Cougar in that was almost a light silver with blue and purple. I think whatever that was was offered on Windstars too.
Those were not the ChromaFlair paints that could shift through multiple color ranges just between two.
I always remember the tale told to me by an older gentleman that I worked with, he had been a zone rep for Oldsmobile back in the early 70’s and he told me the story of a mistakenly ordered 98 Regency sedan that was light metallic green, with a blue vinyl top and burgundy velour interior, he said that bounced around from dealer to dealer for a year and half before it got sold, they would entice the dealer to take the “joker” 98 with tasty extra Cutlass allocations.
The Pontiac Aztec’s army green.
1995 Ford had a Blue /Pinkish/Grey mystic color on tbirds, taurus and lincolns occasionally.
Some of the current colors ie. Midnight Green and certain dark browns can only be seen from Black when light hits them. Cool, CURRENT. Trendy. Midnight RED
Not Midnight Pink but that would be like purple right?
In the 80s I remeber seeing a Vauxhall Cavalier in a horrid Army Green colour,not sure if it was a factory colour or an ex Army vehicle
Opinions are like arseholes, EVERYONE’S GOT ONE.
Edifying. The post is tagged “Question of the Day.” No wrong answer, though you’ve done your best.
COTD.
Ford did a 2-tone paint option for the Aerostar that looked like a pale pastel pink and seafoam green. I think it looked hideous.
From back when you could get just about whatever you wanted, I will occasionally see a red car with blue interior or vice-versa. I assume these were factory ordered by very patriotic Americans.
I was behind a 92-96 F150 the other day, pink over gray 2 tone, with a decorative tape stripe separating them that was pink and purple. Can you imagine some guy going into a Ford dealer now and buying a pink F150? The 90’s were weird… I thought my dad was boring in 92 ordering his F150 in tan over brown, but compared to other 90’s options, today it looks downright fancy.
I’m not much for greens but did like the green on my old ’92 Ranger truck. It was called Calypso Green by Ford. It was in the jade green family I think.
Anyway, a metallic paint that looked quite good on it. They also had a turquoise base glossy paint as well for a time. It was also nice, though I’ve seen it somewhat faded and dulled, but still a nice color I’d have been happy with.
I’d have gone for it in purple, which WAS available on the later iterations of the 2nd gen Rangers, and 3rd gen rangers for a time.
GM had a similar shade of purple as well as a magenta on the S10 at least, by itself, it was very cool.
This being between 1990-1995 for both trucks however.
I am just now getting back to this thread. Some honorable mentions: Ford used a light turquoise color on E and F series trucks about 1992 or 1993 that was really a bit odd. Also, there was that strange metallic red that was often seen on Neons and other smaller Chrysler cars in the late 90s or early 00s.
My two cars with my least favorite color combos have been the 1984 Olds 98 Regency coupe – a white car with chocolate brown velour interior. Dull, dull, dull.
But the worst was my 68 Newport Custom sedan. As much as I loved the car, it had my all time least favorite color combo. The exterior was that famous “hearing aid beige” mentioned by several here. The interior was dark green with cloth inserts in the seats that were sort of a shimmery lime green. I didn’t mind the beige. I didn’t mind the 2 tone green interior. But together, the combo was just awful. I seriously considered painting the car almost any of the 1968 green choices just to stop the fight with that interior.
My first car was a ’65 Impala in the (in)famous “Evening Orchid”, kind of a purply-pink metallic. A dozen years in the sun and the same number of winters left it a faded, chalky rust flecked mess, but it couldn’t have looked much better new. Ugly as sin.
I also recall a car that turned up at the Chev-Olds emporium my Dad worked at back in ’79 or ’80. A women came in and special ordered a Z-28, 4 speed with almost no options in a horrible light green pastel colour. It was a factory colour, but it looked like something from 1956. She put down a sizable deposit at the insistence of the sales manager. By the time the car arrived her financial situation had taken a turn for the worse and she bailed on the deal. Presumably she lost her deposit, and that car sat for a long, long time. Eventually some one got a heck of a deal and took it home, but it was one ugly car.
Any car whose paint color starts with “Kandy” or has “flip-flop” in its title…
We have a good friend of the family who worked as a salesman for a big Cadillac dealer in Providence for over 30 years in the 60’s through 80’s. He said he saw many salespeople come and go. One assistant manager in particular hated the sales manager and was going to quit. Before he did, he ordered a loaded to the max 1979 Fleetwood Brougham d’Elegance, with everything from Fuel Injection to a power moonroof. The color combination he ordered was a horrific yellow exterior with a green interior and black vinyl top. GM built the car and it got sent to the dealership. He said it sat for over 6 months until finally they decided to change the vinyl top color to match the yellow exterior. As soon as they did an older gentleman that lived in Florida in the winter and RI in the summer went into the dealership and fell in love with the car. He bought it and kept it for almost 20 years until he died. The car was serviced at the dealership for nearly all of its life and was always known as the ugly duckling!!
I thought the teals and purples of the ’90s were pretty hideous. And deep gold several offered back then.
I like the current Kia tan and Subaru gold-silver. And anything maroon, which shows off silver trim most spectacularly.
I am red-green colorblind, and my theory is that people with this genetic quirk don’t see colors as vividly as people with normal vision. Thus, it’s often hard for me to discern certain colors, so many potentially ugly combos don’t jump out at me.
However, there is a brand-new 2013 gold Corolla in my office building that is HIDEOUS. It makes an already ugly car even more unappealing (no comment on the “Coexist” sticker plastered on the back bumper).
Hope to God they don’t offer this color on the new 2014 Corollas. Retirement Gold really should have retired with the late ’90s Chryslers.
A friend I used to know was colorblind. He was looking for a new car and wanted the cheapest one he could find. He was on the phone with a salesman over a Neon. The salesman said I can cut some more money off on a magenta car we have on the lot. My friend asked “what’s magenta.” He told me that the salesman’s reply was “a kind of red.” Because of the colorblindness, the car looked to him like many others and he bought it.
I think Jack Baruth told that same story before, except he was the car salesman.
I’m not sure about the Infiniti G35, but its JDM cousin the V35 Nissan Skyline was available with a somewhat violent orange leather interior. The seats have black beading, the carpet and interior plastics are in shades of black and grey, and the roof lining is cream. Mind you, the fake wood trim was orange…but in a different shade to the seats and trimmed with chrome edging… The pics below are the best I could find, but in real life it looks worse. The worst I saw was a V35 Stagea station wagon, looking towards the front from the open tailgate, the combination of oranges, blacks, greys, cream and chrome was simply awful, and made worse by the exterior colour of wine red (which is otherwise a nice colour).