June 9, 2025 • 23 mins
Unlock the secret world of car colors and discover how they shape our perceptions and influence our choices. Join us as we explore the vibrant and sometimes unexpected art of naming automotive hues, diving into stories that transform simple paints into rich narratives. From the iconic reds of Ferrari to the bold "Mojito Green" of a Jeep Wrangler, you'll learn how these color choices go far beyond aesthetics, becoming crucial elements of brand identity and consumer connection.
Everett J.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, I was out for work, looking for some
caulking for, essentially, finish a job
that we had.
And as I'm going through all of them and
checking out the tiles and making sure that
it all matches up to make sure that this
job goes good, I look over at the names of
the caulking next to me and one of them
stands out from the rest of it.
It's just a standard gray, but its name
(00:21):
literally jumps off the shelf right into my
eyes and as I'm looking at it, I'm standing
there in the Isle of Lows looking right at
this tube of caulking.
I had to pick it up, bring it closer and
really understand it.
Its name, the name of that caulking, was
DeLorean Gray.
Well, deloreans are stainless steel, but
from a long distance away, their gray can
(00:42):
be something even more amazing, and it
seems like this company has decided to use
the name DeLorean to make a color gray you
can use for caulking as you're putting down
tile in your own house.
That's just amazing and to this day I
always look for it and I try and find all
the amazing colors and names that go with
(01:03):
them.
That just throw you right off.
Well, in the automotive world we actually
have that, and this year Jeep brought back
a brand new green that we're going to talk
about in this podcast.
So today, sit back and listen in as AutoLooks
goes through some interesting car color
names.
(01:31):
Welcome back to the outlooks podcast.
I am your host, as always, the doctor to
the automotive industry, Mr. Everett J,
coming to you from our main host website at
AutoLooks.net.
If you haven't been there, stop by, check
it out.
Read some of the reviews, check out the
ratings.
Go to the corporate links website page.
Big or small, we have them car companies
from around the globe all in one
centralized location of the AutoLooks.net
website.
Oh yeah, the AutoLooks podcast is brought to
(01:53):
you by Ecomm Entertainment Group and
distributed by Podbean.com.
If you'd like to get in touch with us, send
us an email over at email@AutoLooks.net.
So, like I said in the beginning, some of
these names these companies choose for
their colors.
It's just well.
It kind of goes either with the times or
wait, the first thing that comes to your
mind.
And as I'm standing there at the Toronto
(02:13):
Auto Show this year looking at the wall
from Stellantis, of all their new colors
you can get for the brand new Jeep Wrangler,
one stands out for me.
It's not just green, it's Mojito green.
Now, mojito is an alcoholic drink but with
a mint leaf in it you get that bright green.
It's not to say you should go around your
Jeep Wrangler drinking and driving, no, but
(02:33):
the green that they're utilizing looks
similar to that of the mint leaf that makes
it mojito.
And there's a lot of car companies out
there that do that.
See, every single year, big companies like
DuPont look up to at least five years into
the future, sometimes even further than
that, to find out what colors are really
going to pop for us.
(02:53):
You ever notice when you see older cars,
even today, at classic car shows and
they're sitting out there in the sun with
their original paint and even if they've
been re-sprayed, it's the original pink
color.
Well, the days of these flat pastels, hell,
silver flakes, even vibrant colors, have
come and gone.
(03:13):
When I was in college, I noticed this with
all new entry-level vehicles, even with
Mercedes and their little A-class and
B-class that they're trying to bring into
the North American marketplace.
They're promoting them with these vibrant
colors that pop.
Essentially, they went with the music of
the time.
They popped with you, and the reason why
they chose to do that is because people
would think they're young and hip and cool
because the color of their car matched the
(03:35):
world around them.
It wasn't just a standard, boring beige
vehicle like all those people that just
wear golf shirts and khaki pants.
Okay, bland, it's boring.
There's a lot of thought that actually goes
into choosing the perfect color for cars
Like the Dodge Viper.
The original color for that was more of a
brighter red than by the end of its
(03:55):
generations it went darker.
The darkness of the red showed that it
meant business.
It got.
Essentially it brought out the image of the
vehicle.
So you're looking at the third generation
of the Dodge Viper Put it next to the first
generation both GTSs like the coupe
versions and you're looking at the colors
and you notice that there's difference.
That bright red makes you remember the 90s.
(04:18):
The dark red makes you show what decade
they came from.
You see, every decade's got all kinds of
different types of colors out there and
there's always ones on top.
For a long time it's been silver, but now,
with black and white starting to creep back
up, it's always been, as you could say,
shades have been the top tier colors.
But we all know that there's specific
(04:38):
colors that go with specific cars.
Like buying a Ferrari, it's either red or
it's yellow.
A Lamborghini can be yellow, a Honda can be
red, white or blue.
All car companies have their own specific
color, like McLaren.
When you think of McLaren you think of that
bright mango-style orange.
It's right there, right in front of you and
it makes you think of those.
Could you imagine if automotive companies
(04:59):
went out there and painted vehicles the
same shade of yellow as a school bus?
Well, you'd call it a bus.
I remember Hummer did that with the H2.
In the early 2000s Hummer's yellow was very
similar to that of a school bus, not as
much orange tint to it, it was still more
(05:20):
on the yellow side, but it was close to
being a school bus yellow.
So anybody that actually had the yellow H2s
people just saw them as odd looking school
buses and that's what they try and create.
My first vehicle that I drove and
essentially the one that you know spent a
lot of time with me in my life and I wish
I'd never given it up was actually a 1994
Chrysler Concorde.
Now, everybody I know always looked at that
car and said, oh, it's purple, it's purple,
(05:43):
a purple car.
I'm like no, it's not purple, it's more of
a reddish tinge, it's just dark red that
you think it's purple.
Because there actually was a purple that
they had and I actually proved it to
somebody once, proved it to my wife when we
first met.
It's like no, it's a purple car.
And I brought out the can of paint, I put
it down and I said no, it's dark cherry red.
Literally that's the name of the color that.
My Concorde was Dark Cherry Red, kind of
(06:04):
like my Rio.
It's metallic black and has silver flakes
in it.
Those silver flakes were a big thing.
They started utilizing those in the 2000s
to try and get more shine out of vehicles.
Remember we just moved on from these bland,
straight color pastel days.
Hell, you go back to the 1950s and there
were pastel colors.
How many of those weird baby blue cars can
(06:26):
you find?
The funny thing that goes along with a lot
of these interesting colors that people use
for their vehicles to make them stand out
are the names they give to them.
Like I said at the beginning that cocking
it was delorean gray and jeep's new green
is mojito green.
Well, some car companies have kind of gone
over the top through their generations.
Ford's got a few of them.
They have the got to have it green.
(06:48):
Anti-establish mint.
Bring them back.
Olive.
Tangerine scream, fruity and guilt and
thanks for a million pretty interesting
names to use.
And like we all get what tangerine scream
is okay, that's going to be type of orange
similar to what you would find on the brand
new Ford Capri.
Now bring them back, olive, you like.
The first thing that comes to my mind is
(07:09):
just this faint, pasty green.
Like it might make me think of olives, it
might make me think of a mediterranean
country, but when I see it on a car, no
crap.
Anti-establishment establishment, okay.
So they're going against the establishment,
which means it's more of a generalized
green that you would see out in the world.
(07:31):
Like I said, in the early 2000s, when I was
going to college, I saw a lot of these
entry-level cars with these intrigue,
interesting pop colors, the type of colors
that you would get tired of after a few
years.
So by the time you had the trade in the
vehicle, you were glad to do it because
that horrible green was out of fashion
right now.
You know like everybody today goes out and
gets a brand new iPhone.
(07:51):
Then when they release a new one, they got
to get rid of the old one because they need
the new one.
It doesn't look as good, it doesn't handle
as good, it doesn't have the great features
you can have one simple thing.
I kind of went with the colors.
See, entry level is always the cars that
try and go with the fads of today because
they want to grab people and bring them in
(08:14):
to purchase vehicles because they're entry
level.
They're going after the people that take
public transit.
They want to say to them no, you don't need
to take public transit, you can own a car.
That's an extension of yourself, because
the colors go with everything you love and
that's what they try and create for you.
They bring those colors to you.
But then again some companies bring colors
(08:34):
to you that just want you to turn heads of
everybody you pass.
Dodge was one of the biggest ones about it
With Go Mango, plum, crazy Top Banana,
furious Fuchsia, sassy Green and even Go
Green.
They were bright colors Like, go Like.
I basically like a stop and go light.
It's that bright, bright green, sassy green.
(08:55):
There's more of the seafoam style.
Fuchsia, furious fuchsia.
Now they put those things on challengers
and kudas back in the day.
Furious fuchsia, the pink.
Now people will tell you oh, you got a pink
car.
It's like.
No, I got furious fuchsia.
It's not pink, it's a mad pink.
Like top banana.
What's yellow car?
No, it's the top banana.
(09:15):
Plum crazy was always greatest.
I always love that one, because when you
see it and it's so bright and you're always
thinking yourself purple nobody wants to
buy a purple vehicle.
But plum crazy.
You see it on those dodges and you just
think plum crazy is power.
It goes with the vehicles and then go mango,
like we all know what color that's gonna be,
(09:36):
it's gonna fall into the orange category,
but they put it on their vehicles to
separate them from everyone else.
You see, every car company has different
colors than everyone else.
They all want to be different and want to
differentiate themselves.
When it comes to specific, especially halo
vehicles or vehicles that need to grasp a
market, they'll utilize these interesting
(09:56):
colors and then they'll give them
interesting names behind them, because when
you purchase the vehicle, you just don't
want it to say color green.
Now, that's what your insurance and that's
what your ownership will say, but the
actual color coding of the sign will have
Renault, alien Green, alien Green.
This isn't just green, this is a green
species, it's Alien Green.
(10:18):
Now I'm thinking of Martian, like Marvin
Martian, kind of Alien Green.
I'm not thinking of like Alien Eat you,
james Cameron.
Alien yeah, I love those movies, no.
But like Alien Green.
Like Mercedes Green Hell.
You, james cameron alien yeah, I love those
movies, no.
But like alien green.
Like mercedes green hell, mango, okay,
green hell.
Everybody knows what color green hell is
supposed to be.
It's a dark, foresty green and it's
(10:39):
supposed to make you think green hell.
If you don't know what green hell is, you
listen to the wrong podcast here, because
green hell is the most fabled racetrack of
all time.
Not talking Silverstone, I'm talking the
Nurburgring.
Mercedes has known about the green hill,
how.
They even made a movie about the Nurburgring
when you go back and check the whole
(10:59):
history of it and literally the movie is
called the green hell.
Why?
Because there are so many problems that
come with the green hell in the Nurburgring,
but having it as a color on your vehicle
just makes you think, oh, it's not just
green, it's green hell, it's the pine trees
that go around the course.
You might be down there trying to get some
paint to do a little touch-up job on your
(11:20):
Mercedes SLS AMG.
Just because you got, you know, somebody
dingy on a parking lot and took off, you're
like I'm going to go touch this thing up.
You get your can of paint and it's just
green.
Hell on it.
You know it's like, yeah, I remember that
week.
That was fun.
I had so much fun with my friends.
It becomes more of a memory to you.
So just because the color of your vehicle
doesn't mean it can't bring back memories
(11:41):
of something that's even better.
Like I said you that pop Holden was famous
for this with the toxic green, some like it
hot red and son of a gun gray.
These were mostly utilized for their HSV
products because they wanted to make them
stand out.
You always have to differentiate your
standard products from your performance
products, so you've got to give them colors
(12:02):
that make them stand out, like Dodge with
the plum purple.
Well, Holden did the toxic green.
It's green, but it looks like it's nuclear
waste and that's the shade they give it.
You've got to remember there's thousands
upon thousands of different colors.
Literally, as I'm talking to you in this
podcast right now, the back of my
microphone is giving me hundreds of
different colors as it's just going around.
(12:25):
There's green, there's some blue, there's
red, there's orange, there's yellow, it's
all there.
You see, the thing is is everybody looks at
colors and they can say, oh, that's green.
Well, what type of green is it?
That's what you have to ask yourself.
What does it look like?
What does it make you think of when you see
it?
And these auto companies think that too,
because the paint companies look at it and
say look at the vehicle and we're going to
(12:46):
paint this, but what color name are we
going to give it?
It's orange, right?
Well, no, we're going to give it something
else.
It's not just orange, it's it's tangerine
screen.
It's screaming at you from the middle of a
parking lot.
It's literally staring at you going.
I'm here, like, how many times have you
gone down the road, been in a parking lot
and you see, you know, let's just put it
out there because of the original vehicle
(13:06):
of this concept, the Mojito Green Jeep.
There's a green Jeep, there's a purple Jeep,
there's a pink Jeep, there's an orange Jeep.
It has such a vibrant color, okay, so this
tangerine screen sitting there on a Ford
Capri on the other side of the parking lot
and literally you could see your car from a
mile away.
It's like its paint is literally screaming
at you from 300 meters away.
(13:27):
You can see it now, its, metallic black.
You think heavy metal, you think of you
know something heavy, but it just blends in.
Giving it a name that kind of stands out
from the rest of the crowd is usually done
to the colors that will stand out in a
crowd.
You're not going to have standard beige and
be like you know this is, uh well, let's
just say Pantera Gray.
(13:47):
No, you're not going to give it that color
because it's literally the most boring
beige in the world.
You're gonna call it sandstone beige.
Okay, and that's what a lot of these
companies do.
They choose the names based on what type of
memory you will get from it over time.
They have to change these up.
They have to add new hues to it.
They add silver flakes.
They're gonna add more chrome.
(14:08):
They're gonna add more and more because our
colors and our tastes constantly change.
White is one of the few that really hasn't
changed in a long time.
But colors that aren't super popular, like
orange, green, purple, pink and even brown,
you have to change them up.
If you go back and you look at a truck from
the 1980s or even 70s that painted brown,
(14:30):
its brown will be completely different than
what you find today and back in the day
when British ley limbs still existed, they
had a brown called O-Fudge.
Now the first thing that comes to my mind
when I hear O-Fudge is FudgeeO's, the cookie.
I love them, I love FudgeeO's and I think of
this dark, dark color and it brings back a
(14:50):
memory for me.
So you may just see it as red, white, blue,
green, purple, black, white, silver, gray,
gold, but they all have different names and
their names are an expression of themselves
AMC back in the day, big bad blue, and the
reason why they call it big bad Blue is
because it was such a vibrant color of blue
(15:12):
that AMC vehicles that were painted in them
would stand out in a crowd.
So they had to give it a name that would
stand out like it Vauxhall, red and Roll.
It's a darker, standard color of red.
Kia with their Vanilla Shake.
It's not white, it's not beige, it's not
sand, it's Vanilla Shake.
And when you see it, that's the first thing
(15:34):
that comes to your mind.
Do you really think that people sit down in
a boardroom look at this, you know a
hundred new colors that they're going to
come out with next year and go okay, that's
red, that's red two, that's red.
Three, that's red four.
We got purple four.
I think we're going to go with green five
and orange two down there.
Okay, so when people go up to the counter
(16:01):
and they need to get more paint, they're
just going to go out and say, oh, I need a
Kia orange too, okay, well, we don't have
any of that today, but it's the same.
As you know.
The Chevrolet orange four no, they got to
give it a name because when you're thinking
orange, you're just thinking a standard,
bland, boring color.
You got to give it names, just like the
automobiles that these colors sit on.
You got to give the color a name that's
just as vibrant as it stands and that's
what these paint companies realize.
(16:21):
You can't just call everything by its
natural color in a rainbow.
You have to give it more.
You can't just call it fuchsia, you got to
call it furious fuchsia, because it's not
just fuchsia, it's a mad fuchsia Because
it's on a car with power that's mad at the
world, it's powerful, it's angry, it wants
to get out there.
(16:42):
And even when it comes to luxury colors,
the names of those tend to go with them.
If you get a really dark shade of purple on
a luxury vehicle like a Honky H5, a lot of
times those will use more luxurious
nameplates with them, like a royal purple.
And why do they do that?
Because it goes with the vehicle.
It makes you think of prestige.
(17:04):
Do you think Rolls-Royce just calls the
black on their vehicle black?
No, they give them luxurious names because
every detail that goes into the vehicle has
to be an extension of what it is.
If you want to use the most bland, boring
basic car colors on any bland, boring basic
vehicle, go right ahead.
You can have an AMC Pacer, a Pinto hell,
(17:26):
even the Chevrolet Cavalier.
It can be bland, it can be boring, it can
blend in with the crowd.
But if you want to make a statement, let's
make a statement with the color.
Let's choose a name for that color that
stands with the car it's on.
You know, jeeps aren't just Jeeps, not just
desert brown, forest green.
They could be backwoods, mud or a nice dark
brown.
They could be a deep river.
(17:47):
Then you're thinking blue.
They want you to remember all these things
and they want you to know about them
Because they need these colors to imprint
themselves in you, because a vehicle isn't
just something you buy and throw out
tomorrow.
So when you go to the store and you buy Hot
Wheels and you buy this car today, you'll
play with it, but then when you get bored
of it, you'll just put it in a box, shove
(18:09):
it off in the corner and forget about it.
You can't do that with your vehicle.
When you pick your vehicle out, you have to
pick a color that you can withstand.
So that snot green that was on my Mustang
when it originally came out in 1970, I
don't even know why they chose that color.
I don't even know why somebody would even
think to use that color, but they put it on
(18:29):
a Mustang that was supposed to be more of a
premium model.
So they wanted to create more of a
luxurious feel.
So greens at that point in time in history
were create more of a luxurious feel.
So greens at that point in time in history
were considered more of a luxury color.
A green, a black, dark brown.
It was luxurious.
But for myself would I keep it the color?
No, I'd strip it right down and call it
(18:50):
metallic blue.
Actually, the name of the paint my dad used
when he repainted the Mustang was cold iron
blue and when you see it it's flat.
But you see how this color on this car
looks like steel.
That vehicle is made of metal.
It's not made of plastic.
You can tell the chrome is chrome and you
can tell the hood is metal, because even
(19:12):
the name of the paint makes it so that we
know what it is.
It's powerful and it stands with the car.
The colors on automobiles are made to honor
so many different things.
They're made to show power, to show luxury,
to honor places, to honor people, to bring
in old school memories.
They're there for us to remember.
(19:33):
And there are so many weird names out there.
With their automobiles, like Cadillac
literally has their own brand of pink, all
thanks to the song Pink Cadillac and
Elvis's Pink Cadillac.
They literally have a color card called
Cadillac Pink and that shade is Cadillac
Pink forever, like the cocking.
That shade is forever DeLorean gray.
(19:55):
A car can create a name for its color for
itself if it's big enough.
Like specific color of yellow.
You can have Ferrari yellow, a Lamborghini
yellow or even a Corvette yellow, and
people would understand the hue of that
yellow.
When you pick up your kid's crayons next
time, look at the names of the colors that
are on them.
They give crayons interesting names too,
(20:16):
because when you pick up the crayon you
hold it up.
What does that color make you think of.
It's the same thing the color of your car
has to make you think of.
It's not just a car, it's essentially a
work of art.
No matter how bad the design is, it's still
essentially a work of art.
It took a lot of hours to make it and bring
it to life.
That if you just paint it with the exact
(20:37):
same color, like Henry Ford said, you can
have any color as long as it's black.
Now, the only reason why he said that, and
the only reason why he did that, is because
it was way cheaper to do it with the black,
because it dried quicker than any other
paint color, which means he can move his
vehicles out that much faster.
Then remember, all those vehicles are the
exact same color.
You'll never find yours in a parking lot.
(20:57):
And what color of black is it Black Today?
When you look at the black, what do you
think?
The black on a Model T is Charcoal black,
coal black.
You know workman's black, I don't know.
It's a chalky style of black.
Like I said, the next time you look at your
car, ask yourself what would I call that
color?
I look at my RAV and it's red.
But when I look at it I actually think no,
(21:18):
I think it's more of a burgundy mom ride.
My truck is white and I look at it and I'm
like it's snow white.
That's not the name of my truck, my truck's
Marty, but the white is like freshly fallen
snow, so it's snow white.
Everything has a name and just because
automotive companies choose these
incredible names for their vehicles, like
dark cherry red, everybody thinks it's
(21:40):
purple.
Well, no, it's dark cherry red, everybody
thinks it's purple, but it's no, it's plum
crazy purple.
We have to tell people what it is and when
they hear those names, a memory will kick
in, just like seeing those cars.
Memories are all tied to colors.
Every color out there has specific memory
for it.
Like, if I give you an ivory white, how
(22:01):
many people out there are thinking of a
wedding dress?
If I tell you a silver Aston, how many
people think of the DB5?
If I say green, how green?
How many people think of the Nurburgring?
So they all mean what they are.
Jeep wasn't off in calling their new green
Mojito Green, because it literally looks
like a mint leaf.
It's the same shade, it's Mojito.
(22:21):
So when they saw it, that's what they knew
it was going to be.
That's not just green, it's Mojito Green
and for that we get our car color names.
So if you like this podcast, please like,
share or comment about it on any of the
major social feeds or streaming sites that
you've found the AutoLooks podcast on, and
after that, stop by the website, read some
of the reviews, check out some of the
ratings, go to the Corporate Links website
page.
Big or small, we have them all Car
(22:42):
companies from around the globe all
available on the AutoLooks.net website.
The AutoLooks podcast is brought to you by
Ecomm Entertainment Group, a distributor by
Podbean.com.
(23:07):
If you'd like to get in touch with us, send
us an email over at email@AutoLooks.net.
So, for myself, Everett Jay, the Ecomm
Entertainment Group and AutoLooks.net, strap
yourself in for one fun wild ride that the
color names are going to take us on.
Bye.
Well, I was out for work, looking for some
caulking for, essentially, finish a job
that we had.
And as I'm going through all of them and
checking out the tiles and making sure that
it all matches up to make sure that this
job goes good, I look over at the names of
the caulking next to me and one of them
stands out from the rest of it.
It's just a standard gray, but its name
(00:21):
literally jumps off the shelf right into my
eyes and as I'm looking at it, I'm standing
there in the Isle of Lows looking right at
this tube of caulking.
I had to pick it up, bring it closer and
really understand it.
Its name, the name of that caulking, was
DeLorean Gray.
Well, deloreans are stainless steel, but
from a long distance away, their gray can
(00:42):
be something even more amazing, and it
seems like this company has decided to use
the name DeLorean to make a color gray you
can use for caulking as you're putting down
tile in your own house.
That's just amazing and to this day I
always look for it and I try and find all
the amazing colors and names that go with
(01:03):
them.
That just throw you right off.
Well, in the automotive world we actually
have that, and this year Jeep brought back
a brand new green that we're going to talk
about in this podcast.
So today, sit back and listen in as AutoLooks
goes through some interesting car color
names.
(01:31):
Welcome back to the outlooks podcast.
I am your host, as always, the doctor to
the automotive industry, Mr. Everett J,
coming to you from our main host website at
AutoLooks.net.
If you haven't been there, stop by, check
it out.
Read some of the reviews, check out the
ratings.
Go to the corporate links website page.
Big or small, we have them car companies
from around the globe all in one
centralized location of the AutoLooks.net
website.
Oh yeah, the AutoLooks podcast is brought to
(01:53):
you by Ecomm Entertainment Group and
distributed by Podbean.com.
If you'd like to get in touch with us, send
us an email over at email@AutoLooks.net.
So, like I said in the beginning, some of
these names these companies choose for
their colors.
It's just well.
It kind of goes either with the times or
wait, the first thing that comes to your
mind.
And as I'm standing there at the Toronto
(02:13):
Auto Show this year looking at the wall
from Stellantis, of all their new colors
you can get for the brand new Jeep Wrangler,
one stands out for me.
It's not just green, it's Mojito green.
Now, mojito is an alcoholic drink but with
a mint leaf in it you get that bright green.
It's not to say you should go around your
Jeep Wrangler drinking and driving, no, but
(02:33):
the green that they're utilizing looks
similar to that of the mint leaf that makes
it mojito.
And there's a lot of car companies out
there that do that.
See, every single year, big companies like
DuPont look up to at least five years into
the future, sometimes even further than
that, to find out what colors are really
going to pop for us.
(02:53):
You ever notice when you see older cars,
even today, at classic car shows and
they're sitting out there in the sun with
their original paint and even if they've
been re-sprayed, it's the original pink
color.
Well, the days of these flat pastels, hell,
silver flakes, even vibrant colors, have
come and gone.
(03:13):
When I was in college, I noticed this with
all new entry-level vehicles, even with
Mercedes and their little A-class and
B-class that they're trying to bring into
the North American marketplace.
They're promoting them with these vibrant
colors that pop.
Essentially, they went with the music of
the time.
They popped with you, and the reason why
they chose to do that is because people
would think they're young and hip and cool
because the color of their car matched the
(03:35):
world around them.
It wasn't just a standard, boring beige
vehicle like all those people that just
wear golf shirts and khaki pants.
Okay, bland, it's boring.
There's a lot of thought that actually goes
into choosing the perfect color for cars
Like the Dodge Viper.
The original color for that was more of a
brighter red than by the end of its
(03:55):
generations it went darker.
The darkness of the red showed that it
meant business.
It got.
Essentially it brought out the image of the
vehicle.
So you're looking at the third generation
of the Dodge Viper Put it next to the first
generation both GTSs like the coupe
versions and you're looking at the colors
and you notice that there's difference.
That bright red makes you remember the 90s.
(04:18):
The dark red makes you show what decade
they came from.
You see, every decade's got all kinds of
different types of colors out there and
there's always ones on top.
For a long time it's been silver, but now,
with black and white starting to creep back
up, it's always been, as you could say,
shades have been the top tier colors.
But we all know that there's specific
(04:38):
colors that go with specific cars.
Like buying a Ferrari, it's either red or
it's yellow.
A Lamborghini can be yellow, a Honda can be
red, white or blue.
All car companies have their own specific
color, like McLaren.
When you think of McLaren you think of that
bright mango-style orange.
It's right there, right in front of you and
it makes you think of those.
Could you imagine if automotive companies
(04:59):
went out there and painted vehicles the
same shade of yellow as a school bus?
Well, you'd call it a bus.
I remember Hummer did that with the H2.
In the early 2000s Hummer's yellow was very
similar to that of a school bus, not as
much orange tint to it, it was still more
(05:20):
on the yellow side, but it was close to
being a school bus yellow.
So anybody that actually had the yellow H2s
people just saw them as odd looking school
buses and that's what they try and create.
My first vehicle that I drove and
essentially the one that you know spent a
lot of time with me in my life and I wish
I'd never given it up was actually a 1994
Chrysler Concorde.
Now, everybody I know always looked at that
car and said, oh, it's purple, it's purple,
(05:43):
a purple car.
I'm like no, it's not purple, it's more of
a reddish tinge, it's just dark red that
you think it's purple.
Because there actually was a purple that
they had and I actually proved it to
somebody once, proved it to my wife when we
first met.
It's like no, it's a purple car.
And I brought out the can of paint, I put
it down and I said no, it's dark cherry red.
Literally that's the name of the color that.
My Concorde was Dark Cherry Red, kind of
(06:04):
like my Rio.
It's metallic black and has silver flakes
in it.
Those silver flakes were a big thing.
They started utilizing those in the 2000s
to try and get more shine out of vehicles.
Remember we just moved on from these bland,
straight color pastel days.
Hell, you go back to the 1950s and there
were pastel colors.
How many of those weird baby blue cars can
(06:26):
you find?
The funny thing that goes along with a lot
of these interesting colors that people use
for their vehicles to make them stand out
are the names they give to them.
Like I said at the beginning that cocking
it was delorean gray and jeep's new green
is mojito green.
Well, some car companies have kind of gone
over the top through their generations.
Ford's got a few of them.
They have the got to have it green.
(06:48):
Anti-establish mint.
Bring them back.
Olive.
Tangerine scream, fruity and guilt and
thanks for a million pretty interesting
names to use.
And like we all get what tangerine scream
is okay, that's going to be type of orange
similar to what you would find on the brand
new Ford Capri.
Now bring them back, olive, you like.
The first thing that comes to my mind is
(07:09):
just this faint, pasty green.
Like it might make me think of olives, it
might make me think of a mediterranean
country, but when I see it on a car, no
crap.
Anti-establishment establishment, okay.
So they're going against the establishment,
which means it's more of a generalized
green that you would see out in the world.
(07:31):
Like I said, in the early 2000s, when I was
going to college, I saw a lot of these
entry-level cars with these intrigue,
interesting pop colors, the type of colors
that you would get tired of after a few
years.
So by the time you had the trade in the
vehicle, you were glad to do it because
that horrible green was out of fashion
right now.
You know like everybody today goes out and
gets a brand new iPhone.
(07:51):
Then when they release a new one, they got
to get rid of the old one because they need
the new one.
It doesn't look as good, it doesn't handle
as good, it doesn't have the great features
you can have one simple thing.
I kind of went with the colors.
See, entry level is always the cars that
try and go with the fads of today because
they want to grab people and bring them in
(08:14):
to purchase vehicles because they're entry
level.
They're going after the people that take
public transit.
They want to say to them no, you don't need
to take public transit, you can own a car.
That's an extension of yourself, because
the colors go with everything you love and
that's what they try and create for you.
They bring those colors to you.
But then again some companies bring colors
(08:34):
to you that just want you to turn heads of
everybody you pass.
Dodge was one of the biggest ones about it
With Go Mango, plum, crazy Top Banana,
furious Fuchsia, sassy Green and even Go
Green.
They were bright colors Like, go Like.
I basically like a stop and go light.
It's that bright, bright green, sassy green.
(08:55):
There's more of the seafoam style.
Fuchsia, furious fuchsia.
Now they put those things on challengers
and kudas back in the day.
Furious fuchsia, the pink.
Now people will tell you oh, you got a pink
car.
It's like.
No, I got furious fuchsia.
It's not pink, it's a mad pink.
Like top banana.
What's yellow car?
No, it's the top banana.
(09:15):
Plum crazy was always greatest.
I always love that one, because when you
see it and it's so bright and you're always
thinking yourself purple nobody wants to
buy a purple vehicle.
But plum crazy.
You see it on those dodges and you just
think plum crazy is power.
It goes with the vehicles and then go mango,
like we all know what color that's gonna be,
(09:36):
it's gonna fall into the orange category,
but they put it on their vehicles to
separate them from everyone else.
You see, every car company has different
colors than everyone else.
They all want to be different and want to
differentiate themselves.
When it comes to specific, especially halo
vehicles or vehicles that need to grasp a
market, they'll utilize these interesting
(09:56):
colors and then they'll give them
interesting names behind them, because when
you purchase the vehicle, you just don't
want it to say color green.
Now, that's what your insurance and that's
what your ownership will say, but the
actual color coding of the sign will have
Renault, alien Green, alien Green.
This isn't just green, this is a green
species, it's Alien Green.
(10:18):
Now I'm thinking of Martian, like Marvin
Martian, kind of Alien Green.
I'm not thinking of like Alien Eat you,
james Cameron.
Alien yeah, I love those movies, no.
But like Alien Green.
Like Mercedes Green Hell.
You, james cameron alien yeah, I love those
movies, no.
But like alien green.
Like mercedes green hell, mango, okay,
green hell.
Everybody knows what color green hell is
supposed to be.
It's a dark, foresty green and it's
(10:39):
supposed to make you think green hell.
If you don't know what green hell is, you
listen to the wrong podcast here, because
green hell is the most fabled racetrack of
all time.
Not talking Silverstone, I'm talking the
Nurburgring.
Mercedes has known about the green hill,
how.
They even made a movie about the Nurburgring
when you go back and check the whole
(10:59):
history of it and literally the movie is
called the green hell.
Why?
Because there are so many problems that
come with the green hell in the Nurburgring,
but having it as a color on your vehicle
just makes you think, oh, it's not just
green, it's green hell, it's the pine trees
that go around the course.
You might be down there trying to get some
paint to do a little touch-up job on your
(11:20):
Mercedes SLS AMG.
Just because you got, you know, somebody
dingy on a parking lot and took off, you're
like I'm going to go touch this thing up.
You get your can of paint and it's just
green.
Hell on it.
You know it's like, yeah, I remember that
week.
That was fun.
I had so much fun with my friends.
It becomes more of a memory to you.
So just because the color of your vehicle
doesn't mean it can't bring back memories
(11:41):
of something that's even better.
Like I said you that pop Holden was famous
for this with the toxic green, some like it
hot red and son of a gun gray.
These were mostly utilized for their HSV
products because they wanted to make them
stand out.
You always have to differentiate your
standard products from your performance
products, so you've got to give them colors
(12:02):
that make them stand out, like Dodge with
the plum purple.
Well, Holden did the toxic green.
It's green, but it looks like it's nuclear
waste and that's the shade they give it.
You've got to remember there's thousands
upon thousands of different colors.
Literally, as I'm talking to you in this
podcast right now, the back of my
microphone is giving me hundreds of
different colors as it's just going around.
(12:25):
There's green, there's some blue, there's
red, there's orange, there's yellow, it's
all there.
You see, the thing is is everybody looks at
colors and they can say, oh, that's green.
Well, what type of green is it?
That's what you have to ask yourself.
What does it look like?
What does it make you think of when you see
it?
And these auto companies think that too,
because the paint companies look at it and
say look at the vehicle and we're going to
(12:46):
paint this, but what color name are we
going to give it?
It's orange, right?
Well, no, we're going to give it something
else.
It's not just orange, it's it's tangerine
screen.
It's screaming at you from the middle of a
parking lot.
It's literally staring at you going.
I'm here, like, how many times have you
gone down the road, been in a parking lot
and you see, you know, let's just put it
out there because of the original vehicle
(13:06):
of this concept, the Mojito Green Jeep.
There's a green Jeep, there's a purple Jeep,
there's a pink Jeep, there's an orange Jeep.
It has such a vibrant color, okay, so this
tangerine screen sitting there on a Ford
Capri on the other side of the parking lot
and literally you could see your car from a
mile away.
It's like its paint is literally screaming
at you from 300 meters away.
(13:27):
You can see it now, its, metallic black.
You think heavy metal, you think of you
know something heavy, but it just blends in.
Giving it a name that kind of stands out
from the rest of the crowd is usually done
to the colors that will stand out in a
crowd.
You're not going to have standard beige and
be like you know this is, uh well, let's
just say Pantera Gray.
(13:47):
No, you're not going to give it that color
because it's literally the most boring
beige in the world.
You're gonna call it sandstone beige.
Okay, and that's what a lot of these
companies do.
They choose the names based on what type of
memory you will get from it over time.
They have to change these up.
They have to add new hues to it.
They add silver flakes.
They're gonna add more chrome.
(14:08):
They're gonna add more and more because our
colors and our tastes constantly change.
White is one of the few that really hasn't
changed in a long time.
But colors that aren't super popular, like
orange, green, purple, pink and even brown,
you have to change them up.
If you go back and you look at a truck from
the 1980s or even 70s that painted brown,
(14:30):
its brown will be completely different than
what you find today and back in the day
when British ley limbs still existed, they
had a brown called O-Fudge.
Now the first thing that comes to my mind
when I hear O-Fudge is FudgeeO's, the cookie.
I love them, I love FudgeeO's and I think of
this dark, dark color and it brings back a
(14:50):
memory for me.
So you may just see it as red, white, blue,
green, purple, black, white, silver, gray,
gold, but they all have different names and
their names are an expression of themselves
AMC back in the day, big bad blue, and the
reason why they call it big bad Blue is
because it was such a vibrant color of blue
(15:12):
that AMC vehicles that were painted in them
would stand out in a crowd.
So they had to give it a name that would
stand out like it Vauxhall, red and Roll.
It's a darker, standard color of red.
Kia with their Vanilla Shake.
It's not white, it's not beige, it's not
sand, it's Vanilla Shake.
And when you see it, that's the first thing
(15:34):
that comes to your mind.
Do you really think that people sit down in
a boardroom look at this, you know a
hundred new colors that they're going to
come out with next year and go okay, that's
red, that's red two, that's red.
Three, that's red four.
We got purple four.
I think we're going to go with green five
and orange two down there.
Okay, so when people go up to the counter
(16:01):
and they need to get more paint, they're
just going to go out and say, oh, I need a
Kia orange too, okay, well, we don't have
any of that today, but it's the same.
As you know.
The Chevrolet orange four no, they got to
give it a name because when you're thinking
orange, you're just thinking a standard,
bland, boring color.
You got to give it names, just like the
automobiles that these colors sit on.
You got to give the color a name that's
just as vibrant as it stands and that's
what these paint companies realize.
(16:21):
You can't just call everything by its
natural color in a rainbow.
You have to give it more.
You can't just call it fuchsia, you got to
call it furious fuchsia, because it's not
just fuchsia, it's a mad fuchsia Because
it's on a car with power that's mad at the
world, it's powerful, it's angry, it wants
to get out there.
(16:42):
And even when it comes to luxury colors,
the names of those tend to go with them.
If you get a really dark shade of purple on
a luxury vehicle like a Honky H5, a lot of
times those will use more luxurious
nameplates with them, like a royal purple.
And why do they do that?
Because it goes with the vehicle.
It makes you think of prestige.
(17:04):
Do you think Rolls-Royce just calls the
black on their vehicle black?
No, they give them luxurious names because
every detail that goes into the vehicle has
to be an extension of what it is.
If you want to use the most bland, boring
basic car colors on any bland, boring basic
vehicle, go right ahead.
You can have an AMC Pacer, a Pinto hell,
(17:26):
even the Chevrolet Cavalier.
It can be bland, it can be boring, it can
blend in with the crowd.
But if you want to make a statement, let's
make a statement with the color.
Let's choose a name for that color that
stands with the car it's on.
You know, jeeps aren't just Jeeps, not just
desert brown, forest green.
They could be backwoods, mud or a nice dark
brown.
They could be a deep river.
(17:47):
Then you're thinking blue.
They want you to remember all these things
and they want you to know about them
Because they need these colors to imprint
themselves in you, because a vehicle isn't
just something you buy and throw out
tomorrow.
So when you go to the store and you buy Hot
Wheels and you buy this car today, you'll
play with it, but then when you get bored
of it, you'll just put it in a box, shove
(18:09):
it off in the corner and forget about it.
You can't do that with your vehicle.
When you pick your vehicle out, you have to
pick a color that you can withstand.
So that snot green that was on my Mustang
when it originally came out in 1970, I
don't even know why they chose that color.
I don't even know why somebody would even
think to use that color, but they put it on
(18:29):
a Mustang that was supposed to be more of a
premium model.
So they wanted to create more of a
luxurious feel.
So greens at that point in time in history
were create more of a luxurious feel.
So greens at that point in time in history
were considered more of a luxury color.
A green, a black, dark brown.
It was luxurious.
But for myself would I keep it the color?
No, I'd strip it right down and call it
(18:50):
metallic blue.
Actually, the name of the paint my dad used
when he repainted the Mustang was cold iron
blue and when you see it it's flat.
But you see how this color on this car
looks like steel.
That vehicle is made of metal.
It's not made of plastic.
You can tell the chrome is chrome and you
can tell the hood is metal, because even
(19:12):
the name of the paint makes it so that we
know what it is.
It's powerful and it stands with the car.
The colors on automobiles are made to honor
so many different things.
They're made to show power, to show luxury,
to honor places, to honor people, to bring
in old school memories.
They're there for us to remember.
(19:33):
And there are so many weird names out there.
With their automobiles, like Cadillac
literally has their own brand of pink, all
thanks to the song Pink Cadillac and
Elvis's Pink Cadillac.
They literally have a color card called
Cadillac Pink and that shade is Cadillac
Pink forever, like the cocking.
That shade is forever DeLorean gray.
(19:55):
A car can create a name for its color for
itself if it's big enough.
Like specific color of yellow.
You can have Ferrari yellow, a Lamborghini
yellow or even a Corvette yellow, and
people would understand the hue of that
yellow.
When you pick up your kid's crayons next
time, look at the names of the colors that
are on them.
They give crayons interesting names too,
(20:16):
because when you pick up the crayon you
hold it up.
What does that color make you think of.
It's the same thing the color of your car
has to make you think of.
It's not just a car, it's essentially a
work of art.
No matter how bad the design is, it's still
essentially a work of art.
It took a lot of hours to make it and bring
it to life.
That if you just paint it with the exact
(20:37):
same color, like Henry Ford said, you can
have any color as long as it's black.
Now, the only reason why he said that, and
the only reason why he did that, is because
it was way cheaper to do it with the black,
because it dried quicker than any other
paint color, which means he can move his
vehicles out that much faster.
Then remember, all those vehicles are the
exact same color.
You'll never find yours in a parking lot.
(20:57):
And what color of black is it Black Today?
When you look at the black, what do you
think?
The black on a Model T is Charcoal black,
coal black.
You know workman's black, I don't know.
It's a chalky style of black.
Like I said, the next time you look at your
car, ask yourself what would I call that
color?
I look at my RAV and it's red.
But when I look at it I actually think no,
(21:18):
I think it's more of a burgundy mom ride.
My truck is white and I look at it and I'm
like it's snow white.
That's not the name of my truck, my truck's
Marty, but the white is like freshly fallen
snow, so it's snow white.
Everything has a name and just because
automotive companies choose these
incredible names for their vehicles, like
dark cherry red, everybody thinks it's
(21:40):
purple.
Well, no, it's dark cherry red, everybody
thinks it's purple, but it's no, it's plum
crazy purple.
We have to tell people what it is and when
they hear those names, a memory will kick
in, just like seeing those cars.
Memories are all tied to colors.
Every color out there has specific memory
for it.
Like, if I give you an ivory white, how
(22:01):
many people out there are thinking of a
wedding dress?
If I tell you a silver Aston, how many
people think of the DB5?
If I say green, how green?
How many people think of the Nurburgring?
So they all mean what they are.
Jeep wasn't off in calling their new green
Mojito Green, because it literally looks
like a mint leaf.
It's the same shade, it's Mojito.
(22:21):
So when they saw it, that's what they knew
it was going to be.
That's not just green, it's Mojito Green
and for that we get our car color names.
So if you like this podcast, please like,
share or comment about it on any of the
major social feeds or streaming sites that
you've found the AutoLooks podcast on, and
after that, stop by the website, read some
of the reviews, check out some of the
ratings, go to the Corporate Links website
page.
Big or small, we have them all Car
(22:42):
companies from around the globe all
available on the AutoLooks.net website.
The AutoLooks podcast is brought to you by
Ecomm Entertainment Group, a distributor by
Podbean.com.
(23:07):
If you'd like to get in touch with us, send
us an email over at email@AutoLooks.net.
So, for myself, Everett Jay, the Ecomm
Entertainment Group and AutoLooks.net, strap
yourself in for one fun wild ride that the
color names are going to take us on.
Bye.
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