Top 10 Craziest Paint Colors Available Today

Automakers have come a long way from the days of Henry Ford’s Model T. While many colors were available over the “Tin Lizzy’s” long production run, this rugged and bare-bones vehicle was only offered in black for many years. Talk about choice!

Today, car manufacturers offer more hues than there are colors of the rainbow. But that’s not all. Depending on the product, customers can get shimmering metal flake or even special pearlescent paint jobs that seem to change color under different lighting conditions.

Spurning the basics like black, white and beige, even mass-market companies are offering buyers ever more assaulting hues. These days you don’t have to pony up the cash for a Lamborghini to drive something bright. Here are the Top 10 Craziest Paint Colors Available Today.

Subaru is known for many things, but wild design and bright colors are not the company’s calling cards. They’re perfectly happy pushing a sensible agenda full of things like long-term quality and advanced all-wheel drive. Still, this history hasn’t prevented the Japanese automaker from dipping a toe in the vivid end of the color wheel.

The company’s XV Crosstrek is a compact utility based on the trustworthy Impreza small car. Like just about every other Subaru (we’re looking at you BRZ) it comes standard with all-wheel drive meaning it’s ready for just about any type of weather, nasty or not.

This vehicle’s signature color is called Tangerine Orange Pearl, a suitably bright and youthful shade that looks like it was inspired by a McDonald’s dining room. But unlike a Happy Meal this fun product lacks lean, finely textured beef and a week’s worth of dietary sodium.

Buyers can opt for an oh-so-cool Matte Gray finish on this force-fed hatchback. The car can literally be slathered in lusterless paint that’s like non-reflective barbecue sauce dripping off a rack of baby-back ribs. This finish gives the adventurous Veloster an almost custom look, like a factory-fresh rat rod.

SEE ALSO: Hyundai Explains How to Care for Matte Paint Job

Of course there’s a price to pay for being different and it goes beyond the $1,000 up-charge. Owners have to be extra careful to keep their cars looking dull and shine-less. Naturally waxes and polishes are off limits, as are automatic car washes. Yes, you’ve got to scrub it down by hand, lest the paint get buffed to a shine by the twirling appendages of an unrelenting machine. Other precautions are also strongly recommended.

If Subaru is a conservative automaker then Volvo is more hidebound than just about any other car company. In decades past this Chinese Swedish brand has been a champion of boxy design, it’s also been obsessive compulsive about safety long before this issue became popular. These factors combined are a recipe for automotive narcolepsy.

Despite Volvo’s penchant for dreariness, the company has come around in recent years to offer some uniquely styled vehicles with comfortable interiors and entertaining on-road dynamics. Additionally they also offer at least one bold color on a few of their models.

Rebel Blue is a bright and cheerful hue that’s somewhat similar to the shade of indigo that makes up most of the Swedish flag. It’s available on the S60 T6 AWD R-Design sports sedan as well as the Polestar Limited Edition model of the brand’s compact C30 hatchback. It’s also offered on the R-Design version of the V40.

Higher-trim levels of this C-Segment sedan can be painted in a bright-yellow color called Citrus Peel Pearl. In a way this finish makes the Dart look like a lemon rind, though hopefully with fewer undesirable bumps.

The company has been pretty gutsy with this car’s color palette. They offer a wide variety of exuberant hues, from the light and lovely Laguna Blue to muscle-car inspired Header Orange.

Speaking of old-school Detroit power, the Dodge Challenger is a 21st Century take on 1970s performance. With two doors, rear-wheel drive and available Hemi V8 engines this machine is ready to run. You can even get one of these modern classics with a proper manual transmission.

Reinforcing Dodge’s penchant for bold colors the Challenger is available in Header Orange, which, just as its name suggests, is as vividly colored as a crate of clementines. Beyond this, the car is also offered in another unusual shade, something called Plum Crazy Pearl Coat. This color kind of makes the vehicle look like Grimace, the violet-hued, bolus-shaped McDonald’s character. Mmmmm mmmmm, another fast-food reference.

Today’s Mustang is still a performance leader and thanks to a reasonable sticker price an accessible vehicle for enthusiasts. It offers big performance, respectable fuel economy and an attractive retro design. Of course it’s also available in some interesting colors as well.

One of the brightest is called Grabber Blue, an eye-popping shade of sapphire that really stands out from surrounding traffic. Mustangs dipped in this color pop like a bowl of Rice Krispies for breakfast.

This color glows like a fallout-afflicted rainforest fern, or even an algal bloom in a stagnant swamp… with glitter. This Kermit-the-Frog-themed hue is fun and intense; it really stands out, but in a good way. Spirited Green Metallic is available on the itsy-bitsy Mazda2 hatchback.

But perhaps most unusual of all is a hue called Grape Ice. It looks like a partially melted slushie, a sort of muted lavender color that’s unlike anything else on the road. Imagine a grape-flavored Jolly Rancher with frostbite, that’s what this shade of automotive weird looks like.

Subaru, Dodge and Chevrolet all offer citrus-themed paint colors and so does Ford. The company’s sporty little Focus ST hatchback is available in an eyebrow-singing hue called Tangerine Scream. In fact it’s the car’s signature shade.

This sparkly bright color reinforces the Fofo’s performance capabilities. It’s kind of like a rainforest tree frog, the vibrant coloring serves as a warning; don’t mess with me. This hue is a sparkly combination of orange and yellow that demands attention like a cranky two-year-old; it’s also a $595 option.