What colour is your car?
Statistics say it’s probably something boring like white, black, or grey. According to research from youi a depressing 50 per cent of the new cars in Australia are white or silver, and close to 80 per cent are white, silver, black, grey, or blue. Yawn.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Carmakers are increasingly trying to stand out from the crowd by offering a range of lairy paint colours. Most high-end brands will also do a standalone colour for you, provided you’re willing to pay.
Here are the colours catching the CarExpert team’s eye at the moment.
Paul Maric
Grey for me!
My Raptor is in Conquer Grey and our Model Y is in whatever variation of grey Tesla offers.
It hides dirt and any scuffs nicely, which makes it easy to keep clean.
William Stopford
I’m delighted to see green make a comeback – Isle of Man green at BMW is a favourite – and pleased to see browns sticking around even if it seems like I’m the only person who likes brown cars.
But my absolute favourite colour at the moment is the masterfully named Thundernight Metallic offered on the BMW 2 Series.
Purple is rare in this post-Ford Falcon era. The Aussie sedan was available in, from memory, four different purples over the BA and BF generations and one of those, Phantom, was the colour of the first car I ever bought: a BA XR6 manual.
So I have a sentimental attachment to purple cars and it’s just one step away from my favourite colour, indigo.
Anthony Crawford
Okay, so I’m nuts for purples and bright colours on Porsche 911s in particular. So if I’m ordering a new 911 it’s going to be Shark Blue in a GT3 or Carmine Red for the GTS.
But if you want my all-time favourite 911 colour of all time its Harlequin coloured 1995 GT2 Evo.
BMW is peddling its Daytona Violet on its all-new M3 Touring, which is absolutely the ticket. Greys and whites need to be properly banned.
Jade Credentino
I’d have to agree with Paul on this one…
Skoda and Audi used to do a version of this grey on some models, but I haven’t seen it come back in 2023.
The Cupra Leon’s Graphene Grey premium metallic is the perfect grey in my opinion.
Scott Collie
There’s a lot of purple and green on this list, so I’m going to get a bit Coldplay and throw yellow into the mix.
Porsche does Signal Yellow, and Mercedes-Benz has its Solar Beam Yellow, but for me they’re a bit flat alongside Audi’s latest Python Yellow.
It’s a bit paler than most of the other yellows out there, and seems tailor-made to contrast with the aggressive black or carbon bits that are expected on European hyper hatches nowadays.
Although there are some other bright colours in the Audi palette, this one is unique. A red RS3 makes me think of a Golf GTI, and Turbo Blue is verging on Hyundai N territory, but I can’t think of many modern, iconic yellow vehicles.
James Wong
As the OG Green Man here, it only makes sense that I too pick a shade of my beloved verde…
I’ll never forget seeing the press images for Peugeot’s Olivine Green on the current 308 Hatch for the first time, it’s a stunning hue.
Then I saw it in person when I did the media launch for the 308 Hatch and SW late last year, and I loved it even more.
It has a wonderful depth and lustre that really plays with light and beautifully caresses the 308 Hatch’s curves. Plus, it matches the green accents inside the GT models – if only it was offered on the wagon.
Peugeot is doing great colours across the board in fairness, from the bright blues and oranges to the deep lusty reds and bronzes. Très magnifique…
Jack Quick
If I had to choose my favourite exterior paint colour on the market right now I can’t really go past Skoda’s Mamba Green. It’s bright, loud and really stands out on the road.
In Australia you can get Mamba Green on the sporty Skoda Octavia RS in both liftback and wagon forms. Better yet it’s actually the standard colour which means you don’t have to pay extra for it.
Beyond the Octavia RS, Mamba Green is also currently available on the Enyaq iV RS. At this stage Skoda Australia has said it’s committing to offering both SUV and coupe SUV body styles of the Enyaq iV locally, but it’s too early to say what variants will come here. This includes the RS variants.
Despite Mamba Green being my favourite exterior paint colour on the market right now, it wouldn’t necessarily be something I’d opt for.
What I’d go for instead is Skoda’s Phoenix Orange metallic which is available on the Karoq SUV. It reminds me of the 2013 Holden Trax, which was my first car and has a soft spot in my heart.
What’s your favourite modern car colour?
