Most Cars Are Shades of Gray, but Exciting New Colors Are Slowly Being Added 

Walk across any parking lot in America, and you will find that white, gray, and tan cars dominate the population. Add those up, and they will easily be larger in number than the fun colors combined. 

The reason that gray-scale colors are so popular (outside of King's Landing) is that gray, whites, and tans hide road grime, winter salt, and small imperfections like scratches and dings the best. What fun is owning a glossy black car if it’s constantly covered in dirt and salt? For this reason, the grays and tans have dominated for many years. We’d lump in white to that mix as well. Call it light gray.

Despite the many boring colors that consumers buy in an effort to not be driven crazy by the look of a dirty car, many brands have stepped up and offered some really great colors for those who want to own them. Here’s a quick rundown on some we have had the pleasure to see and test over the past year.

Mazda’s Soul Red Crystal is the result of a lot of hard work. Mazda’s explains that this very special color results from “...a process called Takuminuri, which translates to English as ‘artisan coloring. Painting robots were effectively taught to duplicate the techniques of Mazda’s best craftsmen.”

The Hyundai and Genesis brands have also wowed us lately. As you can see, even value-priced Elantras can be purchased in brilliant paint schemes.

In a color Genesis does NOT call “hearing aid,” the GV60 looks spectacular. We like to think it is best described as “New penny.”

When we tested the new 2025 Ioniq 5 N, many passersby commented on how cool the Performance Blue Matte color was. 

The top-page image we posted is of an all-electric car from Rolls-Royce. We’d call it Mary Kay, but we bet Rolls doesn’t. 

What is the very best color you’ve seen lately? Tell us in the comments below. 

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John Goreham is an experienced New England Motor Press Association member and expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. In addition to his eleven years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on Linkedin and follow his work at our X channel. Please note that stories carrying John's by-line are never AI-generated, but he does employ Grammarly grammar and punctuation software when proofreading. 

All images by John Goreham.