Style Peak: What Colors Make a Used Car Look Fresh?

Not everyone has the means to buy a very expensive car. But Driving.ca says not to worry - you can emphasize the individuality through a special color of your car. And manufacturers are well aware of it, coming up with more and more amazing shades. Just take a look at Mystic Blue and Cayenne Orange from Chevrolet. These colors make new as well as used cars more attractive.

Let's skip the outrageously expensive paints for luxury cars like Lambos and Bugattis, and highlight examples of gorgeous colors for cars a little lower in rank. These colors are sure to remain in fashion for many years to come, increasing the price of your car. 

For those looking to buy a car at an auction, we recommend to take a closer look at the following cars of unusual colors.

Jeep Wrangler

A fun car like the Jeep Wrangler deserves an appropriate color palette, and the Stellantis designers tried their best. Back in 2017, the Pantone Color Institute created a special purple shade called Love Symbol #2 in honor of the late musician Prince. A large batch of Jeep Wranglers of those years was painted in the color of the pop icon’s grand piano. It is curious that the purple shade replaced the color called Tuscadero Pink. Those who are fans of the show Happy Days probably remember that one of the main characters of the popular sitcom was called Pinky Tuscadero. A nice twist from Jeep!

To enjoy the unusual colors of the Wrangler, you do not have to go for the top tier trim. An entry-level option of the SUV is available in colors like Sarge Green, Hydro Blue and Firecracker Red. And an absolute hit on a basic Wrangler is High Velocity – the yellow and green color familiar to anyone who has seen a driver's reflective vest.

Chevrolet Spark

Alas, the baby Spark will not return in the 2023 model year. In fact, its production was terminated in the middle of the summer of 2022. But how can you ignore a car that offers colors like Mystic Blue and Cayenne Orange for ridiculous money? Blue Glow is also not too shabby as is the dynamic duo of Crimson and Nitro Yellow. Despite the fact that the Spark is a small car, its appearance symbolizes Chevy’s giant success.

Toyota GR86

This stunning sports car won over many fans after it was introduced almost ten years ago, and its second generation continues to delight as well. Its recipe for success – a cool chassis, a sports manual transmission, rear-wheel drive and an incendiary version of the Track bRed color. The Neptune color - a daring reference to the deep blue sea - is also pretty good but it is only available in the Premium edition. If you like red cars, buy a basic Toyota GR86, and for the love of Akio Morita, choose a manual transmission.

Ford Mustang

For almost 60 years, Ford has been demonstrating the bright Mustang coupe in showrooms and on race tracks around the world. At the same time, the set of colors these stallions came in has been standard. The other thing is that this standard is very unusual.

Atlas Blue Metallic, Cyber Orange Metallic Tri-Coat, Rapid Red, and Eruption Green are guaranteed to make a dealer's lot look like someone dropped a pack of Skittles on it. Add vinyl stripes on the hood and you got many more color combinations to choose from. The vast majority of them are available in the entry-level EcoBoost and GT models. This means that you don't need to choose a premium edition to get a real head turner - passerby will not be able to resist taking a look at your car anyway.

Dodge Challenger

As with the Jeep Wrangler, Stellantis designers gave Dodge's marketing team leeway in choosing the names for paint colors of the Challenger model. And they came up with some exciting ones - TorRed, Frostbite Pearl, and Cinnamon Stick are just three examples. Before the era of Challenger gasoline engines comes to an end, someone should give the authors an award for a creative approach to naming.

You don't need to buy a V8 to unlock all the good colors. They are available even in the basic SXT configuration.

Hyundai Venue

The Venue, which replaced the small Accent, is available in numerous configurations, and even comes with a manual transmission in the Essential (basic) edition. The Preferred edition offers 10 body color options including two-tone Denim Blue that comes with a white roof. Hyundai loves making changes to its palette. For example, by 2022, they had discarded all shades of green.

Mazda CX-5

There is one color that we should talk about here - Soul Red Crystal Metallic. It is simply hard to believe that Mazda created this nitro enamel which is as deep and saturated as the paint on cars that cost three times as much, and offers it on relatively inexpensive cars.

But in all fairness, the CX-5 has established itself as one of the best cars in its segment as it is. The Soul Red color is just icing on a delicious cake.