These Are 6 Of The Best New Car Colors We Saw In 2023
A good paint scheme can do a lot to snazz up a less interesting car and make it something that turns heads. It can also differentiate between trim levels and a number of other options and packages. Namely, it gives your car some personality, regardless of what make or model it is. After all, bare metal doesn't always look the best.
Over the course of 2023, automakers each did their respective best trying to add pops of color to lineups and for the most part, the efforts paid off. This year was full of automotive paint colors from wacky to striking (and just about everything in between). Detailing each and every paint color revealed by a manufacturer during this year would take ages and besides, another shade of black or white on a luxury SUV doesn't exactly get everyone's attention. However, there are definitely a few colors that stand out in the sea of black, white, and gray.
Dodge's Plum Crazy
Plum Crazy, an ostentatious purple hue from Dodge, is not a new paint color by any means. It adorned the sheet metal of Chargers, Challengers, Barracudas, and Road Runners for a number of years in the golden age of muscle cars in the early 1970s, but it has been absent in Dodge's lineup for a number of years. For 2023, the final model year of both the Charger and the Challenger, Dodge brought back the color.
There are few images more emblematic of Dodge's entire supercharged mission statement than a 200-plus-mph four-door sedan with an 807-horsepower supercharged V8, finished in a bright purple. It's completely unhinged, an affront to decency, and not at all what one thinks of when imagining a performance car in 2023, and that's exactly how Dodge likes it. Dodge is at its best when it flatly ignores bean counting, focus groups, and fuel efficiency, and makes a line of cars with more horsepower than a V12 Lamborghini, seemingly just for fun.
Dodge struck automotive gold with the Hellcat, and it will ride into automotive Valhalla eternally shiny and purple.
Acura's Double Apex Blue Pearl
Although a 2024 model, the new EV Acura ZDX was first debuted this year. The ZDX is a normal-looking SUV in a time of automotive styling history where nearly every EV is somewhere on the spectrum between "Space Egg" (like the Hyundai Ioniq 6) and angular monstrosity like the Tesla Cybertruck. Only the Ford F-150 Lightning and Acura ZDX seem to have escaped the trend.
The performance-oriented ZDX Type-S will be available in a bright blue color that Acura is calling Double Apex Blue Pearl. Even the name of the color sounds fast. Although it hasn't been driven yet, the 500 horsepower from its dual-motor drivetrain will likely help it live up to its name. While undoubtedly well made and genuinely good cars, your average Acura SUV doesn't exactly garner the attention of everyone around it. Double Apex Blue Pearl probably seeks to change that. Bright blue or not, the Acura ZDX definitely needs more recognition.
Porsche's Shore Blue Metallic
Porsche says its 911 S/T is the lightest current 911 model at just 3,056 pounds. With 518 horsepower on tap, that lightweight frame will likely be put to good use. However, Porsche is adamant that the 911 S/T is not a race car, but a car for competently carving through regular roads (although no one would fault you for bringing it to a track day). Either way, it's very limited: Only 1,963 will leave the factory, an homage to the year 1963 when the 911 was born.
Even more limited is the "Heritage Design Package" which includes a new color, Shore Blue Metallic. Unlike the Acura ZDX, the blue used by Porsche is infinitely more subtle and understated. It's almost gray. Porsche will absolutely let you order a 911 in a wide variety of cornea-hurting colors provided you can throw in enough cash, but Shore Blue Metallic isn't for the Porsche customer who is looking to impress every bystander. The color will likely never get more than an approving nod from Porsche-savvy onlookers, and sometimes that's enough.
Toyota Trail Dust
Toyota didn't exactly shock the world with the unveiling of the newest Land Cruiser generation earlier this year. We all knew it was coming, more or less. But that doesn't mean everyone isn't excited. The Land Cruiser is back and boxier than ever, with some new Toyota Hybrid tech under the hood. Toyota may be following the trend of angular off-roaders like the Jeep Wrangler and Ford Bronco, but no one can say Toyota doesn't know its customers.
One of the new two-tone options for the next generation Land Cruiser First Edition is a color Toyota is calling "Trail Dust." Like the name implies, it's a dusty brown color. Given the fact that the Land Cruiser is a mostly pavement-agnostic vehicle, it will likely get caked with dust over the course of its life. On the bright side, the dust might just blend into the paint color, negating the need for a car wash.
Audi Sakhir Gold Metallic
On the other side of the paint color world is Audi's Sakhir Gold Metallic that debuted with the newest iteration of the Audi SQ8. The SQ8 itself features all of the big luxury SUV-ness you would naturally expect from an Audi that starts at $96,600. Sakhir Gold Metallic will set you back an additional $595 because of course it will. (So will any color besides white.)
"Sakhir" has traditionally referred to an area on the island of Bahrain where the Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix is held. While the Land Cruiser's "Trail Dust" invokes images of hanging out on a trail somewhere in Utah or Colorado and listening to ska and fixing a mountain bike, Audi's "Sakhir Gold" brings to mind images of expensive hotels, private jets, and thrashing around in expensive cars on the dunes. Audi is seeking out a notably different demographic but as they say, different (paint) strokes for different folks.
Ford's custom colors
When Ford first revealed the Mustang GTD, the 800-horsepower supercharged carbon fiber monstrosity that's just barely hiding under the guise of a Mustang shell, the automotive world stopped on its axis and looked in the direction of Metropolitan Detroit. Unlike the Challenger Hellcat, the GTD is notably more refined (as much as you can call a $300,000 race car "refined"). Every single detail, from the literal F-22 Raptor titanium parts used in the shifter and serial number plate, to the space-age transaxle and suspension, has been tuned within an inch of its life to give the maximum performance metrics possible.
As for colors, Ford will of course offer a few regular paint options, but if you so desire, Ford will paint it in whatever color you want. Hot pink with green wheels? Sure, why not? The exact color of a North American P-51D Mustang fighter plane? If you have the color in mind, Ford will paint-match it.