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Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Automotif Colors

Tam posts pictures of cool rides she spies cruising her neighborhood. In these posts she usually tells you the color, but she doesn't give you the common names like 'red' or 'black' or 'white', no, she gives us the official factory name of the color. If you've ever looked at new car color charts you know what I mean. There are no simple colors, they are all weirdly specific. Here's a few:
Back when I was selling Chevies, in the mid/late-80s, I sold a Chevy Nova (the NUMMI-built Toyota Corolla that was about to become the Geo Prizm) that had been sitting on the lot for a while.

It needed an ashtray, so while the customers were in the box with the F&I guy, I ran back to the parts department and asked for a Nova ashtray. The parts counter guy asked what color. “Dark brown”, I replied.

He came back and deposited the bagged part on the counter, saying “Here’s your Midnight Driftwood ashtray.”

I’ve had a low-key fascination with automotive color names ever since.

 

4 comments:

xoxoxoBruce said...

Also the same exact color/paint-code will have a different name on different models.
A different name on a Corvette, Camaro, Impala, or pickup, plus on a Buick(Olds,Pontiac), and Cadillac.

Tam said...

You are correct about that.

Chuck Pergiel said...

No! Tell me it ain't so. The marketing guys wouldn't actually try to fool us, would they?

xoxoxoBruce said...

They're not fooling anyone, if you buy paint from Dupont you order by number and have the right to call it anything you want.