10 Bizarre Car Colour Names

We can only imagine working in the ‘naming colours department’ of marketing at a car manufacturer must get pretty tedious at times. After all, how many times can you really think of interesting names for a slightly different shade of silver?

Sometimes, presumably on a Friday at 4pm, those ideas can get a bit loose. We’ve picked out 10 bizarre car colour names.

Tangerine Scream

Although sounding like a knock-off version of Annoying Orange for those who remember YouTube in its infancy, Tangerine Scream was the name for the showcase colour of the third-generation Ford Focus ST.

No real complaints with this one, to be honest. It’s a cool colour, on a cool car, with a pretty cool name.

Plum Crazy

We could have written a whole list of just ‘weird car colour names Chrysler used throughout the ‘70s’, but that’s a less SEO-friendly headline. That and finding usable pictures of them all, and other things you don’t need to worry about as a website reader.

It helps that Plum Crazy is probably the coolest of the lot, though. Introduced in 1970 for the Dodge Challenger and Charger, this rich purple came out of retirement in 2006 for the Charger and has made numerous appearances since then.

Some Like it Hot

It’s not just the American brands that like to give brawny V8s more convoluted colour options. Holden offered Some Like It Hot for various Commodores over the years.

We’ll take ours on an HSV Clubsport R8 Tourer, please and thanks.

Green Hell

A slightly bizarre name that actually makes sense? Only the Germans.

Green Hell was offered on the Mercedes-AMG GT R, partly to describe the super-rich green shade but also as a nod to the real ‘Green Hell’, the Nürburgring Nordschleife, where the GT R was honed.

Papa Don’t Peach

Remember the Vauxhall Adam? No, we don’t really tend to either.

We could’ve listed its whole colour catalogue here, though, which was full of music-based puns. Papa Don’t Peach takes the cake for us, but other options included Saturday White Fever, Let It Blue and errr, Pump up the Blue?

Last Stand Custard

Ford makes another appearance on this list, this time with a colour from the ‘70s.

It’s hard to find much information on this simply via the internet, but the pale yellow certainly appeared on the Torino for a bit. It could be a pun on a 1914 film titled Colonel Custard’s Last Stand, itself a parody of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, but we can’t say for certain. Please do let us know if you have any more information.

DMZ

No, seriously. SsangYong briefly offered the Korando Sports pick-up truck in a camouflage paint finish called ‘DMZ’.

Especially considering it’s a South Korean brand, we’re not sure what they were thinking, either.

Vanilla Shake

The Kia Soul is not an exciting car. Especially not in beige.

We don’t blame Kia for trying to make it more interesting with Vanilla Shake. You tried, guys.

Norfolk Mustard

Norfolk is known for three things. Alan Partidge, mustard and Lotus. Combine two of those and you’ll get a Lotus Emira ‘Cock Piss Partridge’ Edition.

Wait, no, sorry. We mean you’ll get Norfolk Mustard, a shade of yellow offered primarily through the ‘90s for the Elise, Esprit and Elan.

John Mango

John Mango.