[noopster]

I've been toying with this thread idea for a while now and today got spurred to action when I saw a reiew of a "sand drift grey" car on the forums. It led me to ponder on that question we have all asked ourselves at some point: why do car makers think of such outlandish names for the colours they sell their cars in?

So idly scouted around some of the Indian manufacturers' websites today and collected some samplings of the kind of monickers they thrust upon those unfortunate vehicles. Mind you: the name is printed forever on the registration smart card as well, so it's not like your Foxtrot Azure Punto can hop over to the nearest district magistrate when he attains adulthood to change his name to "Blue" or something like that. Nope- this stays with poor F.A. Punto till his dying day!

Notable exceptions in my scoutings include Maruti and Tata: their websites didn't have "Colours" as a link and I didn't fancy the thought of gong through each of their microsites scouting for names. Please add to these with your comments.

Also, I realise that a lot of research and Marketing rupees go into the colour-naming exercise, so no offence intended to anyone- t's not my intention to belittle the efforts of that smart yuppie who burned the midnight oil thinking up "Carbon Flash" for the Chevy Captiva. Please treat this thread with the right amount of good humour it demands and if necessary, may it be moved to the "Shifting Gears" section!

Alright, without much ado, here are some of my favourites :

1. Worst name for any shade of white: Bossa Nova White (Fiat). It's a DANCE for crying out loud! My own Vento's "Candy White" makes me cringe enough, but this takes the cake. Along with "Flamenco Red" and "Foxtrot Azure", makes up the unrelated-genre-inspired hall of fame. Not to forget "Hip Hop Black"- yeah sure, Jay Z rides around in one.
2. Worst name for any shade of beige/gold: Linen Beige (Chevrolet). You can't wash this car- dry clean only please, soft iron.
3. Worst name for any shade of black: Black Diamond (Hyundai): Must the i10 be so posh? The humble Accent goes simply by "Diamond Black".
4. Worst namers of Blue in the world: Volkswagen: Shadow Blue, Heaven Blue, Laser Blue, Blue Graphite, Blue in the Face (OK I made up the last one). What happened to good old "Dark", "Light" and "Sky"?
5. Miscellanous howlarious hues awardees: Super Red (Chevrolet- ran out of adjectives?), White Diamond (Chevy again- IT"S NOT EVEN WHITE! It's a kind of beige/gold, Purple Fantasi (Hyundai- extra mark deducted for the misspelling)
6. Mahatma Gandhi "Simple Living High Thinking Award" to: (jointly) VW for calling their Beetle Black (as opposed to "Deep Black" for the other models; and Hyundai for calling their dark grey (gasp!) "Dark Grey"

[DRIV3R]

Good one.

Let me add what comes to my mind now!

Squeeze for that weird green color by Ford.

BTW, Chevy's Diamond White is not beige/gold but Ivory White or Off White actually.

[msdivy]

My car color is 'Galaxy Grey'. Later, it was replaced with same color but with slightly different shade. I guess it was called 'Carbon Bronze Pearl'. With either name you had to see it know the color.

[libranof1987]

One helluva analysis!

I guess Maruti has pretty simple names then : Pearl Silver, Superior White etc.

Even Opel has very straightforward names for line-up. A Silver is just Silver!

The adjectives for each colour seem to be quite a marketing gimmick : making customers feel the colour of their car is a result of a century-old effort! Even the manufacturers want to spice it up!

I wonder how the RTO guys reach when they see a "Foxtrot Azure" Punto.. "yeh gaadi kya bahaar se aya hai kya, aisa colour mereko malum nahi hai?"

[DRIV3R]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

I guess Maruti has pretty simple names then : Pearl Silver, Superior White etc.

Well, Maruti has Pearl White and Silky Silver for white and silver in their color line-up.

[swiftnfurious]

Maruti has a color - "sunlight copper" ! I could never relate to this color with the words. Worser, when I booked my Bright red Swift, the executive asked me "which red" do I need? I said there is only one RED for swift and this guy responds, "No Sir, Swift has two red shades, 1. Bright Red & 2. Sunlight Copper" !! Getz used to have 2 red shades, Brick Red & Bright Red. And one of the most "stylish" shades I have heard of is "Cocktail Green" for Beat.

[Gooney]

Funny that you had to start this thread A couple of days back I was reading on the new Porsche GT3 RS 4 which comes only in white and guess what's the name of that color - Carrara (not a typo) White!

Carrara is a kind of marble which can be a dull white. It’s not the same color as found on real racing Porsches. The traditional Porsche white is “Grand Prix White”, which is a bright, single-stage finish. Neckarsulm-painted Porsches, such as the 944, could be had in the Audi “Alpine White” color.

Source: The Truth About Cars

[bluevolt]

I guess Honda keeps things innovative when they name their color. For example consider the habanero Red Pearl color, now habanero is actually a variety of chilly capsicum. They have prepared same red color that of the habanero red chili and thus they call the color as Habanero Red Pearl.

Taffeta means crisp, fine and clean and thus well suited for white color. Alabaster is sort of some mineral in silver color and thus the name Alabaster Silver comes.

I like the way they name colors as they have some detailed background to back the names.

[blackasta]

Originally Posted by noopster

Worst name for any shade of black: Black Diamond (Hyundai): Must the i10 be so posh? The humble Accent goes simply by "Diamond Black".

Well the i10 used the 'stone black' (I have this one) and now uses 'thunder black' - not sure where you picked up the 'black diamond'.

The stone black name is totally justified as the black has this sparking mica like particles. Not sure about whats so thundery in the thunder black (haven't seen one with my own eyes)- ode to thums up perhaps

[noopster]

Originally Posted by DRIV3R

Let me add what comes to my mind now!

Squeeze for that weird green color by Ford.

Nice! Fiat's similar weird shade was "Fern Green" (on the Palio). THe popular greenish-sliver on the Santro used to be "Forest Dew".

BTW, Chevy's Diamond White is not beige/gold but Ivory White or Off White actually.

Is it? My bad. I've never seen it myself, but that's what a Pashankar Auto exec told me, straight-faced, "White Diamond is not actually white, sir. It's like beige, gold type..."

@blackasta- You're right. It's actually the Santro Xing that calls it "Black Diamond" (http://www.hyundai.com/in/en/Showroo...825214237.html)

[//M]

Hyundai calls the light golden hue as "Real Earth" and Figo has colors like Squeeze, Coral, etc. The colors on the new Fiats are also weird, though they sound cool. Foxtrot Azure, Tuscan Wine, Bossa Nova White, Hip Hop Black, etc.

Nice thread btw !!

[noopster]

Blast from the Past: My family's 1986 Premier Padmini was a nice greenish-grey dubbed "Albina" (don't ask!). The '93 upgrade we got on the same model was off-white but its spec sheet said "Pale Lilac"! So it seems this affliction dates back to when we had but 2 cars to choose from

[dot]

My Ikon was "Denim Blue" in color. It is actually called Octane Blue in other Ford international models. However I thought both "octane blue" and "denim blue" names had some motion (the speed kind, not the other kind) in them.

I think most of these names are self-patting marketing gimmicks which only amuses the sales and marketing folks at OEMs. Can you imagine that a haberno red color will tilt your choice to a Honda just because VW does not have the name or the shade.

Thanks to my recent paintjob exposure, I learnt that color mixes of Skoda, VW and Honda are most difficult to reproduce. Maruti, Tata and Hyundai shades are easiest to formulate.

[IQBAL VEERJI]

In 1965 we got a brand new amby mark 2 it had a light green colour ,name of that shade was VALLEY GREEN.
Then IN 1977 I got a second hand Standard Herald and got it painted in SEBRING WHITE and GROTTO BLUE.
In 1980 we got a new Amby mark2 it had DUSTEXAA (LIGHT GREY).
In seventies Bajaj 150 scooter had a deep green colour VERT JADE.
Maruti had a colour for 800 and 1000 cc cars GERMAN RED.

[Fuldagap]

Then there is this 'Tuscan Wine'(named after Toscana wine from Tuscanny region in central Italy) from Fiat. The colour does stand out.