Last week we asked you to imagine the worst car color combination. You came up with so many amazing responses of production cars with catastrophic color choices, we've used them to compile a top ten list of the best of the worst. Hit the jump to for the ten worst production car color combinations and see how far we've come since Henry Ford famously told customers they could have the Model A in any color so long as it was black. Also vote for your worst choice in the poll at the end.
10. Mark 3 VW Golf Harlequin
Colors: Blue, Red, Yellow And Green
Our Take: While we love the Harlequin VW Golf, we don't blame Logruszed for nominating it as an awful color combination. Both awesome and awful, they're not a mix of colors you particularly want to see on a car (red, green and yellow do not mix). On the cute Golf, it almost works... almost. [Photo: Wiki]
9. 1992 Dodge Viper
Colors: Mustard And Ketchup
Our Take: The color most associated with the original run of the Dodge Viper is red with another color, typically silver. For some reason that may or may not involve a product tie-in with McDonalds, a few vipers were sold with red bodies and yellow accents/wheels. These mustard and ketchup Vipers make nurburgringer want to hit the special sauce. [Photo: Aspnerd]
8. 1970's Esprit Firebirds
Colors: Sky Blue, Dark Blue And White
Our Take: The special edition Esprit Firebirds of the late 1970's each represent a different part of the late 70s ugly color pallet. SpeedWagon selected the sky blue, dark blue and white Sky Bird version as the ugliest. Though the Acapulco Gold accents of the Red Bird make a good case for awful, the Sky Bird manages to corrupt colors we already like in a very Malaise fashion.[FirebirdTransAmParts.com]
7. Any Model Year Honda Element
Colors: Any Color Plus Ugly Plastic
Our Take: If you thought all the bad colors came from the Nixon and Carter administrations, Tanshanomi offers up the very millennial Honda Element. The feature that made the Element most recognizable, though not in a good way, was the significant amount of plastic cladding around the front and rear of the car. It looked awful. Maybe it was because it wasn't event spread across the car, or maybe it was because ugly plastic combined with Galapagos Green Metallic, Shoreline Mist and Sunset Orange Pearl. Either way, it was so bad that they eventually relented and offered painted body panels as an option.
6. 1977 Ford Pinto Cruising Wagon
Colors: Silver, Orange, Blue, Yellow And Brown
Our Take: As if the indignity of driving around in a Ford Pinto wasn't great enough, those blue oval folks gave customers a chance to die a horrific death in a port-holled Wagon version with a brown, blue and orange rainbow over silver and black paint. Maybe death was preferable to being seen in one, eh Tanshanomi?
5. 1998 Indy 500 Corvette Pace Car
Colors: Purple, Gold And White
Our Take: Unless you're an LSU Tigers fan, the 1998 Indy 500 Pace Car is mostly unlovable. We tend to agree with Smallyxb122 that, unless it's Mardi Gras, purple is already a danger zone. Add gold and white into the mix, plus a black top, and what you end up with is a pace car that no one wants to follow.
4. 1978 Ford Pinto Wagon
Colors: Woodgrain And Red
Our Take: It's a testament to the era and a testament to the strangeness of people working in Dearborn in the 1970s that different versions of Pinto wagons make up 20% of our top- ten list. Woodgrain paneling barely works on any car made after 1956 so combining it with a disco-era color palette is a recipe for disaster. Tanshanomi found a few more examples of wood-paneled monsters, but the wood and red Pinto wagon makes us think this car was only driven by a gentler Illinois Nazi.
3. 1991 Dodge Stealth Pace car
Colors: Pink And Pea Green
Our Take: The Dodge Stealth was already a stranger Mitsubushi 3000GT, meaning that it didn't need any help pushing it over into unattractive territory. Unfortunately, automakers had a habit of throwing all aesthetic decency when designing commemorative pace cars for the CART PPG Indy Car World Series. This pink and metallic pea soup version discovered by MarionCobretti is wonderfully bad. Nevertheless, the few Dodge Stealth pace cars produced are part of racing history and have been on the auction block recently. [PHX Graphix]
2. 1997 Mercedes SL500 LaCosta Special Edition
Colors: Aqua, Black, And Silver
Our Take: Mercifully, only 30 of these "LaCosta Special Edition" Mercedes SL500s were produced. Intended to commemorate Mercedes hosting a golf event at the LoCosta spa, DSLPWR could have bought one of these convertibles for just $5K over sticker. The color choices are phenomenal consider how conservative Mercedes usually is: calypso green paint on the outside, black and calypso seats (they look aqua), silver wheels and eucalyptus wood inserts. Just... wow. [OurSl.com]
1. 1996 Mystic Ford Mustang Cobra
Colors: Green And Purple
Our Take: Given all the special edition Mustangs out there, is it a surprise a Mustang Cobra topped the list? Because the Mustang Cobra wasn't special enough in 1996, the company released the "Mystic" edition, which featured a BASF-designed paint that color shifted from green to purple to gold to freaking ROOT BEER! Only 2,000 were built, though each represents a new twist on awful color combinations. If you find that you start to like the colors, just move a few feet over and it's an entirely new combo to hate. Brilliant Braff![The Mustang Source]
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