The 2018 BMW M5 Brings Back Color And Life Just Got A Little Better

I’ve been complaining about the glum, pervasive monochrome-tyranny of car colors in America (and much of the world), and just when I’ve almost given up hope that my son will ever see a modern car in some color other than Totalitarian Gray or Ennui White, the 2018 BMW M5 gets a whole candy-coated wonderland. Hot damn.

The new BMW M5, while only available in one main configuration, offers what BMW calls an “Individual Program” that lets you chose from a much greater array of colors. And these are actual colors, not a slightly greenish taupe or a blue-cast on a gray that passes for color for so many carmakers.

Look at these colors—they have names like Purple Silk, Long Beach Blue, Java Green, and, in a strange case of chromatic cross-pollination, Ferrari Red.

I wonder if that’s ever happened before, a carmaker naming a color for another carmaker? I mean, I know you can get German cars in British Racing Green and all that, but this BMW is painted Ferrari Red. I wonder if they can do a SEAT Bocanegra Green for me, too?

Look, BMW can call these colors Mitsubishi Mirage Blue or even Maybe You Should See A Doctor Stools Orange or whatever they want. I’m just delighted to see real, vivid, unafraid colors, and I think the new M5 looks fantastic in them.