2020 Ford Mustang Ecoboost Premium
Stock No: 25080815 VIN: 1FATP8UH9L5126071
Means a lot to me when readers and fellow unicorn snipers email special cars to me, although when this one showed up in my inbox it gave me pause. But a reader who goes by Cannon G (how cool is that?) wrote me last week, “Hi Chuck. Hope you are doing well. I came across this color combo and had to share it with you. Is there a worse color spec than this car? It reminds me of the Metallic Pea station wagon in National Lampoons Vacation – Cannon.” He had a point. I night call it the color of a sinus infection.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder (I didn’t make that up) and to this beholder, it’s an ugly car. That said, on every car forum or Facebook page I belong to, when someone says a car is ugly someone else says they kinda like it. And I’m the guy who loved my 1977 AMC Spirit and 1986 Merkur XR4ti, so who am I to judge? And that led me to make the offer to invite anyone and everyone to send me what you think is an ugly CarMax unicorn!
Stock No: 23911908 VIN: WP1AA2AY5LDA10021
As a bonus, Cannon also sent me the 2020 Porsche Cayenne above. Got a chuckle out of his email. “Here is another wonky color combo. Silver/ light blue? with metallic rose gold racing stripes added. One mirror rose gold and the other silver. With acid yellow brake calipers as the cherry on top. Who would do this?” I didn’t even notice the two different mirrors at first! I’ve searched the web and cannot find any references to the significance this color scheme.
So I made a brief search for my own ugly unicorns. As you can see below, most CarMax cars are black gray, brown or white on the outside and black or white on the inside. Intrigued by the seven green interiors and the handful of purple exteriors and started poking around the website.
What I found was a whole lot of cars that were not the color identified by CarMax. I don’t know whether the cars were identified in documentation or CarMax is using some sort of AI to visually choose the colors, but many are wrong. Most “orange” and “green” interiors are really brown or tan.
2019 Dodge Charger R/T Scat Pack
Stock No: 25419669 VIN: 2C3CDXGJ8KH563390
The Dodge Charger above popped up as a “Purple” car, although I’m seeing more blue than purple. Just me? The yellow stripes, yellow wheels, and yellow air intakes in the grill caught my eye. However, it’s an example of an “eye of the beholder” car – on my bolder days I could actually see myself tooling around Virginia in this! Big ole’ V-8 motor matches the brash exterior. (Unfortunately, the car has a unique crash history, too. Have never seen a more wrecked car at CarMax! See below.)
Back to ugly cars. The 2023 Toyota bZ4X XLE below, I found to be ugly (or cute?) with its racoon like face, with an ugly name to match. How do you pronounce it? “Bee-zee-four-ex-ex-ell-eee”? “Bee-zee-4”? No idea if it’s a good car – the packaging don’t work for me, but then again, I’m probably not the demographic Toyota is looking for anyway. They want to sell me an Avalon.
Stock No: 24120100 VIN: JTMAAAAA7PA002198
Below we have a true orange interior in a Camaro, and below that what CarMax identifies as a green interior in a Honda, although it doesn’t look green at all to me.
Stockno: 25439567 VIN: WP1AA2A57KLB00586
Finally, I tried to find some oddballs with the same exterior and interior colors. Best I could do was orange inside and out on the Volvo (although it’s more copper or brown, to me) and yellow all over the Chevy Spark. Can you really have too much yellow on a car, though? I think not.
I’ll stop there. Welcome any ugly car colors, trim packages, or appearances that puzzle you. Thanks again for reading, and thanks Cannon!
Oh my, those are unfortunate.
I’m sure their mothers tell them they are beautiful.
The interiors are nice (aka “pretty on the inside”?)