Painting a car. Color help please!

[nuisance26]

~Ok, our 2000 minivan runs fine but has always been outside. The rust is starting to become too obvious so I want to have it painted. DH has a friend at Maaco so we should be able to get it done for about $400. We're calling it our mother's and father's day gifts this year.
Now for the dilemma, what color to choose?
My original thought was to cover the original dark green(about the only color I can't stand!) with navy blue. But there are a million blue minivans. I love navy blue but it seems so dull. If we're going to paint it why not choose a truly awesome and maybe not so "safe choice" color?
DH's car is a great crayon orange. I wouldn't want something very crayon colored for the van because the two cars together would look silly. A boy has to ride in the van so it can't be too girly or pastel. An I don't want a dangerous color like gray or silver.
Does anyone have a super awesome color suggestion for me? Please post a "swatch" picture if you can.~

[Ponderer]

I am just curious as to why gray and silver are dangerous? Is it due to the opinion of low visibility?

[Momto5RN]

what about a medium pearl metallic type of blue
i am confused about the silver and gray comment too
cop across the street from us his whole family has silver cars because they show/ reflect better in dark and snow . i would think a plain dark color would be more dangerous than a metallic

[Momto5RN]

found this
Car Colours, from Safest to Most Dangerous


white (safest)
pink
maroon
yellow
blue
cream
mauve
red
green
gold
brown
fawn
silver
orange
grey
black (most dangerous)

but what if u lived in a snowy region i would think white would be dangerous .

i can tell you my burgandy crv and dark blue mini van got the most door dings - any metallic car i had even gunmetal gray didnt get dinged as much . no idea why hellooo you are right next to the car and cant see it when you open your door .

my dh always drives black cars only way we can get away with the civics looking sport enough to pass as similar to more $$ type cars for his job is in black

[Ceashels]

I think this would be good:

[Libby]

I am just curious as to why gray and silver are dangerous? Is it due to the opinion of low visibility?

I find this to be true in areas with plenty of low visibility/fog. Especially moreso with those that do not have day time running lights or don't turn on their driving lights until its really dark vs during times of low visibility. But thats just me.

nuisance - my suggestion: a deep crimson red, not bright red and not burgundy/brown. I think Chrysler calls it 'inferno red'.

[MaryCarney]

Too bad about the orange. My last car was a deep, metallic orange called 'sunburst' and the thing I loved about it was how easily I could pick it out in a parking lot.

[Kitten20]

I think I would do a bright blue ("electric") or maybe a deep plum color.

[khaski]

One question- are you going to run this into the ground, then off to the junk yard? Or sell it prvate sale someday? Or trade it in? Your future plans for the car should be taken into consideration- a funky color may make it harder to sell, or get you less if you trade it in (but if it's off to the junk yard, who cares?).

Living down a looong dirt drive over the years, I have decided I will ony drive silver cars as long as we live here- shows the dirt much less! How about a lighter green of some sort?

[NicJean]

My first thought is blue - an intense electric - but against that orange one - Hellooo, Broncos fans??? I think a springy/lime green would be fun, and a bit funky. But here I sit with a white truck, a cobalt truck, and a fire engine red truck - what do I know? Oh, never realized before that we've got the makings of a Fourth of July parade. . . oh geez.

[monkeywrangler71]

What! You don't want a silver minivan! Don't you enjoy long aimless walks around parking lots? Or having distracted strangers get into your vehicle, look at you and say 'oops'?

I definitely have trouble seeing black cars, they just look like empty space. I always notice white cars but I think that is more psychological conditioning than a vision thing; police cars are white, so all white cars put me into alert mode.

[nuisance26]

~Miss the Thanks button! You guys are making me laugh. The Muppet van, strangers hopping in my car and making me realize that navy blue is definitely out. Hubby roots for the Tigers baseball team, orange and navy blue, um no! Orange and black is out too, the Flyers.
I have a hard time seeing gray and silver cars and the studies have been redone and they aren't as safe as the study in 1970 said.
Right now I'm liking "sundried tomato" (close to but not as 1980's as maroon) but I'm not fond of it with DH's bright orange.

I really love deep turquoise but it might be too garish on a minivan.

I think deep purple would look fantastic but I'm not a purple fan.
We'll be running this into the ground, but that is a good point to consider if we were not. Thanks!
I'm not a big green fan unless it's Irish emerald or jadeite but this would be a nice choice I think:
.
We painted our shed this color and I like it for houses. Greenish with a touch of khaki is a cozy color to me but still maybe too "safe choice". Is it visible enough? ~

[nuisance26]

~This is hubby's car btw:

And, if you were following my earlier post about selling it, we did decide to run it into the ground as well and enjoy the luxury of two cars a little longer.~

[stinkbug]

I always thought those cheap Maaco paint jobs were limited colors. Have you checked to see what they give you for a choice. Metallic paint is very $$$.

[nuisance26]

~Maaco is an auto body repair shop so they have to be able to match any color. They fixed hubby's car and matched the orange paint perfectly.
They probably have a book of colors to choose from and I would just get the closest to my swatch.~