It depends on the green.




This is my previous car, a supercharged 1995 Buick Riviera. For it's 10th anniversary of being built I gave the car a new paintjob. I've spent many months of planning and research to find a color that accentuated the sporty character of the car but would be toned down and believeable as a factory color.

I knew I didn't want an acidic buggy green since I'm aware of resale values as a real estate agent. I tried for Ford's new Legend Lime that was offered on the newly introduced retro 2005 Mustangs. Since it was soo new, many paint shops did not have the paint code books for that model. I tried to find a color that was similar. I found this Kiwi Pearl Metallic from the Dodge Ram line. And as a bonus, this color was only offered for a 1-year run on the Rams making it unique and rare. I was extremely pleased with the results. The green has more of a creamy green look than the acidic, olive tone of the Legend Lime.

I decided to sell my love when it reached about 157k miles and I determined paying for repairs for a car with such high miles was just no longer worth it to me. So when I got the car mechanically sound and inspected I listed it.

The car sold for $2500. Much more than I expected since Ford quoted me $100 for a trade in value. I bought it for $4k, put about $2k into it, got 6 years of excellent reliabilty and service...and performance. $2500 was a fair price for all. The buyer was a big fan of Riviera in all of it's generations and bought the car for his daughter.

I have gotten soo many compliments on that car from people thinking it was a new model to people thinking it was an Jaguar XK8, and one girl thinking it was a Rolls Royce coupe(yeah, a stretch). Another girl in a brand new Mustang stopped me and asked me about it.

So from the pics above I can agree it is not for resale value. But there are many vibrant colors that actually promote the car in a positive light.


Currently, I have another 1995 Riviera as a winter beater. I am preserving my Crossfire until I can find one with high miles that I could use as a daily driver. The second Riviera only had 72k miles on it, and I bought it for $1300; so $2500 for my 157k mile Riv was a big deal for me. And I owe it all to the green paint.