I updated the OP, sorted the cars by lowest price first (since it's probably what people are looking for), corrected the grammar and spelling and added a few things myself.
Are you getting a bit tired with only having a narrow range of colours available?
By buying and selling a number of the least expensive cars, it is fairly easy to massively increase your stock of paint chips. This is a list of a few cheap cars in the dealerships that have a nice range of colours available.
Remember that if you subsequently sell the car, you get 30% of the sales price back.
Inexpensive Cars, with interesting colours, for sale for less than 40,000 Cr
Daihatsu Midget II D Type '98: 5,740 Cr - 6 colours including a metallic emerald green.
Toyota Vitz F '99/Toyota Yaris F (J) '99: 9,800 Cr - 7 interesting colours, including gold and a nice cyan.
Nissan March 12c 5 door '03: 10,950 Cr- 11 colours such as ''olives'', ''beans'' and ''lavender''.
Nissan MICRA '03: 10,950 Cr - 10 colours such as ''coral'', ''kiwi'' and ''shamrock''.
Suzuki Alto Lapin Turbo '02: 12,400 Cr- 9 colours including a nice strong yellow, 3 other colours are slightly unusual shades such as Lavender.
Daihatsu MOVE SR-XX 4WD '97: 12,590 Cr - 6 colours, including a nice red metallic and a nice blue metallic.
Honda FIT W '01: 12,600 Cr - 10 interesting colours such as ''coral'', ''kiwi'' and ''shamrock''.
Suzuki MR Wagon Sport '04: 12,800 Cr- 8 colours, 3 shades of blue, and a creamy yellow.
Ford Ka '01: 12,920 Cr - 11 colours, including a very bright yellow.
Hyundai Tiburon Turbulence '99: 14,080 Cr- 7 colours including a yellow Gold, deep orange and a nice green.
Mazda Demio Sport '03: 14,500 Cr- 13 colours, including a very nice orange, and a couple of slightly unusual shades.
Daihatsu Copen Detachable Top '02: 14,980 Cr- 8 colours.
Volvo 240 GLT Estate '88: 15,920 Cr - 14 colours.
Triumph Spitfire: 17,200 Cr - 10 colours, includes French Blue and a nice Java Green.
Opel Corsa Comfort 1.4 '01: 17,960 Cr - 14 colours including pink, green, blue etc…
Citroen C3 1.6 '02: 18,130 Cr - 12 colours including a nice Yellow/Gold.
Opel Tigra 1.6i '99: 29,140 Cr - Ananasgelb (maybe the brightest yellow that can be obtained cheaply?) and a few others.
Chevrolet El Camino SS 396 '67: 30,000 Cr - 15 colours.
Pontiac Firebird Trans Am '78: 30,000 cr - Select without the hood bird if you want the paint chip!
Lotus Europa: 30,000 Cr - 9 interesting colours including Lotus Yellow, Wedgewood blue.
Mini Cooper S '11: 30 300 Cr - 11 colours.This car is pretty much a selection of epic win colors, most of them are metallic!
Alfa Romeo 147 2.0 TS '02: 30,590 Cr - 14 colours, 10 are metallic, is Azzurro Nuvola Iridescente a colour shift?
Honda S2000 '01: 34,300 Cr - 13 nice colours including Lime Green Metallic, New Imola Orange Pearl.
Lotus Elise '96: 37,600 Cr - 12 nice colours including Deep Purple Metallic and Chrome Orange Metallic.
Honda 1300 Coupe 9 S '70 - 9 colours of which 2 or 3 are slightly unusual
Mid-priced Cars with interesting Paint Chips, cars that cost between 40,000 to 120,000 Credits
Lotus Elise '00: 41,060 Cr - 13 nice colours including Lava Orange, Lightning Yellow and Laser Blue.
Plymouth Superbird '70: 42,440 Cr - 28 colours available, including Vitamin C.
Opel Speedster '00: 44 690 Cr - 9 colours.Amazing blue Europablau (it's eye-burningly blue), Very bright yellow (gelb), neat shade of orange Mandarin, nice red (Rabiatarot).
Opel Speedster Turbo '00: 49 550 Cr - 12 colours.Pretty much the same selection as the normal Speedster but with a nice green LeMans-Grün, an interesting Colmarblau, it's a bit pinkish I believe. Unbelievably yellow Brilliantgelb.
Jaguar E-Type: 50,930 Cr - 17 colours, a few metallic, have a look at cream and Pearl Grey.
Plymouth Cuda 440 Six Pack '71: 58,360 Cr - 27 colours.
Dodge Challenger R/T '70: 75,000 Cr - 20 colours including Sublime Green.
Dodge Charger Super Bee 426 Hemi '71: 80,000 Cr - 29 colours. Lots of choices including: brown beige, green.
Ferrari Dino 246 GT '71: 90,000 Cr - 31 colours!
Honda NSX '97: 91,070 Cr - most of the colours are available on the cheaper S2000, however Phoenix Blue looks lovely.
Lotus Evora '09: 100,000 Cr - 20 colours, have a look at Isotope Green.
Ferrari 512 BB '76: 102,500 Cr - 25 colours including a nice gold and a deep purple.
Lotus Esprit V8 '02: 116,520 Cr - 13 great colours, including Lava Orange, Lightning Yellow and Laser Blue (many of these are available with the cheaper Elise '00).
Expensive Cars, those costing more than 120,000 Credits, but come with nice paint chips
Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG (R230) '02: 125 000 Cr - 15 colours such as the very nice white Alabasterweiß, the fine bronze Travertinbeige, Red Magmarot, Cherry Bernsteinrot, and the neat purple Jaspisblau.
Jaguar XKR Coupe '10: 155 000 Cr - 13 colours such as Red Salsa and the amazing Spectrum Blue Metallic.
Jaguar XKR-S '11: 175,000 Cr - 16 colours. Lots of nice dark colours.
Aside from its awesome French Racing Blue, it offers 2 nice black colors: Ultimate Black Metallic and Ebony.
Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary '88: 182,000 Cr - For a nice black (Nero Tenebre).
Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG '10: 197 620 Cr - 10 colours (2 matte chips!) Quite obviously, its gorgeous red AMG Le Mans rot, stunning blue Gran Turismo blau, matte silver designo magno alanitgrau and the bronze-ish matte AMG Monza grau magno.
Aston Martin V12 Vantage '10: 217,350 Cr - 22 colours, awesome Sunburst Yellow, interesting Madagascar Orange, cool Appletree Green
fantastic Midnight Blue, equally fantastic Mariana Blue, bad shades of black and silver.
Mercedes-Benz 300SL Coupe '54: 237 690 Cr - 9 colours such as the nice shade of blue Blaugrau.
Toyota FT-86 Concept '09: 300,000 Cr - Lime Green Pearl amongst other great colours.
Lexus LFA: 375,000 Cr - 30 colours including Matte Black.
Toyota FT-86 G Sports Concept '10: 500,000 Cr -(the one with the carbon bonnet) has 9 colour shifts available, but I guess you really got to want them!
If you want to add to the list of cars with good paint chips, use this template:
[Make] [Model] 'xx: xxx,xxx Cr - xx colours, [comment]
If you want to calculate the selling price of a car, use this formula:
(Selling price is S, original price is P)
(P : 100) x 30 = S
Car manufacturers with interesting paint chips:
Ferrari: Obviously the famous Ferrari red (Rosso Corsa)
Fiat: try the 500 R '72 for a nice bright blue (Turchese Farfalla), the 500 L '69 for a bright orange (Giallo Positano) and the Barchetta for a nice orange (Arancio).
MG: MGF and TF.
TVR: great for a range of colour shifts (The cheapest for these is the TVR Tamora at 70,940 Cr, you can choose from 21 colours including colour shifts).
Volkswagen: Try the Lupo 1.4 '02 with Fantasiagrün and softblue, also the New Beetle '00 with 11 colours, and the VW Golf GTi '01 with 14 colours are worth a look.
Suggested Paint Chips:
Black: Renault Avantime '02: 52,570 Cr - Noir Nocturne
Blue: BMW 120i/d Nautikblau is the best dark blue for BMWs, LCC Rocket has a very deep blue
Brown: Mitsubishi Lancer '74 in Aso Red for a nice chocolate brown
Grey:
Green: Isotope green from the Lotus Evora is awesome if you like Highlighter bright Yellow/Green
Orange: LCC Rocket has a rather nice orange (Pearl Orange),
Purple: Mini Cooper S '05 has a very nice purple called Black-Eye Purple Metallic. Both Nissan Skyline GTR Midnight Purple for 50,000 cr each
Red: The Chevrolet Nova has Black Cherry, or something like that. A dark metallic red.
White:
Yellow: Ananasgelb from the Opel Tigra 1.6i '99
For Matte Paint Chips:
Lexus LFA '10: Matte Black
Lamborghini Aventador: Nero Nemesis, Marone Apus and a white matte called Bianco Canopus
Mercedes SLS: AMG grau magno and designo magno alanitgrau grey (is Design Mysticweiss 2 also a matte white? probably not, please confirm!)
Toyota FT-86 Concept '09: Matte Black
For Colour Shifts:
Alfa Romeo: Azzurro Nuvola Iridescente
TVR Tamora (Tuscan, 350C, Cerbera also but they cost a little more)
Toyota FT-86 G Sports Concept '10: 9 colour shifts
Toyota FT-86 Concept '09: Chameleon Purple
To Check:
- Other '70s American Muscle Cars
- Check that the suggested paint chips are not available with a cheaper car
- Add details of the paint chips awarded with the seasonals
To Do:
- Add credits, for those who have made suggestions
- Credits are missing on the Honda 1300 Coupe 9 S '70 (how much does it cost?).
Please Help:
- For the brightest Yellow, try GT6 polarized 038 (how to get it? answers given below, it was an Anniversary paint), so what is the brightest yellow a non AE GT6 owner can get?
Try Ananasgelb from the Opel Tigra 1.6i '99 (updated above)
Also the Cizeta canary maybe even brighter, and it can be won from a prize car
Another post suggests: Giallo Modena and Dandelion Yellow are brighter/poppier.
- Zaphod2002 asked for a blue that matches his real world 2002. BMW calls it Fjord blue which is a blue with a bit of silver to paint his in game 2002.
- Does anyone know the brightest white and darkest black?
Black Raven from Cadillac is a seriously dark black
- Any other cars give colour shifts or matte paints? (see the lists above)
Tips:
- McLaren does not give paint chips.
- Racing cars do not give paint chips.
- Cars with stripes and unnamed colours do not give paint chips.
- Gold the seasonals for Chrome/Matte paint chips.
- Buy cars in colours you don't have (rather than choosing the preferred colour you already have which wastes the opportunity of building your collection, you can repaint most cars).
- There are cases of paint chips having the same name, but are different shades, or even different colours!
- When looking at colours, don't go by the small preview, often it is nothing like the actual shade (and sometimes not even the colour) of the paint chip.
I have updated the title, to encourage people to share their favourite paint chips, please state the name of the paint chip, and how others can get it. Thank you!
I expect, that requests for particular colours, or information regarding paint chips will be welcome, and am sure that responses will be forthcoming!
Thank you to all those who have made suggestions:
TheAdmiester, eSZee, KWZX10, grog, Zaphod2002, TopGearFTW, nickg07, TheeFrogmanlego, dixonbaps, ProjectWHaT, ZDUPH, pk3r72owns, DaveTheStalker, Mercury1, Aobrienm5, NICKname, Steve Mcqueen, Nurburgthing, matticus88, MuoNiuLa, goukipau, raven214, HuskyGT, Hermanvongerman, shoeboy4, NJ72, Madertus, MadCyclist, JogoAsobi, eran0004,
Please be patient, I will update this, apologies if I have brain fade and miss someone!