For ages now, the car industry has frequently been one of partnership. Think Ford and Multimatic, Mercedes-McLaren, and DaimlerChrysler. Alright, so not all partnerships work out, but some really do. For years now, Mazda has partnered with Toyota, and the latest development on the Mazda side of that partnership is the use of Toyota’s hybrid system in the CX-50 crossover. However, just as Mazda is borrowing one of Toyota’s greatest assets, it’d only be fair for Toyota to borrow one of Mazda’s. No, it’s not the entire MX-5, but it is something important to Mazda’s brand identity.
Indeed, Toyota lays it out in the press release for the 2025 Corolla Cross. Now, we normally wouldn’t report on minor model changes that don’t involve new styling or powertrains, mostly because we prefer to write about diesel particulate filters that look like butts and other, more interesting bits of trivia, but something jumped off the page here. In the words of Toyota:
Available on the gas LE and XLE, and Hybrid SE and XSE grades, Soul Red Crystal is exclusive to the Corolla Cross model in the Toyota lineup. On the Corolla Cross Hybrid SE, XSE, and Nightshade models, Soul Red Crystal can be paired with a Jet Black Roof for a stylish two-tone combination.
Wait a second. Soul Red Crystal is a popular Mazda color, and one of the best shades of red currently offered in the industry. Since the Toyota Corolla Cross and Mazda CX-50 roll out of the same plant in Alabama, are we actually talking about the exact same shade that’s Mazda’s signature?
Actually, yes. A Toyota spokesperson has confirmed that it is indeed the exact same color. As per Toyota’s official statement, “Adding Soul Red Crystal to the color pallet gives us this opportunity due to our partnership with Mazda at our joint plant, Mazda Toyota Manufacturing (MTM) in Huntsville, AL.” Seems like it was more or less a case of bringing a color from one assembly line onto another.
Compared to most other factory colors, Soul Red Crystal is a bit complicated. Evolved out of the previous Soul Red iteration, it features a basecoat, a translucent tintcoat, and a top clearcoat. As Mazda stated when the color launched in 2016:
The new paint’s translucent layer features a newly developed highly saturated red pigment for a richer red. In addition to high-brilliance, extremely thin aluminum flakes, the reflective coat features light-absorbing flakes that intensify shaded areas and make it possible to achieve a depth of color that previously required two layers.
We’re talking about Mazda’s calling card here, a proprietary color that just about every new Mazda of the past eight years debuted in, now being rolled out across the Toyota Corolla Cross lineup. It seems like the sort of thing that’s hard to give up, but with new shades like Polymetallic Gray and Artisan Red, Mazda seems more willing to share the joy.
It’s safe to say that this will make the Corolla Cross’ color palette more vibrant, and it isn’t the first time a color has been shared across manufacturers. It actually happens more often than you’d think, except you likely wouldn’t know about it if you weren’t a nerd.
For example, Porsche has this program called Paint To Sample where, for the price of your firstborn, you can choose from an extended palette of colors, so long as you can get an allocation. Where does Porsche pluck all those shades from? Well, while some of them are heritage colors, some are essentially borrowed from other brands. Take Grigio Campovolo, for example. It’s a take on a historic Fiat color. Likewise, Carbon Black Metallic is a BMW color, as is San Marino Blue.
On the other side of the court, BMW’s Individual program lets in-the-know customers choose from a huge number of colors. How about Porsche’s Miami Blue, or Porsche’s Ruby Star, or even Ferrari’s Rosso Corsa, why not? So long as you have money to blow, the world is your oyster when it comes to paint.
However, Toyota offering Soul Red Crystal on the Corolla Cross is noteworthy, because this doesn’t normally happen with mainstream manufacturers on standard-order colors. So now, if you see a Soul Red Crystal 2025 Corolla Cross in the wild, you’ll be able to share some interesting trivia with whoever’s around.
(Photo credits: Toyota, Porsche, BMW)
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I spoke with my body shop guy when this color was first released and his comment was that we’re deep into $10k optional colors (quality, type and whatnot) at luxury manufacturers there. He was wondering how Mazda is able to pull it off at that price at all.
Mazda’s red is definitely a beautiful paint and finish. It looks less so on this overly plasticky Toyota.
A bit off topic, but I wish Toyota had named the Corolla Cross the Matrix instead. The Corolla hatchback is noticeably a Corolla, but not so for the Cross. One of the things I love about my old Matrix is its usefulness using a wagon-hatch body.
Soul Red on my 2018 Mazda 3 is beautiful, but it does suffer from metamerism on some plastic parts – the rear spoiler and door handles noticeably. I’ve considered having the spoiler wrapped in black satin, topping it with the OEM add-on spoiler, or replacing it with something different (like a Racing Bees Z-Style wing).
“As per Toyota’s official statement, “Adding Soul Red Crystal to the color pallet…”
Ugh, this kills me every time I see it.
Palette – a range of colors, or a board used to hold an artist’s paint
Pallet – wooden platform you use with a forklift to carry cargo
Palate – the roof of your mouth or talent in tasting wine or preferences in food
All pronounced the same, but very different words and meanings.
They just have one pallet of paint cans at any given time, and they just tossed a can of Soul Red on there. The paint has a nice mouthfeel and licking it off the palette is pleasing to my palate.
My only question is “How long will it last?”
I don’t even want that fade to happen for a good ten years.
Sure, some of that requires me not to park it in the sun/wind and to detail it every X months (could someone please provide a professionally advised X?).
My 20+ year old car is finally getting the major flakes, i.e., no paint at all in spots, and I have to decide whether to wrap or paint or dump.
Mazda also shares their Jet Black Mica, Wind Chill Pearl (white) and Cypress (green) with the Corolla Cross.
wind chill pearl is a a toyota color available on the cx-50 only. Jet black mica is mazda color , cypress is a toyota color.
In typical Toyota fashion, they’ll produce about 5 of these for the US market and any time you look at dealer inventory it’ll just be gray and white cars.
Toyota makes what they sell and they don’t allow customer orders to spec. So if they sell all the grey and white, why paint a color? It’s a chicken and egg situation and Toyota is the chicken farmer.
I just say this as a frustrated shopper who specs a nice blue with brown interior Toyota/Lexus and then casts a 500 mile net to see if one is actually in inventory somewhere only to come up empty in a sea of gray with black leather vehicles. So either they don’t make very many blues, or they get sold immediately.
It drives me crazy that brown and lighter shade interiors are impossible to find. Some automakers don’t even offer anything other than black! It has taken a few cars off my list over the years! I really hate black interiors! Just so dour and dark.
Yeah, Honda is one of them. Black, maybe gray if you are lucky. I really don’t want another car with a black interior.
Oh I know. Same thing with manuals. How many would spec a manual but settle with an auto? What’s the point of even offering it if it’s not feasibly available.
toyota sells to 3 us distributors who order / pay for ALL of the cars. dealerships buy from the distributors and they get what they get. dealers have limited choice on options / trim and no choice on color. So while Toyota will let you spec your own options on their website the likelihood of you configuring a car with a set of options that will never existed is quite high!
Toyota is the very worst about this. Getting a damn Toyota in a color around here is seemingly impossible. And it sucks because they have a couple of pretty great colors that exist in theory, but rarely in practice.
Those Toyota press photos are god awful.
Right? Never supposed to look at a car in the dark or in the rain to buy, yet here they are with photos of this brilliant color in the dark, in the rain. They already scratch this one?
Awful.. glad I’m not the only one to think so. Their graphics team should be put in the dog house for approving these images for release.
You joke about the MX-5 going to Toyota, but Mazda lost out on Fiat as a partner for the Miata, and Toyota is talking about adding a Celica back to the lineup……
Mazda’s been using some Toyota colors on the CX-50 coming out of the same plant, like the pearl white metallic (which isn’t the same as Mazda’s snowflake white pearl). I’m actually pretty sure Mazda’s Zircon Sand is related to another Toyota paint color as well.
But the biggest thing is when Toyota will finally unveil a Lexus using the Mazda-developed inline six, considering they bankrolled part of its development.
Now, Toyota just needs some actual soul to go with my favorite color.
I don’t know what it’s called, but I also like the darker red that I’ve seen on the CX-90. I’m too practical and drive too many miles for these kinds of layered paints, though.
artesian red and i like that one a lot too!
Mazda’s paint really is top notch. My CX-30 is Polymetal Gray, Dad’s ND is Machine Gray Metallic, and I know several people with Soul Red Crystal cars, and they are all really fun colors that do such cool things with different lighting conditions. I’m normally a big grayscale hater, but PMG is more blue than gray, and Machine Gray Metallic has all the depth, highlights, and lowlights of SRC but is more subtle than a bright red.
I’m curious to see how the corolla cross looks in SRC in person, since the fun of Mazda’s paints is that it really plays well with the compound curves in their design language, which the Corolla Cross is… lacking. Either way, seems like a win for everyone. Soul Red Crystal is amazing and should be available on all the cars.
Almost top notch. I don’t know if they lay it on particularly thin on the MX-5 or what, but the SRC on mine chipped if you looked at it funny. Pretty common complaint in the forums as well.
Yeah that’s what I see a lot of comments about online. Top notch in appearance, and certainly in repair complexity if you have to blend or match. Still, I can stare at any of the three colors I listed all day, they’ve just got so much character and really add to the styling. Really don’t know of any current Mazda colors I dislike beyond the basic black metallic, and they keep adding new ones that are neat like Aero Gray and Artisan Red. Heck, even Zircon Sand looks decent on everything that isn’t a Miata.
Is this car in production? because I swear I saw one this morning. It was dark and I though “something is weird about that” Thought it was Soul Red, but it was a Toyota. I thought it looked weird because of the reflective quality
Yeah, but no amount of Soul Red will make the Corolla an interesting or stylish design.
This.
Yeah, the CX-50 with the Toyota hybrid system seems to make it the easy pick for a smaller crossover in Soul Red unless pricing is way off.
That orange on the Bimmer looks really cool. Looks like “Hemi Orange”.
The color news is really great, as the CUV market would benefit from it, but I feel like I’m missing the half of the story where Mazda reveals what they’re doing with the Toyota hybrid system. Very much looking forward to seeing what the folks at Mazda can do with it.
There’s no revealing needed; as mentioned it’s used in the CX-50 Hybrid. And not the first time Mazda has had Toyota hybrid tech as the old Tribute Hybrid, by way of being a rebadged Ford Escape, was using the eCVT made by Aisin, Toyota’s powertrain subsidiary.
Ah, I missed that right at the beginning. Still hoping for more, since Mazda has a way of making vehicles that are more exciting than Toyota.
The 2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid Borrowed The Toyota RAV4s’ Heart To Get 38 MPG, But That Brought Big Compromises – The Autopian
Hopefully the crystal is better than the OG soul red, my 2015 soul red paint was so thin and chipped far too easily.
100% agree. I have Soul Red Metallic on my 2017 Mazda6 and it is the weakest paint I have ever seen. If you look at it sideways, some will flake off. Maybe it’s meant to split my ire between the paint, the ghost touch infotainment screen, and the clear coat on the dark tinted wheels that decided to flee for no apparent reason.
I didn’t know this was a problem. I had a 2014 6 in Soul Red, and it never gave me any issues. Such a beautiful color in the sun.
Nope. If you get an SRC Miata, your first stop when you leave the dealership should be a PPF installation.
Seems like an even trade to me.
In other paint news, Mazda is offering a lovely green color on the non-Meridian and non-hybrid CX-50s for 2025, and I suspect it’s a Toyota color (looks similar to the green on the Sienna).
It’s making it that much harder to resist buying one.
Yay! The best paint color is spreading to new manufacturers! Now if they put it on the sporty corolla…
It is indeed a great color.
However you definitely don’t want to scratch it, as it’s relatively delicate. Not as thin and crummy as Honda and Subaru’s paints, but it’s one where you want to park away from any situation that might lead to door dings, and especially don’t drive through areas where branches can and will gouge the paint. We had to repaint my mom’s CX-5’s driver’s door after the neighbors of their shared alleyway didn’t trim their bushes and they dug into the door as she was trying to maneuver around them.
I’ve heard it’s not necessarily the fragility that’s the problem, but the complexity of the transluscent layer that makes paint matching a nightmare. I’ve heard several counts of ND owners with SRC cars get them totaled due to the paint cost, while any other Mazda color would have been fixed. It really is an incredible color.
Paint matching is difficult, yes. We used the factory touch-up kit and it took care of the scratches, but they looked so much like scars that it just didn’t suit the newness of the car. Hence the repaint. The shop did a good job but it definitely took them a while.