When it comes to buying a car, colour might not play a huge part in your decision. Unless you’ve gone out specifically for a canary yellow vehicle. Engine specs and additional extras are likely to be your priority. But colour – and even the paint quality – can play a significant role for advertisers, as well as in the resale of your car and even improve fuel economy.
With grey being the nation’s car colour of choice for the fifth year running, we’ve sampled car brochures across several makes, models and countries – from as far back as 1997 – to highlight the prevalent car colours.
Manufacturers Go Bold for Their Brochures
While muted, monochrome colours top the charts for car sales, manufacturers are, instead, opting for brighter colours to advertise their vehicles.
Despite being the fifth most popular car colour, varied tones of red appear the most in the brochures we analysed.
Of the manufacturers analysed, Honda, unsurprisingly, features different shades of red more than any other. The red of the Honda logo is deemed its defining colour, with the colour also associated with royalty. Other brands featuring various shades of red include Japanese manufacturers Toyota and Nissan.
Interestingly, blue played a significant role in the brochures we reviewed, with all manufacturers featuring various shades of the colour – including bright tones and darker variations – apart from Audi. Instead, Audi opted for more muted, monochrome-style colours.
Looking back to the late nineties and the early noughties, colours including pink, red, black, blue, yellow and green featured in brochures. In brochures from 2022 and 2023, however, grey, black and white do feature more heavily.
Black is the Least Featured Popular Colour in Car Brochures
According to our analysis of the bestselling car colours, black was the least used in the car brochures. As the second most popular car colour when it comes to new registrations, it’s surprising that the colour featured so few times.
Black accounts for 20% of the market share when it comes to vehicles registered in the last year. But, when it comes to advertising their vehicles, manufacturers are also opting for brighter tones as the most flattering for their cars.
Bright Colours May Be Popular in Brochures but Dull Colours Sell
Manufacturers might be choosing brighter colours in their brochures but that isn’t what sells. Dull colours such as grey, black and white are more likely to hold their value – these account for 25%, 20% and 16% of new registrations respectively.
Europe, interestingly, is the only place in the world where grey cars are more popular than white, with all other continents opting for white. Black is a close second for Europeans, followed by white.
If you are looking for a new car, however, there could be another reason to opt for lighter colours.
Choosing a Lighter Car Colour Could Reduce Fuel Economy
Researchers at the Berkeley Lab Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD) state that you should go for a white or silver car for improved fuel economy. The researchers placed identical black and silver Honda Civics in the sun. They found that the lighter the colour, the less you need to run the air conditioner due to reflecting the sunlight.
In fact, they found that the interior of the silver car was around six degrees cooler than the black one. From this, they calculated an improved fuel economy of 0.44mpg, or 2%, as well as a 1.9% cut in carbon dioxide emissions. This, across the cars in the UK, could amount to huge savings.
How to Look After Your Car’s Paint
When it comes to your car’s paint job, there are a lot of things that can affect it. As long as you know what to look out for, you can look after it.
1. Wipe Away Bird Droppings Instantly
Bird droppings are acidic and chip away at your paint, leaving stains. The best way to get rid of them is as soon as you realise, wipe with a wet cloth. Don’t run the stain too hard but wipe it away. If you leave the droppings for a long period of time, they could strip the paint entirely. You can read more on how to remove bird poo from your car.
2. Park Your Car Away from Trees
This isn’t always possible, unfortunately. But if you can, try to park away from trees to avoid any bird droppings or places where birds may nest. If you do have to park under a tree for a long period of time, opt for a car cover to protect your vehicle.
3. Wash Your Car Regularly
Your car can get dusty and covered in dirt if you use it regularly. However, washing your car at least once a month should help ensure your paint stays in good condition. This is particularly important during winter due to the road salt that can damage your car’s paint if you don’t wash it off.
4. Avoid Direct Sunlight
When parking your car, try to avoid parking your vehicle in direct sunlight. Sunlight can cause your car’s paint to fade and make it appear duller. Sunlight will also dry any stains which means they are harder to remove. Again, if you can’t avoid the sun, you can use a car cover to protect the paint.
Methodology
Looking at the last four generations of some of the best-selling cars around the world, we tracked the colours featured on the brochure cover of each (from Auto Catalog Archive) to determine which colours the manufacturers believe are most flattering. These colours are combined in the above chart to show the varying preferences and how carmakers appear to disagree with the dull tones that often top the sales charts.
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