PPG reveals silver as most popular car colour for tenth year | CarAdvice

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PPG reveals silver as most popular car colour for tenth year

By Brett Davis |
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According to PPG paint suppler, silver is the most popular car colour buyers choose and this year accounted for the highest percentage who picked the colour.

The paint company has been monitoring car sales by colour since 1990 and has found a relatively fast incline has been occurring in the past few years, as the colour silver gets more and more popular. The study found that silver was selected in up to 25 percent of new car purchases in 2009, up from 20 percent in 2008.

This year, the colour’s popularity has risen to 31 percent. 31 percent of all new car buyers pick a silver shade of some degree. Although the study was undertaken in the US, it’s not hard to pick the colour as the most popular here in Australia as well.

The study also collected data on an international level and found silver was the most popular in Europe, making up 32 percent, and the Asia/Pacific region where silver made up 33 percent of the purchases.

PPG manager of color styling and automotive coatings, Jane E. Harrington, said in a recent statement,

“Color is an important component of how today’s carmakers can define and differentiate a vehicle or brand in the marketplace. The palette of colors being developed for the automotive market is clearly being influenced by culture, nature, fashion, movies, media, electronics and many consumer products.”

So what colours followed? Black and white came in equal second this year making up 18 percent of the market, followed by red with 11 percent and blue at 10 percent.


 

  • Kim

    Sounds like they count grey coming in with silver?

    Colour depends on shape, i find black looks ugly on most cars whereas white is more flattering. Thats generally speaking though. I like grey on sophisticated cars, it really understates them a little or adds a bit to their aggressiveness.

    • Shak

      I find that black looks good on more premium versions of cars, with a dash of chrome in places. Yes Silver and Grey look good in more sombre Premium cars.

  • f1worldchamp

    Silver seems to be the default choice among people who don’t really care.
    White is awesome on a lot of sports cars.

  • laurie

    White suits some cars but it is always considered as a FLEET color or Taxi

    laurie

    • Ricky

      Wrong. Yellow is a taxi colour, at least here in Victoria. The notion of white as being associated with fleets is outdated. White was simply chosen because it was the cheapest colour (most other colours are metallic and attract an extra charge). But that’s changing – alot of whites are now pearl and have a much more upmarket look than the whites of the past.

  • nickdl

    Every BMW, Merc or Audi is either black, silver or something in between. It gets very boring and I often feel sorry for those who try to break tradition and buy a different colour; they get less resale value.

    Personally I think that dark blue or black looks great for a premium model. I really like Holden’s blue grey colour on the Commodore, I think it’s called Karma.

  • Wayne Kerr

    It’s worth noting that Silver cars are less likely to be pulled over (relative to the total number of silver cars) than other colours. Maybe it’s because typical family people tend to buy silver and rev heads want something more distinct.