It’s Official: Most People Buy Cars In Stupidly Boring Colours
Variety - they say - is the spice of life. But try telling that to buyers of new cars in the UK. According to data released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) for UK car registrations in 2015, white remained the most popular colour choice for the third year running, this time with a 21.4 per cent market share and an increase of 2.2 per cent compared to 2014.
To make matters worse, the next most popular colours were just as boring - black is in at number two with a 19.4 per cent share, and grey placed third with 15.6 per cent. Combine the lot, and you get 56.4 per cent. Chuck in silver, another dull choice, and you get 67.6 per cent. So, this means the majority of new car buyers go for really boring colours.
The reason is unclear. Perhaps it’s a lack of imagination, something to do with the fact more interesting shades are paid options or maybe it’s concerns about resale value, but whatever the cause it’s frustrating. Particularly when paint technology is so good these days, giving you a wide range of weird and wonderful colours and finishes to choose from.
It’s not all bad news, though. More interesting colours are continuing to rise in popularity. Orange - for instance - only made up 0.7 per cent of cars registered last year, but it’s experienced a 25.7 per cent increase in popularity.
Hopefully this trend will continue, and break up the sea of white, black and grey…
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
In the USA, the real problem is dealers. They do not want to stock cars that might take too long to sell. Color is for most buyers the least important feature. So dealers order all the options with generic colors. Want a Sunroof? We have 15 of them, so long as your like black, white or silver. You want red? We might have one with no options on the back lot. People settle on color. What about factory order? Dealers hate to do that. They will lie, cheat and steel to avoid a factory order. So everyone buying a new car gets pressured to compromise on color.
The feeling when you’re starting to regret buying your car in black and suddenly you find the same model being sold a beautiful(subjective ofc) light-blue tone.
Then you guys add salt to the wounds by making this article, thanks
why would you want such an awfull french POS?
i wish they did a nice metallic brown for every car.. something like Volvo does. id like this on my gt86 haha but re-spray is too expensive , so wrapping will have to happen eventually
Let’s hear it for Maharani Maroon!
Damn, I’m sorry for you. I love BMW, but can’t afford to own one.
I’d buy a white car just to have all the accents and wheels a deep black. It’s just a great combo
To get the car I wanted in manual I had only 2 choices, White or Silver
My car is white and i would go for white and a dark blue any day :D
A couple weeks leaving a shop I could see 25-30 cars down two streets. The only car that wasn’t a greyscale colour was my Blue Mazda
Well grey black and white look good on most cars. The other colors have to have a nice shade that suits your taste as well. Take the M2: what if you don’t like that green-blue? Only choice left is black grey and white.
Also a lot of people don’t want to stick out of the mass