Our roads are becoming more monotone than ever before. iSeeCars recent study found that 80 percent of the cars on our roads are painted grayscale colors, with gray , white, black, and silver being the most popular “colors” in the country.
Gray has grown by a staggering 81.9 percent since 2004, while white gained 77.4 percent market share. Gold, purple, brown, beige, and yellow lost the most ground, with green being the only non-grayscale color to increase in recent times. The picture is essentially the same when the numbers are broken out by vehicle type, though truck buyers picked blue slightly more often in 2023 than 20 years prior.
The cause behind some of this is certainly buyers’ behavior, but it’s a bit of a chicken-or-egg scenario with dealers. People buy the cars that dealers stock, and an overly cautious store might only want colors it knows it can sell, leaving buyers with fewer choices. That same mentality also applies to people looking at vehicle resale values, leading them to buy “safe” colors in hopes that a later sale will be easier.
The funny thing about these trends is that automakers still offer a rainbow of color choices. iSeeCars pointed out that companies offer an average of 6.7 colors per model, down only slightly from 7.1 colors 20 years ago. Of course, I can’t really shout too loudly about this. I bought a black GR Corolla, but to be fair, it was the only one I could find without a markup. That said, I do hope you choose an actual color for your next car.
[Images: Chevrolet, BMW, Ford]
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