Various shades of gray – white, black and gray – now dominate the car color landscape, while cars considered “colorful” – blues and reds, golds and browns – continue to lose popularity, according to a recent analysis of data by ISeeCars.com.
The upward shift in shades of gray is quite dramatic, and the study found that these harmless colors collectively now have 78.5% of the market share compared to 60% in 2004. iSeeCars analyzed the colors of over 20 million used cars from the 2004 model year to 2023.
Among these dominant shades, gray has seen the most growth over 20 years, gaining 9.7% market share. Last year alone, gray gained 3.5% of market share compared to 2022, even though black, white and silver lost some. This may be due to the fact that more and more car manufacturers offer a wider range of engaging shades of gray.
White remains the most popular color today, gaining 12.5% of the market share since 2004, followed by black, gaining 8% of the market. Silver, on the other hand, recorded a immense decline during this time – losing 13.5% of the market.
Among the “rainbow” colors, the most dramatic declines occurred in gold, purple, brown, beige and yellow.
“Colorful cars seem to be an endangered species,” said Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iSeeCars. “Despite the diverse range offered by car manufacturers, significantly fewer grayscale cars are currently sold. They have lost half their market share in the last 20 years and may become even rarer in the next 20 years.”
It notes that the report’s findings lead to the regrettable conclusion – at least for car enthusiasts – that today’s roads reflect “an undeniable dilution of the color palette of our cars.”
While the numbers for cars, trucks and SUVs seem to be fairly consistent in the ISeeCars report, one exception, interestingly, is in the sports car segment, where owners are a bit more bold and expressive in their color choices and don’t pay as much attention to ” playing safe and sound” and using more neutral colors when it comes time to sell or trade in your vehicles. The iSeeCars report shows color selections by vehicle type.
“The sports car segment has managed to break the industry mold, with the percentage of grayscale colors increasing by only 4.3% since 2004,” Brauer said. “In this segment, the color of white has more than tripled and the color of gray has increased by 81 percent [gain], but these increases were mostly offset by an 83% drop in silver prices and a 2.1% drop in black prices. “Red has also lost popularity among sports car buyers, while blue and orange have seen significant growth.”
On the other hand, cars have generally lost appeal in the consumer market, “but they still serve in rental car fleets and other commercial applications,” Brauer said. “This probably explains the more than doubling of the share of white in the car segment, a color popular with fleet managers due to its relatively high durability and low maintenance costs.”
Here’s a breakdown by color, showing market share comparisons by year:
The most popular car colors in 2023
|
Color |
2023 |
2004 |
% Change |
|
White |
24.8% |
12.3% |
101.8% |
|
Gray |
22.7% |
13.0% |
73.9% |
|
Black |
21.6% |
13.6% |
58.8% |
|
Blue |
9.9% |
11.0% |
-10.1% |
|
Silver |
9.4% |
22.9% |
-58.9% |
|
Red |
8.2% |
11.2% |
-26.4% |
|
Green |
1.2% |
3.0% |
-59.3% |
|
Orange |
1.0% |
0.6% |
61.4% |
|
Beige |
0.4% |
3.4% |
-87.8% |
|
Yellow |
0.3% |
1.0% |
-70.3% |
|
Purple |
0.2% |
0.9% |
-78.9% |
|
brown |
0.1% |
2.6% |
-94.4% |
|
Gold |
0.1% |
4.4% |
-98.5% |
|
Grayscale colors (white, black, gray, silver) |
78.5% |
61.9% |
26.9% |
|
Colors other than grayscale |
21.5% |
38.1% |
-43.6% |
