More than just paint, the exterior colour on your car is pretty much a projection of your personality. Hence, while in the yesteryear there were limited car colours available, today car manufacturers offer wide array customers can choose from. BASF Color Report 2018 gives us some insight on which colours are the most preferred ones on cars. And as it turns out – White takes the crown. White does make a car look cleaner, bigger and well, you won’t regret buying a car in White. What if you buy one in Neon Green and instantly regret after making the payment! Ouch.
But, there are those who want to stand out so Reds and Yellows do sell. If you own a Red or Yellow Ferrari, you’ve done it right. But if it’s anything else, well, it depends if you made the right choice. Nonetheless, you stand out.
The BASF Color Report 2018 for Automotive OEM Coatings Europe analyzes in detail the most favourite colours of new cars in Europe. After White, Gray is the most bought colour, followed by Black and then Blue and then Silver. All of these are pretty much the no-regret colours. Silver is followed by Red, then Brown (not sure how but..), and then Orange, Yellow and Green.
It seems a White is quite the universal preference for car colours. White is also the most preferred choice for many Indian consumers with 43 per cent of them opting for the tone in 2018, according to a report by BASF.
According to the ‘BASF Color Report for Automotive OEM Coatings’ by BASF’s Coatings Division, the other two most popular car colours last year were grey and silver with each finding preferences of 15 per cent of buyers. Red with 9 per cent was the other popular colour, followed by blue at 7 per cent, while black had just 3 per cent buyers.
“Small cars which are pearl white in colour are popular among Indian consumers. Customers in the warm climate of India may prefer white because white cars do not heat up so quickly,” BASF Head of Design (Asia-Pacific) Chiharu Matsuhara said, adding: “Another reason might be the luxurious image of this colour, as suggested by our trend observations.”
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White also rules in the sports utility vehicle (SUV) segment, the report said with 41 per cent new buyers going for the colour, followed by grey 15 per cent, silver 14 per cent, red 12 per cent and blue 7 per cent. In the entry-level sub-compact segment, 42 per cent of buyers went for white colour, 17 per cent with grey and 16 per cent for silver. Red was the other popular colour in the segment with 12 per cent.
In the basic compact segment, white was also the most popular colour with 35 per cent of buyers opting for it, followed by grey and silver with 17 per cent each, red 9 per cent and blue 8 per cent, among other colours. In the compact (premium) segment also, the BASF colour report said white was the most popular colour with 46 per cent of consumers going for it, followed by silver at 21 per cent and grey at 17 per cent. Interestingly, only 1 per cent preferred black colour.
However, in the mid-sized segment, black was the second-most popular colour with 18 per cent behind white which had a preference of 40 per cent buyers. The other popular colours in the segment were blue at 16 per cent and silver at 13 per cent and brown 5 per cent, among others.
