Car colour

The most popular car colours today are shades of grey: white, black, grey and silver, amounting to over 70% of the total world car production. Red, blue and brown/beige cars range between 6% and 9% each, while all other colours amount to less than 5%. Colour choice is subject to fluctuation and fashion, and historical trends shifted from dark neutral colors of early cars, through more vivid colors of 1950s and 1960s, back towards today's neutral colors.

American paint manufacturers PPG Industries and DuPont both conduct annual surveys about car colour popularity worldwide. According to the 2012 surveys, white was the most popular car colour worldwide, followed by silver, grey and black; the highest discrepancies come between grey and silver, apparently because of ambiguity of the terms. Results of the surveys by region are summarised in the table:

The car colours silver, white, grey, black, gold, beige, and several shades of brown, while each having experienced the intermittent prominence typical of non-neutrals, are likewise subject to fashion's more general fluctuations. However, perennial popularity for neutrals is assured based simply on their inherent plainness.

Neutral colours are popular on cars for many reasons. The vast majority of drivers expect to get years of use from one car, and so take care in choosing its colour (among its many other attributes). Conventional wisdom has long considered neutral colours to be more tasteful, timeless, flattering, and fool-proof than bright colours; this wisdom also maintains that a neutral colour can be acceptably paired with any other conceivable colour. While many people disregard much of this advice when it comes to clothing, they are more likely to follow it where important purchases are concerned, as it is much easier and less expensive to change an unfortunate shirt than it is to have a car repainted a tolerable colour. Furthermore, unlike "faddish" colours, neutral colours do not run the risk of falling out of style. Lastly, some drivers, observing conventional beliefs about colours, choose neutral coloured cars because they fear that a non-neutral car could "clash" unpleasantly against their house, with other cars, with particular outfits while driving, or even with the particular driver's skin tone.

...
Wikipedia