Comments on: 2008 DuPont Automotive Color Popularity Report shows White still most popular among North Americans

By: jackjimturkey

jackjimturkey — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:58:14 +0000

I’ve had two white cars, two grayish-gold cars and one dark brownish car … I was determined not to get run of the mill. My current car is metallic blue.

White and that gold color every other camry is are non-offensive, conservative colors, so they sell. Black is too hard tio keep clean, but it seems to be de jure for luxury cars,

I like the idea of choosing color on the ‘Net.

By: megeebee

megeebee — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 19:05:17 +0000

…………zzzzzzzzzzzzz…………………zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz………………..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

By: tastyorange

tastyorange — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:44:19 +0000

Car companies are not interested in making “some” people happy….. they just pick the same colors everybody else is using and go with that. Some car lines right now only have the white, black, grey, dark grey, silver, sand, red and dark blue… It’s almost the rule now with some cars. I’m surprised Toyota even has a green on their Corolla. If you go to a luxury car lot now all you see is black and silver. WTF?

If people could custom paint their cars right from a website before they got their car, only THEN would we know what people like the most.

Corporations give us few choices and then marketing people tell everyone what we are supposed to like.

By: sakio327

sakio327 — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:37:21 +0000

The problem with unique colors is that three years from now they will be out of style. I remember the first time I saw a Dodge Ram Sport Pickup in yellow with the blue lettering. I thought it was hot. 8 years later, it looks kinda goofy.

Not that I haven’t owned cars in weird colors. My favorite was a 1970 Mustang Grande Coupe that was Olive Green with a houndstooth vinyl top in green and black. That was really nasty…..

By: mayer_ray_nagin

mayer_ray_nagin — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:47:55 +0000

Yarddog works for Penthouse Auto Group?

CooL!

By: RaineMan

RaineMan — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:14:57 +0000

So… blue is the new green… indeed.

I’m gonna have to say if I ever got another new car it would be silver. Blends in with traffic better… a lot harder for the cops to pick out.

By: jonmiles

jonmiles — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:10:52 +0000

These results are skewed… while there are a million different shades of silver, most of the time being called “gray” or some other variation, there is only one white.

By: caperdf

caperdf — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:05:50 +0000

I think White is the worst. I believe it must be fleet sales that give it such a strong showing. It would be interesting to see if the imports, that are not normally sold as fleet cars.

I think black looks best , but is hard to keep looking good. Grey is almost as easy as silver to keep looking good, but looks the better. Some Blues are as nice as black.. Like Z06ified’s car.

By: johnnycanuck

johnnycanuck — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:40:55 +0000

Good job at not giving it away there yarddog!

By: yarddog82abn

yarddog82abn — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:35:02 +0000

This year my auto group (Pen***), so far has sold 28,000 commercial vehicles nation wide, only 2% was not the color white…

By: ricky_b

ricky_b — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:32:51 +0000

I just had a discussion about this with a friend this weekend.

Is it really that these are the most “popular” colors OR is it that the car companies perceive these as the popular colors and chose to make inventory cars in these colors? If more people ordered their cars from the factory, we’d probably get a better feel for what the numbers really look like.

Personally, I would never buy a car in white, black or any flat exterior. They just don’t do a thing for me. Metallic or pearlized. And the more color the better.

By: HoosierHero

HoosierHero — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:51:32 +0000

I have a crystal white pearl Highlander and it looks sweet, especially when you get some light on it. Flat white just sucks. Teal is probably the worst color out there, but maybe I’m still having a bad flashback from the mid 90′s when there were a billion teal Cavaliers driving around. Ugh…

By: Z06ified

Z06ified — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:46:14 +0000

I love my Electron Blue Z06. To me, that color was the most perfect shade of metallic blue ever created. Not too light, not too dark.

By: hangonbig3

hangonbig3 — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:13:20 +0000

Maybe dealers don’t stock the colors that don”t sell….Maybe years of experienece have told them that the best sellers are White. Silver , Black…..Maybe the leftover inventory at the end of the year is all of the “Off ” color choices….maybe..tak-a-box…instead of attacking a business you know nothing about, you should process your thoughts before you s**t them out on your keyboard.

By: Ramatai

Ramatai — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 13:23:26 +0000

Don’t certain colours just work better with certain design trends? The modern trend being to duplicate Audi styling, except BMW which seems to be more Dali insprired.

By: JohnnyBlazE

JohnnyBlazE — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:26:02 +0000

A4 – I have seen an… A4… in dark green looking very very nice (with the right kit) in my area.

My car is Laser Blue… (Dark and Metallic for the non BMW people)

By: -Bullitt-

-Bullitt- — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 10:53:38 +0000

I wonder if they are taking into account fleet sales. If that’s the case than I can see why white is the front runner given that a large majority of police vehicles are white or start off in that color. Factor in the number of companies that purchase utility vehicles which are more often than not white.

By: zeeck

zeeck — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 04:48:08 +0000

also, Jax, some of your comments don’t make sense, since White is obviously the lightest color, any marks or scratches (which cause a shadow) would be most noticeable against a white background, and also, white can’t really fade because fade means the color goes away, and since white doesn’t have color (I guess technically it is all color just reflected back at you) it can’t just fade to a lighter color…

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 04:45:35 +0000

If you think it’s fair to lump “white” and “white effect” together to overcome silver’s lead, then I believe that it is equally fair to lump silver and gray together (which would put that combined category at a leading 29%).

With so many shades and subtleties available nowadays, a dark silver can just as easily described as a light gray. The reality is that silver to gray is just a continuum.

If you look closer at DuPont’s annual report, the combined white category is only the most popular in North America. Silver still holds a substantial lead in many Asian countries while black is the most popular in Europe.

And in a nod to A4 and 1c3d0g, no Imola Yellow, pink or sh!t green on the list.

By: zeeck

zeeck — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 04:44:34 +0000

out here in colorado, white shows dirt the most, which makes it pretty damn ugly if it isn’t a truck or rally car
also shows no taste in creativity, i did see a white challenger srt-8 that didn’t look so bad, but only because of the black stripes…

By: gugy

gugy — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 04:37:36 +0000

I agreed Jax.

I do also like Silver, but my favorite is dark grey.
Black is too hot for CA.

By: Jax

Jax — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 04:28:04 +0000

White is the best color.
Light dust, minor scratches and swirl marks barely show. Low maintenance. Easiest to touch up. Keeps you cooler on hot summer days. Safer at night. Holds up best against fading over time. Doesn’t go out of style and get dated.
Most practical color ever.

By: A4

A4 — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 02:35:06 +0000

what about baby sh!t green

By: 1c3d0g

1c3d0g — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 02:27:22 +0000

White sucks. Silver, blue, black and any of the other colors rock (except pink, which sucks more than white).

By: A4

A4 — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:49:28 +0000

and i also agree with takbox, the dealers are very lazy, the reason cars like imola yellow S4′s are as rare as they are is cause nobody wants to wait for the dealer to order one in.

By: A4

A4 — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:45:23 +0000

or blue is being used as the new green because unless you own a british car green is ugly.
jaguars
aston martins
land rovers
mini’s
tvr’s
lotuses
all look great in green
audis look horrid in green, along with most other german cars
american cars are pretty ugly in green, with pickup trucks maybe being the only exception
the mx-5 looks good in green, but id even contribute that to its hint of british style.

By: Lawnchair88

Lawnchair88 — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:19:01 +0000

White + black + silver + gray = 66%
I agree with t-ak-box, because how many people out there actually take the time to order their car from the factory? And I’m sure dealers hear more people saying “I’d buy this car if it weren’t that ugly teal color” than “I would buy this car if it were an ugly shade of teal”

By: DrFill

DrFill — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:20:30 +0000

Silver
Definitely
DrFill

By: t-ak-box

t-ak-box — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:08:13 +0000

All this show is that dealers are lazy. Order the most simple color cars to sell.

I guess most either came with Black or Grey or Beige interiors too. Probably Black.

By: mayer_ray_nagin

mayer_ray_nagin — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:04:41 +0000

Obama thinks otherwise.

By: inspire

inspire — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:04:29 +0000

I’m surprised “white” took top honors. Just doing an informal survey with the cars beside me crawling through rush hour traffic, it seems to me that silver or black would take top pick. Guess I haven’t looked at enough MY2008 cars, I suppose… ???

By: johnnycanuck

johnnycanuck — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:00:20 +0000

Just how many white Challengers are out there with “Kowalski” vanity plates already?

By: bmwmpower

bmwmpower — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 23:54:45 +0000

Howsmydriving, maybe it’s called ‘research.’

By: howsmydriving

howsmydriving — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 23:34:58 +0000

Uh, instead of the convoluted environmental explanation of why blue is gaining in popularity, how about just that sometimes there’s no accounting for shifts in public taste?