All About Japan Autos

Daily Auto News

Look around you as you’re sitting in traffic and you might notice a trend. You’ll most likely take in a sea of muted grays, blacks and whites. You might see the same pattern in the mall parking lot, or even in your own garage.

Because let’s face it – most people probably don’t drive the bright yellow H3 from the Hummer ads. And now, we have proof. DuPont’s annual Color Popularity Report, which presents worldwide data for the first time, shows that black, silver and white are the most popular car colors across the globe.

According to DuPont’s press release, white is the most popular color in North America, while black is the top color in Europe: “However, examining black’s popularity over time shows it is rising — up six percentage points from 2005 — while silver and white have dropped in popularity by about two points over the past five years. Chroma colors blue and red remain solidly popular in the North American market, rising from 11 percent in 2006 to approximately 12 percent this year.”

The top 10 global colors are:
1. Silver – 25 percent
2. Black – 23 percent
3. White – 16 percent
4. Gray – 13 percent
5. Blue – 9 percent
6. Red – 8 percent
7. Brown/Beige – 4 percent
8. Green – 1 percent
9. Yellow/Gold – 1 percent
10. Others – Less than 1 percent

Autoblog speculates as to why car owners worldwide seem to choose such understated hues: “Who knows why car buyers the world over seem averse to all the colors of the rainbow. Not us. While we dig a nice metallic Silver, other colors like Red, Blue and even shades of Green have a way of teasing out a car’s personality better than the grayscale stuff.”

Of course, no one seems to have taken into account that black, white and silver may be more popular simply because they are the most common colors offered (and built) by manufacturers. Who knows — if the Honda Civic was offered in yellow, maybe we’d see some brighter colors on the roads.

If you’re in the market for a new car, check out the U.S. News rankings of this year’s best cars, as well as this month’s best car deals.