Best car colours for long term: Popular car colours to buy

When buying a car, picking a colour is probably the most exciting and confusing part after selecting a brand and model. While white and black have been consistent as the best car colours, the options are endless. Nowadays, car manufacturers offer various colour shades, presenting more options for buyers. 

While personal preference plays a significant role, you must look into multiple factors to choose the best car colours for the long term. Below is a guide to help you shortlist car colours among the most popular options out there. 

Why does car colour matter?

You must be thinking, why one should feel concerned about the car colour beyond personal preference. But there is much more to it!

Impact on maintenance 

First of all, the colour you choose decides the extent of maintenance a car requires to look new over the years. 

Affects resale value

Moreover, the vehicle colour also impacts the resale value of your car. The car colour trends keep on changing over the years. So, if you purchase a popular car colour today, you can improve its bottom line after a few years when selling your car. 

Some of the safest bets are neutral colours like white, silver, grey, and black. But you can also choose bright shades of green, blue, orange, yellow, etc.

List of most popular car colours in India

Below are the top 5 popular car colours in India.

1. White: White has been a popular car colour choice for a long time. This colour makes a car appear larger and reflects heat to keep the cabin cool. Thus, white is considered the best colour for a car in India’s hot climate.

2. Grey: Grey is also quite popular as a car colour for subtle style and its ability to blend in. Some of the popular shades in grey include coarse grey and greyish-green. 

3. Black: You can never go wrong with black in any car type. While the maintenance is harder on black, the classic appeal of this colour attracts many car buyers. 

4. Silver: Silver cars look elegant and stylish, making this colour a popular choice among vehicle buyers. Manufacturers offer silver in different shades to help buyers with unique colour options. 

5. Blue: This colour reflects a warm and steady mood. Different shades of blue give a sense of individuality to the owner among other vehicles on the road.

Popular colour choices based on car types

Choosing the best car colour to buy must depend on your choice of vehicle type as well. Below you can find a list of popular colour options for different types of cars.

Hatchbacks

Hatchbacks and wagons are mid-sized passenger vehicles mostly popular in white, black and grey colours. The metallic or solid shades of white allow a hatchback or wagon to look bigger in appearance. Here are the most popular hatchback/wagon car colours you can choose.

• White

• Black

• Grey

• Silver

• Red

• Blue

• Gold

Also, read: Best hatchback cars in India

Sedans

While white, black, and grey are the safest options, people also choose other colours when purchasing sedans.

• White

• Black

• Grey

• Silver

• Blue

• Red 

• Gold

SUVs

Sport Utility Vehicles or SUVs are large-sized cars mostly popular in metallic and pearl shades of white. Other popular SUV colours include the following.

• White

• Black

• Grey

• Silver

• Blue

• Red

• Green

• Beige

• Gold

• Brown

• Orange

Also, read: Best SUV cars in India

Luxury cars

Metallic/pearl white, black and grey are popular colour choices in the luxury car segment as well. The list of unique car colours for luxury vehicles also includes the following.

• Metallic white

• Black

• Grey

• Blue

• Silver

• Red

• Green

• Gold

• Brown

• Orange

Easiest and hardest car colours to maintain

The colours that are easy to maintain usually last the longest and preserve the exterior appeal of the car. Based on the ease of maintenance, you can choose which car colours to avoid. 

Easy to maintain car colours

1. Grey: This is one of the easiest vehicle colours to clean. Moreover, it hides dust and dirt easily on the surface, making a grey car look cleaner for a long time. 

2. White: Though the white colour fades at the same rate as red or black, it contains no pigment, which keeps it brighter in the long run. While the splashes and mud stains can be seen easily on a white car, a simple wash brings out the shiny appeal. Thus, a white vehicle looks cleaner to human eyes than vehicles having other colours.

3. Orange: This is a commanding colour that not only hides pollen and dust but takes little effort to clean. 

4. Yellow: A yellow car stands out on the road and keeps the dust and dirt hidden on the surface. However, the mud splashes become easily visible on this car during rainy seasons.

Hard to maintain car colours

1. Black: While black is a sleek car colour option, it starts to fade faster than other colours. Even the slightest dirt, dust or pollen become visible on its surface, making it look dull. 

2. Green: Cleaning is not an issue when you have a green car, but this colour highlights even the minor imperfections easily. 

3. Red: The brightness of the red colour makes a car look flashy and sporty. However, the dirt and dust make it look dull as fast as a black-coloured car. 

4. Blue: Even though blue is a popular car colour choice, it is pretty hard to maintain. Swirls and scratches appear quite easily on blue. Plus, it makes water spots visible on the surface. 

Which car colours last longest?

The colours that are easy to maintain and fade slowly usually last the longest. As mentioned earlier, you can choose colours like white, grey, orange, and yellow for long-term appeal. White is the longest lasting colour among all car paint options.

Or, if you choose to pick faster fading car paints such as red and blue, keep the vehicle shaded to protect it from dust, dirt and UV rays. 

List of the best car colours that boost resale value

There is a connection between a car’s colour and its resale value. While white, grey and silver are neutral choices to maintain the resale value, you can choose trending colours to get the maximum value while reselling your car in the future. 

Following are some of the bright colours that fade slower than black and red. Thus, you can retain your car’s resale value over the years using these options. 

• Yellow

• Beige

• Orange

• Green 

What are the best car colour combinations of all time?

These days manufacturers offer dual-tone cars. Usually, bright colours like orange, green, and blue are paired with white or black for a sleek appeal. 

Top car color combinations:

• Orange + White

• Green + White

• Blue + White

• Orange + Black

• Green + Black

• Blue + Black

Global trends in car paint colour choices

As per the BASF 2020-2021 report, trends in automotive colours are moving towards emotional and warm shades in the Asia Pacific region. Hence, you can expect a rise in the popularity of colours like greyish-green, blue, etc.

When talking about the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) region, the report highlights the growth in the popularity of calming and soothing colours. On the other hand, colour choices in North America are moving towards techno-driven variants of different hues and textures. 

Moreover, you can see the global automotive colour popularity trends below as per the PPG 2020 report.

Car colours to avoid - safe and unsafe car colours

One of the most popular research on safe and unsafe car colours has been conducted by Monash University. As per the report, the safest car colour is White due to its high visibility in different driving conditions. Other safe vehicle colours include beige, yellow, and cream. 

As per the same research, the following is the safety report on other vehicle colours.

Black

Black is most prone to accidents than other vehicle colour options. A car with a black exterior poses 12% higher chances of getting into an accident than a white car. 

Grey

Apparently, the greyish road surface reduces the ability to spot a grey car on the road. The chances for a grey car to crash is about 11% higher than a white car.

Silver

A silver car faces the same problem as a grey one, which increases the chances of a crash by 10% than a white car. 

Blue 

Blue cars are safer than black, silver or grey cars, as per the report. The brighter blue shades were found to be safer than darker blue shades. However, when compared to white cars, blue stood 7% higher chances of accidents. 

Red

Red coloured cars are easy to spot during the day and cloudy/rainy season. However, at nighttime, it is easy to confuse this colour with brake lights, traffic lights, and other road traffic signs. Thus, the chances of an accident with a red car are 7% higher than a white car.

Green

Green is also a vibrant colour and stands out in traffic. However, the colour blends with the surroundings if there are grass and trees around. Thus, they pose a higher risk of accidents on highways. 

Tips for choosing the right car paint colour

Use the following tips to select the right paint colour for your car.

• Shortlist the colour choices based on your personal preference. 

• Find which colour options are easy to maintain.

• Understand which colours can hide imperfections and damages.

• Pick a colour that is easy to spot on roads to avoid accidents.

• You can choose lighter shades if the car’s temperature is a big concern.

• Choose a colour that would help you improve the resale value. 

Frequently asked questions

Below are the answers to some commonly asked questions to help you choose the best car colour for long term.

Which car colours are considered timeless?

Colours such as white, black, grey, and silver have been consistently popular around the world. While a black coloured car is difficult to maintain, you can easily maintain a white, grey or silver car over a long period of time.

What are the most popular car colours in 2021?

Consistently popular car colours include white, grey, silver and black. However, in 2021, the popularity of bright colours such as green, blue, and orange is also rising.

Does the colour of a car affect the chances of accidents?

Yes, it does. Dark coloured cars are more likely to get into accidents on roads than brighter shades. While white is considered the safest colour choice, black poses the highest risk of accidents.

Which would be a better car colour choice between white and silver?

Both white and silver have their advantages and disadvantages. For instance, white as a car colour is considered less prone to accidents than silver as it stands out. On the other hand, silver hides the dust, dirt and mud marks better than a white one. 

However, both colours are popular and maintain the resale value. Hence, you can make the final decision as per your personal preference.

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