Pittsburgh-based PPG Industries Inc. said silver has been the number one colour for nine straight years, accounting for 25 per cent of vehicle paint choices in the U.S., 35 per cent in Europe and 34 per cent in the Asia-Pacific region.
In the U.S., silver rose from 20 per cent of the market a year ago. White finished second at 18 per cent and black was third with 16 per cent. Red was a distant fourth at 12 per cent. See http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gi9WBgK8rDlLWiq1EGAWASLjOwPA
However, it would be interesting to see a more detailed analysis by car type and model. I used to have a Mazda MX5. It was bright red. Although the dark grey MX5 looks nice, for the MX5 you really have to have red in my opinion. It’s iconic.
Having said that, I just searched for MX5 on Google images. It produced, on page 1, 10 silver cars, 5 red cars, and 2 blue cars. So the power of the iconic little red sports car could be weakening and silver could be reigning supreme.
My longing – like that of many others of my age – for a little red sports car probably goes back to The Graduate and Benjamin Braddock’s red Alfa Spider (see picture below).
Of course, when it comes to colour preference the story is never simple, as revealed by sales data released Tuesday by Ford Motor Co.
Sometimes, color preferences are logical. Buyers in hot cities, like Phoenix and Dallas, like white cars, while buyers in colder cities, like Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Detroit, are partial to red, according to Ford’s internal data. Sometimes, the preferences are a puzzle. Boston is the top market for both brown and green cars, for example, while San Franciscans like silver. In Florida, they like gold.
For further details see http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iQA4bwxELfiRjwwpf5eypmDMY1PAD9BAB5SG0