What’s The Best Color For A New Car? Question Of The Day

Question: I want to buy a car; which color is the best?

Answer: Car colors have come a long way since monochrome-minded auto titan Henry Ford noted that consumers could have Model T’s in any color they wanted as long as it was black. Today, we enjoy a palette as varied as a Lady Gaga outfitt, ranging from Audi’s Beluga Brown to Kia’s Vanilla Shake. The selection is just Plum Crazy.

Of course, what’s considered the “best” car color will vary from person to person. But it’s easy to figure out the most popular, said Nancy Lockhart, color-marketing manager for Axalta Coating Systems, a leading vehicle-coatings company.

“White has been the most popular color worldwide since 2011, and since 2007 in North America,” she said. In 2014, 29 percent of cars built worldwide were white, 19 percent black, and 14 percent silver, she said. In fact, an Axalta car-color-popularity report reveals that during the past 60 years, white has been a top-five finisher in all but three years.

Warm climates could influence a customer’s color choice because lighter vehicles retain less heat, said Lockhart, adding, almost two-thirds of cars sold in Africa in 2014 were white or silver.