A new study gives us all a bit of insight into what cars hold their value best and worst based on paint color. Used-car values are somewhat out of this world right now but at least one color seems to hold that value the very best. Two segments stand out with their own unique value-oriented colors as well.
The methodology used included 1.6 million cars from the 2020 model year that were analyzed between August 2022 through May 2023. In each case, the car’s original MSRP was adjusted for inflation and then compared to the car’s list price. Finally, that data was aggregated by color and body style. Interestingly, both of those aspects result in different findings.
For example, across all cars, yellow is the best color to have when compared to average depreciation. Compared to the average depreciation over three years of 22.5 percent, yellow cars only depreciated 13.5 percent. That’s a huge bump in price and far better than the second-best color, beige.
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Somewhat famously, Doug DeMuro owns a silver Porsche Carrera GT and not a yellow one because of the huge bump in pricing just for that paint color. It’s the best car statistically for a convertible too, seeing just 15 percent of a drop from MSRP compared to an average of 26.7 percent. Coupe buyers also get the most out of yellow cars with a 5.6 percent drop instead of the average 12.2 percent.
Yellow is even more valuable if the vehicle you have is an SUV, says iSeeCars. In that class, yellow-painted cars saw only a 9.1 percent drop in value. That’s less than half of second place green with a drop of 20.4 percent. The average SUV has seen depreciation take 24.8 percent of its value out.
Interestingly, yellow doesn’t even make an appearance on two other segments, trucks and minivans. In the former, beige was the least-depreciating hue. It dropped just 7.9 percent compared to a segment average of 15.6 percent. Minivans hold their value best when they’re brown (16.8 percent) and drop most when they’re purple (24.6 percent). It’s time to focus your buying efforts on yellow coupes we guess.
