For automotive enthusiasts who like a little color in their lives, there’s good news and bad news. While white, black, and gray cars have increased in popularity, since the pandemic, brightly colored cars are holding their value better than ever.
White was the most popular color on the used market in 2023, controlling a massive 26.2 percent of sales. Despite being the most popular color in 2018, black is now the second mode popular color in America, and gray holds steady in third place.
What may be a surprise is that, although silver remains the fourth most popular color, it has lost a lot of market share over the last five years. Whereas 15.1 percent of used vehicles were silver in 2018, just 11.7 percent of them are silver in 2023.
Most Popular Car Colors
However, in its study of 10 million 1- to 5-year-old used vehicles, iSeeCars‘ research indicates that popularity of “grayscale” vehicles has only increased since 2018. Whereas white, black, silver, and gray vehicles made up 77.2 percent of the U.S. market five years ago, that figure has increased to 78.6 percent in 2023.
Intriguingly, that doesn’t necessarily make them the most prudent investment. Since the pandemic, the value of unusual colors has grown significantly. For example, the average price of beige cars has more than doubled since 2018, making it the color whose value has increased the most in the last five years.
Read: $23K Used To Buy A 3-Year-Old Car In 2019, Now It Can’t Even Get You A 6-Year-Old One
That, though, may necessarily be because the colors are more popular. Instead, the increasing value may have more to do with the scarcity of used cars in general. A drop-off in production prompted by the pandemic meant that values across the used vehicle market increased significantly, and buyers became less picky as a result.
Change In Average Price By Car Color: 2018 vs. 2023
“With regard to beige, we’ve seen the same story with economy cars,” said Brauer. “Cars that weren’t as desirable before the pandemic have been swept along with the price increases impacting the entire used car market. That means vehicles with relatively low prices in 2018 have, as a percentage of their previous price, gone up the most.”
Nevertheless, yellow and green vehicles are the two most expensive on the pre-owned market, trading for an average of $49,043 and $39,911 respectively. That may reflect the growing popularity of these colors in the luxury and high-performance vehicle market.
In terms of non-grayscale colors, blue and red remain the two most popular paints in the market. Interestingly, blue has overtaken red as the most common colorful paint choice in 2023. Red was the most popular five years ago, but became the less popular choice in hatchbacks, sedans, and (importantly) SUVs, this year.
