149 CHANGING TRENDS IN AUTO COLOUR All the colours of the rainbow, and some shades not found in nature, are the choices offered to Americans buying new cars these days. The auto industry has come a long way from the early 20th century, when Henry Ford offered his Model-T in one "flavour": black.
Silver and its variations are, by far, the most popular exterior finish for new cars in North America, South America and Europe, accounting for 23% of new vehicles sold. Bob Daily, colour marketing manager for the major auto paint producer Dupont Performance Coatings, explains why: "Silver is really a very stylish-looking colour. I think it's what people equate to things like precision and performance," he says.
Mr. Daily says silver goes well with the new car designs. "We're getting away from that 'carved bar of soap' design that we had in the 1980s and 1990s into more chiseled looks. Those kinds of designs are enhanced by colours like silver, as well as black and some of the other colours that are quite popular right now," he says.
Black is currently number three in popularity. What's second to silver? "White has been a perennially popular colour. But, surprisingly, over the past five or six years, black has come up considerably in popularity," says Mr. Daily.
As one colour fades, another is on the rise, according to Mr. Daily. "When green became popular in the early 1990s, blue dropped off the market for quite a while. And now blue is coming back," he says.
"Just a few years ago," says Daily, "there were clear differences in the colours chosen by car buyers in Asia, Europe and North America. Now, with the advent of global society and instant communication, those cultural differences are disappearing. And silver is the dominant choice from Berlin to Beijing."
