White ousts silver as America's favorite automotive paint color

Jeff Sabatini — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:30:00 EST

Filed under: Car Buying, China, Europe, Japan, UK, Design/Style

When it comes to tastes in automobiles, Europeans and Americans tend to be on opposite sides of the spectrum. Small trumps big. Manual over automatic. Car against truck. Black versus white.

That's right, automotive paint supplier PPG says 20% of new cars in North America were white in 2011, while black dominated Europe with 26%. The Asian market preferred the neutrality of silver, which colored 25% of vehicles sold there.

Truth be told, none of the three major global markets embraced any real colors, as white, silver, and black made up the top three in each region. In North America, the order was white-silver-black, Europeans had it black-white-silver, while Asians chose silver-white-black. White took over the top spot globally with, of course, silver and black tied for second. Last year, silver topped PPG's list.

Perhaps the most important detail we found in PPG's press release was this factoid: "40 percent of the automotive consumers said they would prefer a wider range of color choices."

Read the entire release after the jump.

Continue reading White ousts silver as America's favorite automotive paint color

White ousts silver as America's favorite automotive paint color originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Color trend update: Blue gaining on White

Jeremy Korzeniewski — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:59:00 EST

Filed under: Trends, Etc., Lifestyle

Click above to view gallery of more happy and confident cars

Each year, DuPont does a study on color trends in the automotive industry. As the leader in supplying finishes for both the new and aftermarket auto realms, this is the kind of information that the company needs to know. Thankfully, DuPont's researchers always share their findings with the rest of us, and last year it was reported that white had taken over from silver as the color in which to be seen. This year, the pigment company decided to shake things up with a mid-year check on the multi-hued situation around the world, and it seems that blue, which is also the new green, is making a bit of a run at adding some pizazz that's been missing from simple achromatic white. Interestingly, the masses seem to be reacting just a little bit to the economic downturn that this country has been facing, choosing simple solids instead of more flashy hues. Perhaps those downers are just lacking in self-worth.

Gallery: Pixar CARS Photochops

[Source: DuPont]

Color trend update: Blue gaining on White originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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