Coldplay-approved: Study shows that yellow cars depreciate the slowest

Your car's color affects how quickly it depreciates, and a new study finds that yellow cars lose less of their value over three years than cars painted in any other color. Yellow comes out ahead in most segments of the market, but the study adds that minivan buyers are going green.

Website iSeeCars analyzed the price of over 1.6 million three-year-old cars to put together the data. Unsurprisingly, it discovered that the average car loses 22.5% of its value over three years. However, yellow cars only lose 13.5%, which represents a significant difference in terms of resale value. It's not necessarily that yellow is popular; iSeeCars executive analyst Karl Brauer argues that demand outstrips supply.

Beige takes second place overall in the study; beige cars lose 17.8% of their value over three years. Third place goes to orange cars, which lose 18.5% of their value during the same period. Don't get your colors mixed up, though. While yellow enjoys surprisingly popularity, next-door-neighbor gold is the least desirable color, and gold-colored cars lose 25.9% of their value. Brown cars finish second-to-last, with a 24% drop, with black cars not far behind at 23.9%. Gray cars fall right on the national average: they lose 22.5% of their value over three years.

Analyzing segment-specific data uncovers several surprises. Yellow comes out ahead for SUVs, convertibles, and coupes, beige takes first place in the pickup segment, brown (!) takes the gold in the sedan segment, and green is the most sought-after color by minivan buyers. While the study focuses solely on colors, it's also an interesting look into how different body styles depreciate. On average, a yellow coupe loses 5.6% of its value over three years; that's the smallest drop. At the other end of the spectrum, a silver minivan loses 36% of its value.

"Every year consumer preferences shift, as reflected in the ever-shifting order of resale value retention for different colors. But one component remains consistent: common colors like black and silver are never the best for resale value retention. There are just too many cars available in those colors to elevate resale value," said Brauer.

The takeaway? If you're concerned about resale value, don't get a boring color.

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