The best car paint colours you can buy

Best car colours

April 01, 2018 by Russell Campbell

Choosing the colour of your new car can be tricky. You have to consider things that are subjective – your own personal tastes and what’s trending at the time.

Then balance them against more objective matters such as how easy the paint is to keep clean or how well it resists sun damage.

Make a slip up when you order the car and you’ll regret it, potentially for years to come, so it pays to give it some thought. So what are the pros and cons of different colours, which are most popular and what colours are there that’ll really make you stand out? Find out below.

What are the best car colours for resale value?

One of the most important things to consider when you’re choosing your colour is how easy will it be to sell on. Thankfully, choosing a popular colour is easy because the SMMT (Society of Motoring Manufacturers and Traders) breaks down the country’s most popular car colours annually.

Grey cars

And right at the top you’ll find grey. One in five cars sold in the UK were painted grey, accounting for more than 495,000 sales in 2018. Why so popular? Well, it goes without saying that grey won’t polarise people like, say, lime green or bright orange. It’s also a colour that suits the cars we buy – a quarter of UK car sales go to posh premium brands such as Mercedes, BMW and Audi. All of which look great in grey.

Black cars

While grey was your favourite car colour in 2018, black wasn’t far behind – accounting for just under 480,000 sales. Much of what has been said about grey cars applies to black cars. It’s not a colour that’s likely to offend people and it suits the classy image of popular posh German models. Black’s major downside is that it’s a nightmare to keep clean, magnifying even the smallest spec of dust more than any other colour.

White cars

Surprisingly, even the UK’s third most-popular colour, white, is easier to maintain than black. White rarely makes it into the UK’s top five favourite colours but right now it’s a fashionable shade that accounted for more than 430,000 new car sales in the UK last year. Why the sudden popularity? Well, white’s use on gadgets like iPhones gives it a modern feel which makes it a perfect choice for high-tech modern cars like the Nissan Leaf electric car.

Blue cars

In 2018, blue accounted for more than 380,000 new-car sales. Brighter colours like blue tend to be more sensitive to damage from sunlight but on the bright side, ahem, they aren’t as hard to keep clean as cars painted black or white. Some cultures believe blue fends of bad spirits, while in the West it’s said to promote peace and tranquility – ideal if you’re looking to ease the stress out of your fellow road users!

Red cars

Red doesn’t share blue’s calming effects but that couldn’t stop it being the fifth-most popular colour in the UK with more than 235,000 red cars sold in 2018. Red signifies danger and the mere sight of the colour is said to increase your blood pressure and heart rate. On the upside, red makes you more visible on the road so red cars are actually less likely to be involved in accidents than darker coloured cars.

Cool colours

So if you want to follow the flock, you’ll want your car grey, black, white, blue or red. But what if you’d like to make more of a statement? Well, you’ll be relieved to hear there are plenty of colours that can make you stand out. Here are some of them:

Soul red

You don’t have to choose an expensive supercar to get a fancy paint job – you could just buy a Mazda. They’re available in Soul Red which is applied by a robot that mimics experienced human painters, making it 20% brighter than the metallic reds found on other cars.

AMG Solarbeam

Making a Mercedes-AMG GT grab your attention any more than it already does isn’t easy – but specifying it in AMG Solarbeam Yellow ought to do the trick. It’s an £8,000 option but your money buys you exclusivity because you can only have the colour on AMG Mercedes models.

Verde Aleco

If you want a car that can snap necks back faster than whiplash, you want a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ in Verde Aleco Green. It’s twinkling matt metallic sparkles like it’s been encrusted with diamonds and Lamborghini even throws in some blood-red highlights.

Liquid Yellow

Some car/colour combinations just work. Take Liquid yellow – for years this pearlescent finish has been synonymous with Renault’s Renaultsport hot hatches, so if you’re planning on buying a new Renaultsport Megane you’d be mad to get it in any other colour.

Championship White

Another must-have hot-hatch colour combo is the Honda Civic Type R in Championship White. It’s featured on a raft of hardcore Hondas covering everything from the Integra Type R to the orginal Honda NSX-R.

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