In 2017, a new Mazda MX-5 Miata RF, resplendent in Soul Red
Metallic paint, listed for $35,901. By 2020 that jaunty two-seater had an
average resale value of $24,112. If finished in stolid Machine Gray Metallic
paint, however, that same model fetched an average of $1,046 less, thanks to
the color alone.
اضافة اعلان
Because many other factors influence car value, color is easy to
overlook. Yet both paint and car manufacturers maintain international
departments of stylists and colorists who not only monitor what consumers are
buying but — drawing from the fields of art, architecture, fashion, popular
culture and consumer research — predict what people will want up to five years
in the future.
Decisions are exasperatingly complex. A popular color for sedans
might not work for sports cars. A hit color in Florida might tank in Michigan.
According to iSeeCars, a search engine catering to car buyers, the worst color for
SUVs was beige, which lost 46 percent of its value over three years. For pickup
trucks the best color was … beige. Beige pickups lost only 18 percent in value
in the same time period.
The importance of color to cars is almost singular. It is
nothing to chuck a formerly fashionable fuchsia T-shirt, and you can repaint a
room in a weekend. But repainting a car costs thousands and requires skilled
technicians. With the possible exception of kitchen appliances, there are few
color decisions as costly that consumers live with for as long. In a routinely
quoted poll from 2000, 39 percent of car buyers said color was more important
than brand.
An iSeeCars analysis compared list prices for new 2017 cars with
their resale prices in 2020 to see which colors hold value best in different
vehicle classes. In addition, some larger paint manufacturers publish annual
color popularity reports and predictions for the coming year. Combined, they
help draw broad rules for picking the best values in car colors. And while
color doesn’t wholly determine a car’s value, if it’s not part of a buying
decision, you might get stuck with a gray Miata.
Paint is also about durability, not just aesthetics. It was
intended to prevent rust. Henry Ford famously offered customers “a car painted
any color that he wants so long as it is black.” Black paint was durable and
inexpensive — and using a single color sped up production, said Matt Anderson,
a curator at the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
“Popular myth says black was chosen because it dried fast,” he
said, “but there’s no evidence that black dried any faster than dark greens or
blues,” both among the colors that Ford initially offered.
Cars came in more than a dozen hues by the mid-’50s — the better
to attract the female drivers of the family’s second car, the thinking went.
Those colors became more vivid in the psychedelic ‘60s.
Metal and paint technology upped rust resistance in the ‘70s,
and then a new process from Europe gained notice, said Clifford Schoff, a paint
chemist who spent 30 years at the manufacturer PPG. Clear coating was about to
arrive in America.
“We started hearing about the ‘wet look,’” Schoff said. “The
color plus clear meant you kept a higher gloss for a longer time.”
Over the years, those technologies that improved the longevity
of cars and paint may help explain the unprecedented 10-year run for white as
the most popular color. Its functional advantages also help. White is good in
hot climates and hides scratches and dings well, making it popular with fleet
buyers.
“Rental car companies love white,” said Karl Brauer, executive
analyst for iSeeCars.
But, as the iSeeCars data shows, there is a big gap between what
is popular and what retains value.
The 2020 Color Report from paint provider Axalta (formerly
DuPont) said fewer than 1 percent of new cars on lots in America were yellow.
Yet iSeeCars data shows yellow retained the most value overall. An overwhelming
30 percent of cars on dealers’ lots are white, followed by 19 percent for both
black and gray and 10 percent for silver.
It’s the law of supply and demand. “It’s not that yellow is a
popular color. It’s that yellow is popular in relation to how many people want
it,” Brauer said.
“You can’t go wrong buying the popular colors — black, white or
silver — but you can’t go right, either,” he added. The most popular colors
generally fall in the middle of the value chart.
Rarity alone doesn’t guarantee value. Purple, brown and gold are
about as rare as yellow yet retain the least value overall.
There are other anomalies, such as the previously mentioned
beige paradox. Trucks did well in muted colors, possibly because, as work
vehicles, those hues show less dirt and company names painted on the sides are
easy to read.
SUVs did best in flashy colors, possibly because the drivers
didn’t want to feel like drudges.
“You are buying the SUV to avoid the minivan,” said Jonah
Berger, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School with
expertise in marketing psychology. A lively color, he said, “makes us feel
like: ‘I am driving a fun car. I am a fun, exciting person.’”
People who buy cars for utility, like minivan and fleet buyers,
seem to value subtle colors that are easy to care for. People who buy a car as
a personal statement — sports- and muscle-car owners — value glitzy colors.
That still complicates the paint choice for vehicles that defy
categorization. Jeeps and trucks are utility vehicles for some and showpieces
for others, who bolt on lift kits, light bars and custom grilles. The Jeep
Wrangler retained the most value in Xtreme Purple, a color usually at the
bottom of the overall chart. Purple Wranglers kept $2,398 more value than the
same model in utilitarian silver.
Color prognosticators agree that the new color to reckon with is
blue. Last year it accounted for 10 percent of cars on lots, equal to silver.
But which blue? Dark? Light? Metallic? People who make a livelihood from car
paint see vast differences between shades of a single hue, even mundane white.
“The white we have is not the white we had 20 years ago,” said
Paul Czornij, head of color design for car paint at BASF. A carmaker might ask
him for “a white metallic that is a little bluish, and from this grazing angle
it has this property, and from this angle is has that property,” he added. “That
is very exciting.”
For consumers, those fine points appear to have little effect on
value. The iSeeCars data shows that metallic paint’s value advantage over
nonmetallic is insignificant.
Ultimately, many buyers may choose paint color disregarding both
value and popularity to achieve a third goal, Berger said: “Maybe having a
color that’s different than white makes you happy.”
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