New Report Confirms Car Buyers Are Exceptionally Boring People
Apparently the auto market is increasingly looking like an eight-bit grayscale, with the vast majority of new vehicles sold these days finished in a less-than-exciting quartet of colors.
That’s according to a report from paint supplier Axalta, which found that an astonishing 77 percent of cars, trucks and SUVs sold in 2016 were finished in white, silver, gray and black. If there ever was a barometer of just how boring car-buyers have become this is it.
White led the way at 37 percent of global sales, trailed by black at 18 percent. Gray and silver followed at 11 percent each. Worse still, 2016 marked the sixth consecutive year white was the No. 1 seller, which overtook silver in 2011. Line them all up and it’s like our parking lots are stuck in the movie Pleasantville. (If you understand this obscure reference then you will understand how sad the situation is.)
The picture is a slightly less bleak one in North America, with red (10 percent) and blue (eight percent) adding a splash of color to the mix, though white, black, gray and silver still led the way on the continent by a landslide.
There is, however, some reprieve on the horizon. Axalta says “colorful hues are tinting traditional neutral colors” to bring color back into vogue. Here’s to a slightly darker shade of burnt orange coming soon to a dealer near you.
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Blame the lease market...those four boring colors lease better and so that is what dealers stock...granted, brown isn't the best; however, add one or two blues (dark and light), add two reds, mix in a nice deep green...wasn't it bmw that had 3 different greys (or was that audi)...honda has 2 greys on the accord...i drive a silver car cuz that is what the dealer had w/the options and transmission i wanted...oh, its also german
Yes...honda seems to be one of the worst...if you want a manual, you get 1 to 4 colors to choose from and black is the common one across the models that offer a manual...at least the Fit can be had in a blue, red, yellow, and purple