Car colours: choose wisely...

When it comes to paintjobs, you could say car buyers gravitate towards 'safe' colours, with white, silver and black being the world's most popular car colours in that order.

There are several theories for this: some colours are perceived to reflect status; some don’t show the dirt, while certain colours can also accentuate a car's exterior design cues.

Ross Booth, the Managing Director of Redbook, Australia's authority on vehicle specification and prices, told motoring.com.au a car's colour can also affect its resale value.

"There's no doubt that conservative colours are the safer bet when selling; the demand tends to be higher with more sellers around, resulting in a quicker sale," explained Mr Booth. "But this doesn’t mean that a conservative colour ensures you will get a higher price."

"In actual fact bolder colours can and often do attract higher prices. Bolder colours' supply tends to be limited and a buyer who wants a bold colour will be prepared to pay more; it just may take longer to find them."

Mr Booth cautioned that buying a loud metallic green or look-at-me orange vehicle is not always a wise move, especially if you plan to hold onto it for a few years.

"Bolder colours tend to be related to fashion, with tastes changing over time so a bright bold colour may be popular now as a new car, but may not be as fashionable in five years time when you go to sell it."

US-based PPG Industries released its annual automotive color popularity and trend data recently, which confirmed that white is still the most popular car colour based on 2012 automotive build data.

Globally, 22% of new cars in 2012 were white, 20% silver, 19% black, 12% grey, 9% grey, 8% natural, 7% blue, 2% green while 'other colors' had a one per cent share. Clearly, conservative colours are favoured, and PPG predicts that white will continue to be the most popular shade in the foreseeable future.

According to Jane E. Harrington, PPG manager of colour styling, automotive OEM coatings, colour choice is crucial to customers, with its latest automotive consumer survey showing that 77% of respondents indicated exterior colour was a factor when buying a car.

According to the data, luxury car, sports car and premium SUV buyers put the most value on getting their preferred colour.

But that hasn't stopped PPG from developing a range of new colours, which it recently presented to car makers for consideration on vehicles to be manufactured in 2015-2016.

“The palette being developed for the automotive segment continues to be influenced by culture, nature, fashion, interior design, colour popularity and new pigment technology," noted Ms Harrington.

Many of the new colours still err on the conservative side, such as Al Fresco (silver metallic with fresh green tint), Victoria Grey (classic grey with an iridescent highlight of gold metal) and Glacier (icy graphite grey with a slight violet blue tone).

At the end of the day, even the experts have to balance a range of factors when it comes to choosing the right colour for their car...

"My car is black," said Redbook’s Ross Booth. "It's the bolder of the more conservative colours that gives me a great mix of an awesome colour now and a good chance of having a high number of available future buyers and maximising the value in the future."