Silver is the Most Popular Car Color for Ninth Year in a Row

Silver is overwhelmingly the most popular car color worldwide for the ninth consecutive year, according to data released on October 2 by auto paint giant PPG Industries.

The color silver includes charcoal and gray shades, giving it a leg up on more clearly defined colors such as black, white and red.

The European auto palate prefers silver and charcoal 35 percent of the time, followed by black, 22 percent, and blue and white, at 13 percent each. Red, commonly associated with fast Italian sports cars, is actually as rare in Europe as Italian sports cars themselves, at just 8 percent.

The Asia/Pacific region was a near mirror of Europe's preferences at the top with silver and charcoal the most common color (34 percent), followed by black (21 percent), white (17 percent) and blue (9 percent).

In North America silver and charcoal was not so dominant but still victorious, at 25 percent, followed by white (18 percent), black (16 percent), red (12 percent) and blue (11 percent).

The auto industry today would not agree with carmaker Henry Ford, who famously said of his revolutionary Model T in 1909: "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black."

"Clearly, the automotive industry is moving toward more color choices," said Jane E. Harrington, PPG manager of color styling and automotive coatings. "Going forward, automotive manufacturers are going to be relying on color more and more to distinguish their brands."

The survey was released at this year's annual Automotive Colour Trend Show in Switzerland, where the Pittsburgh-based company revealed new color ideas such as Outer Space Blue, Champagne Silver and Hulk, the same shade of green as the famed comic book character.

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