The top 6 selling colors of vehicles for 2012

Ron Ketcham

Active member
The numbers are out for the top 6 color choices by car buyers for 2012.

1.White-22%

2.Silver-20%

3.Black-19%

4.Red-9%

5.Blue-7%

6.Green-2%



These percents have remained fairly stable for the last few years.
 
I did not post this on the Professional Detailers area to just show what colors the public buyers are chosing.

I did so, as it has to do with what Professional Detailers may expect in regards to the vehicles that their clients may be bringing in for correction and such.

The demographics of base color choices are an indication of what the majority of vehicles you may be working on, as part of your business of detailing.

The numbers should show you what colors you will be seeing, so be able to handle these high number base coat colors.

A bit of "demographic" understanding, may aid you in your improving your techniques on the top number of such colors that are brought to you for work.
 
Is there any way to find those demographic figures by regional area? I know that what I see on the road around here isn't quite consistent with that mix, although I'm sure it makes a big difference where one is located (probably a lot fewer black vehicles sold in sunny climates because they attract more heat, etc.)
 
If I were still in the "loop", could probably get those numbers for you.

But, that is not longer part of my professional life.

From the unnamed source that these came to me, I assume, that they are for not just the north american part of the world, but the total car sales for the world.

I would, once again, "assume" that while it appears to be a shot in the dark, I do know that the percentages of color choices, over all , have not varied but a percent or so over the past few years.

Yes, where one lives, hot, humide climate, peer choices of a part of the country, etc, will make a variance in the color choices for those selected areas of the country/world.

A few years back, I had a chart that indicated that the "level of income" would affect the choice of color as well.
 
One reason the colors sell better is because they only make so many of one color so limited sales are somewhat self-fulfilling. I remember seeing a Ford forecast 5 years ago for dealer ordering (fleet buyers) and Ford had listed the expected color allocation. The particular blue car I wanted was forecast to be around 3% of a year build! Given the lead times for materials, etc. I can see color allocations are likely constant except for special runs for high volume fleet deals.
 
I rarely see white cars in my shop, most are black or dark colored as they are the ones that show defects the easiest.



I bought white in 2012. :)
 
.

My research shows SILVER outsells 3 to 1. :)



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So a local mechanic just posted this on Facebook....



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Along with the following comment:



Did you know the safest car color is silver? According to the British Medical Journal, drivers of silver cars are 50% less likely to have an accident that causes injury. Brown, black and green are the least safe. White and black are the most popular colors.



So maybe Brad isn't "normal," but apparently he's doing something right!
 
Interesting, as my numbers were the published by Automotive News.

Looks like things are normal in Detroit, they can't even agree on the color numbers.
 
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