Buyers taking a shine to silver vehicles

Silver is hot, green is not, and white and black remain popular colors for new vehicles.

DuPont Automotive, a major paint supplier to the auto industry, said 23% of North American-built vehicles in 2002 were silver, making it the dominant color. Silver also is the favorite color for European- and Asian-built vehicles.

White continued to be popular, coming in second on North American vehicles at 15%. Black finished third overall, covering 12% of new vehicles.

Luxury buyers were most enamored of silver, with 32% choosing it. Silver also was tops on sports, compact, mid-size and full-size cars and second to white on light trucks.

Green, the most popular hue of the 1990s, fell to No. 8 in 2002. Gray moved up four spots to fifth, behind blue.

Robert S. Daily, DuPont’s color marketing manager, attributed silver’s popularity to an affinity for technology. He predicted demand for gray will increase because it accents the edgy designs of many current models.

“Gray will extend the influence of this family of neutral colors because it conveys a sense of richness,” he said.

Though neutral colors dominated in 2002, DuPont said metallic reds are showing up more on luxury, sports and compact cars. Medium red ranked sixth on North American vehicles and bright red ninth.