Top 10 car colors for 2005

The hottest car color? Silver is coolest when it comes to American car buyers.

"It just looks great on pretty much any body style," says Susan Lampinen, chief designer of color and material design for Ford Motor Co.

It's the runaway favorite with consumers across the board, from family sedans to sport utility vehicles.

Even in some sports cars, if silver isn't first choice, it's probably a not-too-distant second. The color conveys a clean, mechanical image that appeals to consumers and mirrors the technology that dominates modern life.

"People are becoming more aware of design," says Teresa Spafford, lead designer for Mazda North American Operations. "Our cell phones, our computers, our furniture, our home decor accessories -- everything has some sort of metallic accent or detail or element of metal."

For 2005 vehicles, silver accounts for 24.1 percent of sales, according to statistics compiled by Power Information Network, a division of J.D. Power and Associates. The next runner-up: black, with 16.7 percent.

"Silver really shapes cars the best," says Ron Will, manager of product planning and design for Subaru of America, Inc. "With dark colors, it's difficult to see the shape. Whites don't do it. Solids don't do it. You need metallic or pearlescent in a lighter color. That's why I think silver works the best."

It's also practical. Silver, like a lot of lighter colors, hides dirt.

So how long will the consumer love affair with silver cars continue?

"This has been an enduring trend for the last three or four years," says Margaret Hackstedde, director of product design for color and trim for the Chrysler Group. "We're not anticipating it will change overnight."

But other experts believe silver could be losing its appeal.

"We're actually seeing it stabilizing," says Chris Webb, exterior color and trim designer for GM North America.

"I would say it's starting to decline a bit," adds Cynthia Leighton, product planner for color materials and finishes with Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. According to the company's recent market research in Los Angeles, "Silver is not the No. 1 choice for future buyers," she says.

Next up? Many auto makers are having good luck with shades that incorporate silver with a little bit of color -- ice blues, celery greens, and even warmer, golden-toned hues.

Others believe that greys -- deeper, darker metallics -- will eclipse the lighter silvery shades. "Grey offers more dimensions, from warm to cool," says Leighton. "It's a fresh look and an alternative to silver."

And blue is gaining fast. "There is a whole trend in blue and purple," says Webb. Of the 21 new shades his company is currently developing, "at least half are blue or have some evidence of blue in them."

Looking into the future, car colors will still be "fairly conservative," says Will.

"We're not going with brights except for our sports cars," he says. Instead, look for colors with subtle tints, like rich blacks that tend toward green.

Size and price

When it comes to car color, size matters. "Smaller cars you tend to be able to do in brighter colors," says Spafford. But on an SUV, "It's a lot of color, so you have to be aware of how much color you are putting on the road," she says.

And as SUV designers marry aspects from cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles, colors are also becoming less distinct, says Webb. "Because the line has blurred as to what the vehicle is, it has blurred when it comes to color."

SUV buyers are turning to "more sophisticated, indefinable colors," says Spafford. "Not a true blue or true red or true orange. Off. A mixture of something."

As SUVs evolve from an off-road alternative to the family vehicle, expect to see them mirror the softer, more sophisticated colors of high-priced sedans, says Will. Manufacturers are "trying to make the SUVs look very luxurious and high-end."