Top 10 car colors

"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."

Silver accounts for 24.1 percent of sales, according to statistics for the fourth quarter of 2004 compiled by the 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 will silver cars continue?

"This has been kind of 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. The company's recent market research in Los Angeles shows, "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."

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