Data Shows It’s Time To Stop Buying Black Or White Cars

There are three reasons people choose to buy a grayscale-colored car (meaning black, gray, silver, or white). First, it’s an easy choice, and they don’t have to live with a bold choice for years. Second, as they are the most common colors out there, there’s plenty of choice available in make, model, and trim levels. Third, it makes the car easy to sell later, as people want safe colors. It’s a loop, and the numbers show that if you break that loop, your car won’t depreciate in value as much as a grayscale car.

The Brighter The Better

According to research from iSeeCars, yellow and orange cars depreciate in value the least over three years. On average, a yellow car will depreciate by 24.0 percent over three years, while a black car will depreciate by 31.9 percent in the same period, and a white car by 32.1 percent. That’s an average dollar amount of $13,667 of depreciation on a yellow car and $15,557 on a white car.

Don’t Rush To Bright Colors, Though

Before you decide that your next car will be yellow, orange, or green, it’s worth remembering there’s a reason they don’t depreciate so fast – and that reason is scarcity. Yellow and orange, particularly, are statement colors and while they can look fantastic on a car, most people don’t want to draw that kind of attention, even if they like the color. That means when you come to sell the car, you’ll need someone that loves the color and wants to be seen with it. That buyer will likely also be looking for a specific model and trim level as well as the color yellow, so you may have to wait some time for the buyer for your particular car in that particular color to come along.

If you really want to lose value on a car, though, choose gold paint. The average depreciation there, according to the report, is 34.4 percent. Getting into specifics for trucks and SUVs, it’s close to the same story. Orange is the color that retains value for trucks, but green, gray, and brown also play well, then orange, green, yellow, and for some reason, beige for SUVs. Sedans don’t differ much, with orange as the best color, but it’s followed by yellow, beige, and silver.

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Our Take

Buy the color of car you want. It’s your car, and you should like it. If you buy a new vehicle and sell it when it’s just three or even five years old, or with under 150,000 miles on it, you’re wasting money anyway. That’s whether it’s bought outright in cash or with a loan. You might as well enjoy it as much as possible. Others may disagree, but if it bothers you, there are other ways to keep depreciation down to a minimum.

Source: iSeeCars