Black and red are—by far—the hardest colors to care for. They need to be cleaned, waxed, and buffed often due to how easily they show everything.
The easiest color to keep clean over time is white. It's the best color for hiding imperfections and scratches, as well as water spots. White also hides dirt easily, so you don't have to worry about black or grey making it look like you have a dirty car.
Some form of light brown, such as beige, tan, champagne, or khaki. This should come as no surprise since the color that is similar to a light dusting of dirt is predisposed to hiding your car's dirtiness better than other colors.
Use Colors That Camouflage Dirt
While brown and gray are some of the more popular color choices for this purpose, and they certainly perform very well, they aren't your only color options. You could go with a warmer color tone, such as a burnt orange color, a spicy red, or you could even go with purple.
Contrary to belief, black cars or darker colored cars have proven to be the hardest to keep spotless. Any speck on the car will inevitably show, from watermarks to pollen to bird droppings. There is also the downside of overheating.
The most dangerous car colors
Besides black, which ranked as most dangerous, other dangerous car colors are grey (11 percent higher risk), silver (10 percent higher risk), blue (7 percent higher risk), and red (7 percent higher risk).
White is the longest lasting colour among all car paint options. Or, if you choose to pick faster fading car paints such as red and blue, keep the vehicle shaded to protect it from dust, dirt and UV rays.
Vehicle Depreciation by Car Color
Yellow cars hold their value best, depreciating 60 percent less than the average vehicle. The study found that the average vehicle loses 22.5 percent ($9,674) of its value after 3 years.
Regardless of UV intensity and if you're located in a warm climate like Arizona, some color paints are more susceptible to fading, with red paint usually losing its color the fastest.
White is the best color for hiding dents and scratches, Kirmac reports. The bright color helps minimize the appearance of the flaws, especially on bright days with the sun out. Other light colors, such as silver and gray, are also good if you want to try to conceal surface scratches and dirt.
Light or Dark Interiors: What People Said
In our poll, we classified black as a sporty color, tan as a luxury color, white as a modern color, and red as a performance color. In our poll, 51 percent chose black, 27 percent went with tan, and around 12 percent opted for red. Only 10 percent picked a white interior.
Satin and Eggshell could be your sheen choice for high-traffic areas. Such paint is abrasion-resistant, easy to clean, and has a smooth, refined glow. Semi-Gloss is perfect for trimming or painting moldings. It adds an elegant shiny touch to perfectly smooth surfaces.
White is one of the best car colors because it conceals dirt, dust, and tiny scratches. Cars painted white also reflect heat effectively, keeping them cooler for longer. Compared to other car colors, white cars generally appear newer for a more extended period of time.
Arteza Fabric Paint
These paints are designed to last. They are washing machine and dryer-friendly, so you can wash your new jeans or denim jacket again and again without fading or wear.
White. White is, of course, always a good paint choice, because it feels elegant, fresh and clean. Plus, Gibbons says, “black and white are the most timeless colors you'll find anywhere and the most timeless color combination.”
More neutral colours like tan, beige, brown, and various shades of white fade the least over time. Compared to brighter pigments like red, blue, and yellow, these and other milder earth tones tend to degrade far more gradually in UV radiation and harsh weather.
Now that you know what to avoid, you may be wondering which colors are the most fade resistant. Typically, lighter earth tones such as beige and tan are the most stable for exterior applications.
Reds, yellows, and dark blues or greens absorb more light than lighter colors and fade faster. Black is the most stubborn and hard to get rid of, even if you use a demi/semi dye. But if you want to go with a color, choosing a lighter shade will improve reflectivity and slow fading over time.
A smaller supply of bold-colored paint jobs helps create a greater demand and less depreciation. A few relatively new, unusual-colored cars are available on the used market. A spokesperson from BASF tells us that purple, yellow, gold, and orange are the colors dealers are least likely to keep in stock.
We've referenced the safest color car on the road. That color is white. White cars are 12 percent less likely to be involved in an accident than black cars at any time of the day under any conditions. This is because there is often a lot of contrast between white cars and its surroundings.
No matter the type of vehicle you're considering, the most popular color choices are white, black, silver, and gray. Red and blue occasionally break into the top four, but white and black have an iron grip on the top two spots.
Neutral colors like white, black, silver, and gray are consistently associated with luxury and elite social status. They are elegant and often considered “classy,” at least compared to “loud” car colors like yellow and red. When considering practicality, sliver and gray hues are much easier to keep clean.
As a dealer, you want to be sure to stock the cars your customers want and that is pretty consistent each year: white, black, gray, and silver continue to top the list of most popular colors1.
Urethane paint is the most durable auto paint and is also chip-resistant—when properly maintained, a coat of urethane paint will outlast most acrylic paints.