America's Hottest Up-and-Coming Car Color Isn't Teal, But It's Close Enough

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

We took it for granted at the time, but automakers provided us with a cornucopia of lavish colors in the mid-1990s. While dark greens were the most popular hue of the day, there was no shortage of teal, deep red, beige, gold, dark blue, metallic purple, and burnt orange cruising down the boulevard, tempting us like a mobile bag of Wild Berry Skittles.

Then, in 2001, every single car in North America was legally required to be painted silver. It seemed like a neat idea to everyone at the time but, as reality set in, society soon realized its grievous error. Ashamed at our inability to choose correctly, society then decided to abandon color entirely. White returned to take its bland place at the top of the heap in 2006 and has stayed there ever since. Globally, white accounted for 38 percent of all cars manufactured in 2016. America’s current penchant for wild colors like black, silver, and gray lessens its continental death grip to a more-modest 25 percent.

The global obsession with grayscale is supposed to change, however, as blue seems poised for a comeback.

BASF recently told Automotive News that “deep and non-saturated blues” were the shades most requested by manufacturers in its annual color trends report. Although it cited bullshit reasons like young people migrating to cities, a new digital era, and people’s need to reconnect with nature.

“Blue continues to gain strength as an automotive color,” said Paul Czornij, BASF’s head of design for color excellence. “It has a calming effect and a strong correlation with natural things.”

Czornij anticipates blue to overtake white and other non-colors as the most popular choice among car buyers within the next five years. “The expressive part of the car, which is on the outside, is the projection of who you are to the rest of the world,” he explained.

Hippie guru nonsense aide, blue is gaining traction. PPG Industries also shows the color on an industry upswing, at least in North America. In 2012, is surmised blue had roughly 7 percent of the market — but last year it was tied with red at 10 percent. PPG is also pushing specific automotive hues for 2020, especially earthy tones and deep blues.

MarketWatch has also been touting blue as white’s inevitable replacement, citing the color’s versatility as its biggest strength. “You can’t do that with every color. Blue lends itself to an automaker’s customization”, said Jane Harrington, a color pro at PPG for 30 years.

That becomes abundantly clear when you realize how different the influx of blue has been and where you’ve been seeing it. Ford has been pushing blue as a pronounced color on its higher profile cars for a few years and the Focus RS only comes in grayscale or “Nitrous Blue.” It’s the same for a lot of automakers. Subaru still associates the color with the WRX, as does Volvo with Polestar, and BMW with the M3. Even Mercedes-Benz, which is infamous for offering predominantly neutral tones, has added multiple variants of blue to most of its models.

Contrary to Czornij’s claim, this might not be enough to topple white across the globe — especially considering there are very practical reasons to own a pale-colored vehicle in sun saturated cities like Dubai, Bangkok, or Melbourne. However, it could be enough to add a splash of color in an exceptionally bland era or even make blue the new king of North America… someday.

Silver, thankfully, is on its way out, having dropped from 20 percent of the global market to 12 within the last 5 years. Black has also lost a little ground, globally, but remained entrenched in both the United States and Canada (19 percent) in 2016. But blue really isn’t gaining ground quickly enough to fill the void. I have no doubt we’ll be seeing more midnight sapphire, navy, sky, and teal automobiles in the future, but white doesn’t appear to be giving up the ghost anytime soon.

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

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  • Dividebytube Dividebytube on Jun 19, 2017

    I hate, hate white cars. My current car is white (with a black top) and black trim and it kinda/sorta works in a "Star Wars" kind of way. But I still would prefer brown or British Racing Green. My wife drives a yellow Mini Cooper S with black stripes. It gets a lot of attention. She doesn't mind. And she is very color-centric. She likes cars that pop with color. I would like to find a blue Toyota FJ (with white top) for my next car, but you never know what will pop up in the world of used cars. Just no more white!

  • IBx1 IBx1 on Jun 19, 2017

    We just picked up a 2009 Accord Coupe EX-L V6, Belize Blue Pearl over tan leather. First time washing that paint under partly cloudy skies was everything I hoped it would be. Blue is one of the best colors for a car, from a misty silver-blue, to electric pearl or gloss, down to a midnight metallic for a more stately car. Lexus and Mercedes always do that last one perfectly.

  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
  • CanadaCraig I would like for this anniversary special to be a bare-bones Plain-Jane model offered in Dynasty Green and Vintage Burgundy.
  • ToolGuy Ford is good at drifting all right... 😉
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