2025 Automotive Color Trends
It’s interesting to follow automotive color trends. Even though white, black and gray are consistently popular, there is a growing interest in more vibrant colors. This is a great thing, as too many automotive color palettes are boring shades of gray.
In the 2024 Automotive Color Trends I detailed last year, paint manufacturer BASF was featuring a pearl blue as their trendy color. It didn’t seem to take off, but some interesting colors are coming from the Asian manufacturers.
What’s Trending Now?
The new BASF study shows that buyers are moving away from favorites like white and silver. In their place, shoppers are leaning toward warm shades like yellow and beige. Green is also on the rise.
Let’s take a look at the current norm and what’s emerging:
Most Popular Colors
As mentioned earlier, white, black, gray, and silver are still popular color choices for new cars. White is the top choice in many regions. While gray can seem like a lifeless color, different shades of gray can actually be expressive.
Case in point: Ford has an interesting gray on their trucks called Cactus Gray, which has an almost green tint to it. It is a nonmetallic paint, which gives it nice depth to it. I liked it so much that I bought the 2024 Ford Ranger in Cactus Gray below:
Gaining Popularity
I like more expressive colors, which is why I tried to order a Rapid Blue Camaro in 2023. GM was not able to build my order, so I settled for a white Camaro found in dealer inventory. As it turns out, my disappointment with the white was too great to overcome. As a result, I sold the Camaro a couple of months ago.
Sometimes, expressive colors are too trendy for the general population, which may be why the future trends are moving away from white and silver toward richer alternatives:
- Blue is still gaining popularity as a color that conveys a sense of calm and trustworthiness. This was highlighted in the 2024 BASF report as well.
- Green is trending, perhaps as an environmentally conscious choice? I wonder if that will change with the focus away from electric vehicles?
- Warm shades of yellow and beige.
- Futuristic paint technologies like holographic and two-tone designs are appearing as eye-catching trends. I love the two tones from the 70s, but worry about holographic paint designs! Imagine having to do paint repairs on that finish!
Final Thoughts
Just like in the fashion world, some manufacturers push the envelop on color. Others seem to play it safe. With the average cost of new vehicle sales holding around $50,000, the right color will add value to any car. I’m sure that white, black and gray are here to stay, but every auto manufacturer needs a more lively color palette.
Around the year 2000 there was a fairly rapid change in car colors sold. Before then cars were generally more colorful. Since then car colors have become the black white or gray we see on the roads today. I believe consumers and dealerships trended this way as probably bland colors are easier to sell. However, we’ve moved to having a colorless world on the roads.
I believe when most people see cars with any color from the rainbow they wish their car had some character to them.
I cannot believe anyone actually thinks it’s cool to own a boring grayscale car.
I know my kids think this as they’ve said they like my cars.
Hint: I’ll never buy a grayscale colored car.
The “Cactus Gray” you mentioned (or other non-metallic grays from other manufacturers) completed shocked me. They look like primer (aka undercoat), that prep paint color used prior to actually painting a car its finished color. One of my friends said it looked like when ships are painted “Battleship gray”. Either way it’s an extremely cheap looking color.