Though colour may not be as important as aspects like engine size, transmission and potential insurance costs, it’s still an important consideration when buying a new car. After all, a car’s colour says a lot about your personality. But did you know that a car’s colour can also affect its resale value?
Read on to find out why the colour you choose could leave you out of pocket when it comes to selling your car.
The UK’s most popular car colours
Grey, black and white have traditionally been the UK’s most popular new car colours. That remained the case in 2020 where the top five new car colours according to SMMT were:
|
Colour |
Number of registrations |
% of market share |
|
1. Grey |
397,197 |
24.4 |
|
2. Black |
324,630 |
19.9 |
|
3. White |
283,285 |
17.4 |
|
4. Blue |
276,057 |
16.9 |
|
5. Red |
147,222 |
9.0 |
In a nutshell, more than six in ten (61.6%) of all new cars entering British roads in 2020 were grey, black or white.
Car colours with the highest resale value
New research from vehicle leasing company, Rivervale Leasing shows that while some car colours might be popular, this is not necessarily reflected in a car’s resale value.
In fact, going for one of the most popular new car colours could prove to be a costly mistake when the time comes to sell your car.
Take black, for example. It’s the second most popular new car colour in the UK. According to Rivervale Leasing’s research that included analysis of 21,000 cars, black cars are 68% less valuable when selling.
With the average resale value of a car being £10,050, it means that owners of black cars could end up losing out on an average of £6,800 when selling their cars.
The situation is not much different for other popular car colours. Blue cars drop in value by an average of 30% (or £3,000).
Here are the five car colours with the lowest resale value.
|
Colour |
Drop in value (£) |
Drop in value (%) |
|
1. Black |
6,800 |
-68% |
|
2. Silver |
4,100 |
-41% |
|
3. Blue |
3,000 |
-30% |
|
4. Red |
2,900 |
-29% |
|
5. White |
2,100 |
-21% |
Notably, grey, the most popular colour in the UK, is missing from this list, meaning that those with this particular colour are not affected as much when selling their cars.
Grey cars were found to be only 14% less valuable, or £1.4k on average.
Which new car colours have the highest resale value?
If you are hoping to make good money when it’s time to sell your car, research shows that these are the top five car colours to go for:
|
Colour |
Rise in value (£) |
Rise in value (%) |
|
1. Gold |
4,600 |
+46% |
|
2. Green |
3,600 |
+36% |
|
3. Orange |
3,400 |
+34% |
|
4. Yellow |
3,300 |
+33% |
|
5. Turquoise |
2,800 |
+28% |
Admittedly, these are not exactly the most popular car colours in the UK. For example, when was the last time you saw a gold car?
Nevertheless, research shows that a gold paint job can result in a sale value that’s 46% higher than average, or £4,600.
What does this research tell us?
These findings will come as a surprise to many, particularly given that we’ve often been told that an unusual colour could hurt a car’s resale value.
In fact, one of the primary reasons that neutral colours like grey, white and black, have dominated the car industry in the UK is because buyers feel like they could get more for these cars when it comes to selling or trading them in for newer models.
But as the data from Rivervale Leasing reveals, this is actually not the case. That colour that you’ve probably never considered could fetch you more cash when it’s time to sell your car. It’s something worth keeping in mind the next time you are buying a new car.
