Last Auto Reviews Blog: White beats Silver again as most popular car color

White beats Silver again as most popular car color

Click above for full results from North America and other regions

DuPont knows a thing or two about car colors, being a leading supplier of paint and coatings to the global auto industry since Fuscia was officially recognized as a legitimate hue. The company has just released its 2008 Automotive Color Popularity Report and White has retained its crown as this continent's most popular car color, though not without qualification. White scored 16 percent on the report while Silver, which ran the tables on every other color for six years prior to 2007, scored 17 percent. However, if you add the 4 percent score of White Effect, or White Pearl, to just plain old White's score, you get a winning score of 20%.

The "Effect" in White Effect refers to special pigments added to paint that gives it a pearl or iridescent quality. This allows some differentiation between your white BMW and your neighbor's white Lexus. Black and Black Effect scored 11 and 6 percent, respectively, which means that U.S. citizens have pretty boring tastes when it comes to the color palette of their cars. Not to worry though, as DuPont suggests that White winning two years in a row suggests a "palette cleansing" that may precede a new color trend, one that is hopefully a little more exciting than the monochromatic machines we favor today.

Check out the gallery below for full results from North America as well as other regions around the world.

Gallery: DuPont 2008 Automotive Color Popularity Report